Heyup folks it’s K here, well this is a little piece on my
visit to Ladywood Lakes with my good friend and fellow fishing companion Ian. I’ll get straight to it. After our hour and a quarter drive down to South
Mirfield, it was clearly evident that there was a strong wind however it was a
surprisingly mild westerly wind. So as we arrived roughly twenty minutes before
we were due any half decent light, we hopped out the car to have a good
investigation. There were six bivvies set up near the main car park and although
that’s sometimes it’s an indicator of where the ‘hot pegs’ are, we both thought
the anglers may have taken the more easier option and setup out of the wind or
maybe they were just following where the other anglers were placed – basically
being sheep. For these reasons we decided to avoid this area and go somewhere
else on the ten acre lake avoiding the angling pressure. On our walk round we
stopped at this cluster of pegs that where facing right into the teeth of the
wind and even though in winter fish often back off the cold winds, this was a
rather warm westerly wind so we both thought there was a good chance the fish
would follow this wind. Now the real discussions started between me and Ian as
we both had slight preferences for a different area – this is common when you
often fish with a partner so it’s important that you both end up with a
conclusion you’re both happy with.
So after a quick chat we formulated a plan, the plan was
that we would drop into peg 14 (my
preference) and Ian would fish the left hand side of the swim, so he could
easily access the water he would have fished if we had went for his preference.
Therefore I had the right side of the swim and we both agreed that if either of
us were unhappy at any point we would up sticks and move. As the light
conditions had improved slightly we nipped back to the car and drove round to
our swim and unloaded the gear. My plan was to fish two chods for the first
couple of hours and try and cover as much water as possible and if that proved
fruitless then I would whip out the marker and find a spot and put a few spods
over the top and fish a solid bag or two. As I assembled what was going to be
my right rod I whipped on a 14mm DNA pink peril and trimmed the very edge of
the pop up to make it appear as it was a barrel. So with the pink beauty
attached I punched the rig up towards the road side of the lake in line with a
lamppost - so if I was to catch a fish I would know the general area of where I
had caught the fish. As I felt the lead down, I was shocked on how deep the
lake was as in were talking about a depth in the region of twenty feet! So as I
payed off plenty of slack line (as I had to take the lakes undertow into
consideration) I set the rod down and set to work on the on the other rod.
Instead of a pink peril I whipped on a 14mm PB yellow pop up, another pop up
from the DNA rang, I gave the pop up the same treatment as the other one and
trimmed its edges so it appeared as a barrel. My thinking behind this was not
only would the fish see the barrel shaped bait as something a bit different but
also the exposed sides of the pop up would result in more flavours and
attractors being released. After another quick punch, my second rig was flying
out in line with a bivvy directly in front of me and after a nice solid donk I
was happy and again payed plenty of slack off to cater for the lakes undertow.
A mere five minutes after the rods had been cast out, I received a very tentative take on the right hand rod, I tightened the clutch wound down a bit and struck. Although it wasn’t the weighty resistance I was hoping for, I felt a dull kicking on the other end of the rod. After confirming to Ian I had a fish on I started to retrieve line and bring the fish closer in as Ian hastily prepared the weighing and camera gear. After a few minutes the fish was ready to be netted and Ian slid the net under a very small fish that was consumed by the 42 inch net although I was a tad disappointed that it wasn’t a nice double but what it lacked in size made up for in its looks. It was a little corker of around 6 maybe even touching 7lbs and proves that although the fishery has many big fish in it already, it holds back up fish which is a very exciting prospect for the fishery.
With the fish returned I whipped on another pink peril which
I duly trimmed down and sent back out towards the lamppost. Not missing a trick
Ian instantly wound in his right hand rod and whipped on a trimmed down pink
peril onto his stiff hinge rig. We then sat back and had a celebratory brew and marveled in our early success after the brew I sat to work on tying up a few
solid bags (I was just simply filling them with crushed DNA S7). I had just
started to work on my second bag when the bobbin on my left hand rod hit the
blank of my rod and held there; again I tightened the clutch wound down a bit
and struck into the fish. Although there was a bit more of a resistance it was
again clear from the start that it wasn't one of Ladywood’s thirties, after a
couple of minutes the fish was scrapping around in the deep clear margins.
After using all of his last reserves of energy he finally succumbs to the
awaiting net, upon first inspections me and Ian thought the fish may just touch
10lbs but the scales confirmed a weight of 9.8lbs, so after a couple of snaps
we returned her to her watery home. After I promptly whipped on another trimmed
down PB hookbait and sent the rig back into the watery abyss.
Then after yet another celebratory cuppa we began to see the odd angler from the other side of the lake stirring and poking their heads out their bivvies. Not long after the bankside activity Ian received a very twitchy take on his right hand rod he struck into the fish and he enjoyed a very spirited fight from another one of Ladywood’s smaller residents. Again after a few minutes the fish was ready for netting and I slid the net under a nice chunky little mirror, when we got this fish on the mat we were both pretty sure the fish would have hit the double figure mark. However the scales treated us to a surprise as the scales read a weight of only 9.11lbs, then after a couple of pics Ian returned her and got on to whip on a fresh pink peril.
Soon after Ian’s fish one of the lads fishing popped round for a quick chat, he informed us that he unfortunately hadn't caught anything and he had been there for the previous two nights and according to him there hadn't been a fish out since Thursday! (We were now at Sunday) After he left me and Ian gave each other a look of sheer shock, we couldn't believe it but we had just proved that an hour in the right place is ten times better than a few days in the wrong place. A couple of hours passed without an indication so we decided to step up the amount of casts and we started to chop and change the shapes and colours of our bait. Yet after another hour and a half of fruitless attempts we were thinking of maybe moving further down the lake to try and sneak out another fish. However as soon as this idea started to crop in our minds a few lads from the other side of the lake upped sticks and moved round to the area we had in mind, we didn't bother moving next to them as it could hinder their chances of catching so we stuck to our peg and let them get on with it. I decided against putting any bait in as I had noticed nearly all the bivvies on the other side had spod gear around their swims, so it was evident that the baiting approach hadn't delivered the goods. So I stuck with my single approach.
The hours ran down and although Ian and I persisted to chop
and change we couldn't buy a bite despite us braving the wind and sticking it
out an hour into darkness whilst enduring the temperature drop. As we drove
back up to Northallerton we couldn't help but think we had done reasonably well
considering the lake hadn't been fishing that well, those thoughts vanquished
most of our disappointment about not managing at least a double – the Ladywood
biggun will have to wait for another time!
On a whole I really enjoyed my day trip down to Ladywood
it’s just a shame it’s not a tad closer but thanks to Gus who makes Ladywood
such a pleasant place to fish. I would really recommend this venue to anyone
it’s got everything a carp fishermen could want: runs, spacious swims, a superb
bailiff and most importantly a good stock of twenties and thirties!
Thanks for reading guys!
Take care,
Kieran McDonnell
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