Work Parties And You, A Good Fishing Combination!

Its only been my first ever year on a syndicate lake and like most before me had heard about taking part in work parties. The first work party of the year was back in March and we spent the days clearing fallen trees and sorting the paths with a good few brews in between because it was bloody cold! At this gathering it was clearly pointed out that we would be having a second weekend which would be spent erecting an otter fence around the lake.

Since then there has been a lot of work going on in the back ground and Ian, one of the committee members, had been down and killed a lot of the undergrowth and weeds on the backside of the track so we would still have the full usage and space the track provides. The other week we got a text message off the man himself and dates had been set for us to carry out this essential work.

As it turned out I couldn't make the Sunday and decided that it would be rude of me not to fish the Friday night, allowing me to be at the lake and ready for the 9am start, in addition to this it also meant that my daughter could join me for the night and we could spend some quality time together.

The Hog!

The car was packed and I took a big risk in bringing just my Nashy Groundhog SF brolly instead of the usual 2 man bivvy. There was a small amount of logic behind this and that was because the last time I had taken the bivvy away I ripped out one of the rear pegging points, which wasn't very clever of me! And I prayed that the two bed chairs would fit underneath the brolly, or it didn't rain, but living in the north where it is always a bit grim I didn't hold my breath on the rain front.

Both Chairs Under, Snug!

 Not that I needed to worry as both my old simple bedchair and my big Indulgence fitted underneath the massive arms perfectly and I even had room at the ends of both chairs for storage! Bonus!





The lake had been super weedy for about a month prior to my trip and on the way to the lake I had to come up with several action plans in my head. My main attack would be to get in Outlet swim if it was free, as this swim had the biggest clear area in front of it due to the water depth and it was also a swim I was familiar with having fished it a few times now. I would say that it was my favourite peg on the lake, closely followed by Point and Willow. Back up plans were to jump in to either of the other pegs nearer the Hut and drop two rods in the margins and leave it at that, or just set up camp and not fish if the weed was too bad. As luck would have it when we arrived there wasn't another soul about! And the weed had started to disperse in certain areas. Perfect.

When entering the grounds the first spot you come across are the overhanging trees opposite Outlet and as I peered over the reeds I noticed a few dark shapes moving under the branches and decided to trickle a small amount of bait on to the hard spot and head around the lake. I saw a good few fish in several of the swim that were choked with weed and as we headed back to the tree spot the water was a bit clouded up so decided to bait the spot a bit more and set up in Outlet like I wanted.

With the rods made up I set to getting them on the spots. Now the hard spot I found and baited is directly under a break in the branches of a large overhanging tree and it can be a night-mare getting a rig on the spot without it clipping branches and ruining my solid bag presentation so this is were my distance sticks come in to play. It may only be a 25 yard cast but if it falls to close then I'm in the soft silt, if it goes too far I'm in the trees so I would rather be super accurate than 'risk it for a biscuit' and I know 6 and a quarter wraps gets me on the hard stuff each and every time! So that was my middle rod on the money and my right hand rod was going to the reed bed to the right of the trees. Exactly the same distance drops me to the bottom of the margin shelf so that makes life super easy. With a cracking tree line for a night time marker as well I know as long as I hit the clip just right on both rods they are on the money.

The Perfect Tree Line!

As the reed rod is a much cleaner cast I fished this rod with a multi-rig pop up about 2cm of the bottom with a Northern Special pop up and a slight scattering of bait around it consisting of crushed and crumbed boilie and some special little fishy pellets. The only rod left really didn't have much room due to the weed in front of me so I decided to walk it down the bank slightly and drop a solid bag under an over hanging bush and then walk the line back slowly ensuring it was nice and low to the bottom. By now time was creeping along and my daughter soon chimed that she was getting a little hungry so we made some tea. Hotdogs and pasta. I think you can't beat eating well on the bank. While hotdogs arn't exactly the best food in terms of fresh and super healthy they are pre-cooked and pretty tasty so don't require frying. Combined with a sauce made from a tin of tomatoes and some herbs and chilli it went down a treat!

Tea Time!

Once we had polished off tea, washed up and let it settle with a bit of light reading for me and some loom band making for Jamie we decided it was time to settle down under the hog and watch a movie. Now I don't normally bother with having all the creature comforts with me but with an 11 year old in toe I thought it best to bring my iPad along loaded with the Lego movie and enjoyed being curled up watching it while under a sinking sun. Bliss, the only thing that could have topped it off would have been if a rod had tore off. And my luck must have been in because 10 minutes after the credits my left hand margin rod absolutely did!

I was fishing with a fairly tight clutch (same on all rods due to the weed) and a drop off in-line set up which nailed the fish and sent it in to a frenzy. To my surprise the fish tried getting further down the margin than in to the weed in 'open' water which was great as it tired itself out in the deep margin rather than ploughing into weed bed after weed bed. Once it was in the net I looked over to see a head poking out of the brolly asking me if I had caught one and once I told her I had she was out of the sleeping bag and standing next to me looking in the net 'Woah Dad that's awesome!' When you hear things like that, for me, it makes all the hard work so worth it! It was such a shame it was just dark as I would have dearly loved to get a shot of the stunning upper double common in the day light. Her colours were just amazing. Black backed, golden flanked and with a creamy white belly. Stunning.

Stunning,Stunning Fish. One You Had To See In The Flesh.

Prepared!

With the fish returned to her gin clear home it was time to get a fresh bag, which had been prepared earlier, looped on to the main line and dropped back in the same spot. No bait, just the pull of the bag mix and hookbait. Once the line was settled I laid back and put the kettle on. J had gone back to sleep by now and I was super happy that I hadn't blanked! It took my tally up to four fish from the lake and I was chuffed to pieces.


I finally dropped off and nothing occurred during the night except a liner which woke me about 3 am. I dozed some more before being awoken at about quarter past 4 by the middle rod almost being ripped from  the rests. I got to the rod and by the time I had the fish had kitted right and pulled the tip so hard it had caught up on the right hand rod! Nightmare! By the time I had detached the rod from its snagged brother the fish had gone back along the line it had kitted and headed in to the weed! Lady luck was most certainly shining on me as the fish was on the surface, thankfully dropping the lead in the weed, and I got her to the net in good time, once she saw the net though the fish powered off in search of sanctuary again but was soon tamed and languishing in the bottom of my net. Fish number five and another stunning common! I was over the moon. As it was still a bit dark I decided to hold the fish in my retaining sling and for an hour before doing the honours. J was out like a light so self takes where in order.

Number Five. Long, Powerful And Pristine. 

That was the last of the action this time and soon it was time to pack up and get ready for a day putting fences up. What a thoroughly enjoyable session and to spend it with my daughter and bag a few fish as well, what more can I say than fantastic.

I did a little video while I was on the bank so I hope you enjoy it.

Tight lines folks.

Julian Cundiff - Live

A few weeks ago now I was chatting to Julian Cundiff about how my fishing at Jurassic Park was going and how I intended on doing a few video blogs to run along side the written aspect here and he thought it was a great idea. He also said that he would love to get out and do some filming himself but didn't have the time. So we put two and two together, came up with three, tried again and finally settled on me doing some filming for him. We are both fishing the same lake, sometimes at the same time and it made sense.

We set a date and decided that it would be best to get to the lake early so we had plenty of time to set up and decide on the plan of action. I decided on doing the night before and set up in Outlet swim after my previous success. Unfortunately nothing materialised for me the first night and as dawn broke I decided a move was on the cards and went for a mooch around the lake. I found the fish milling over a clear spot in front of Willows and didn't hesitate on moving. Just as I was in the middle of setting up in the new home Jules turned up and we had a chat and a brew. From not seeing anything the night before and the fish being in front of the hut Jules opted to fish the point a few pegs up from me and as he got to setting up I got to filming!

Before we did the main video Jules spent some time talking to me about the lake. I have only been a member since the beginning of the year and even though I had had a few fish it is always handy to get some local, expert advice! Jules talked to me why he thought his Mush was an advantage over a standard boilie approach. I had a bit of success fishing over boilies on Jurassic but took the man's advice on board and will include it in my approach the next time I head over.

But anyway we got Julians rods out and soon had the camera rolling. I must point out that I made a very bad error and hadn't set my video to record in HD so the film came out grainy and took a bit of editing to get it half decent, but with a film like this it only needs to be heard which is more than ok.




Jules managed to bag himself a few carp during the night including a stunning mid twenty common and I also managed to get in to the fish and landed this stunning 17lb common.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks.

Keeping It Simple

Since joining my north Lincolnshire syndicate at the beginning of the year I've done nothing but think about the place. Julian said to me when I got the ticket that the place would spoil me after spending so long on day ticket waters, he certainly wasn't wrong! While the lake isn't massive or have huge amounts of big fish there is just something about the place that puts you at ease with the world. I had done several nights on the lake during the late winter and had been content to just sit and watch regardless of if I actually caught anything. But as the trees got greener and the water warmer I was hoping for a little action but nothing had materialized for me.

I had been following some advice from a few regulars, which I think would be folly to ignore, but it just wasn't working for me. I know a few lads had caught one or two and I was chomping at the bit to land my first from the venue so decided that a change of tact was in order. I was using a combination of NuttaS boilie, particle and ground bait to create a mushy, sloppy bed of bait and putting various coloured pop ups over the top. After a chat with the two Jasons at DNA Baits I came away with a much better idea on what I was going to do. I decided to ditch the full on particle/mush approach and just keep it simple with a bucket of chilli hemp and S7 boilies.

The next trip planned was a much longer session than I had previously done so I intended on making full use of the time I had. It was early May and the carp would surely be on the move? Jules had done an overnighter and had a lovely common out a few nights before so I was a bit more confident. The conditions didn't look the best with high temps and pressure but according to the forecasters it was to change on the Wednesday, we shall see Mr weatherman!

I arrived at the lake just after 10am on Tuesday and grabbed a bucket and some water, put on my trusty modified shades and went for a walk before deciding on where to plot up.

The water was very warm and I was hoping the carp didn't have 'other things' on their minds like the ducks had! I've never seen so many ducklings on a water in my life. One family had 8 of the little guys in tow.

Several families of geese had upwards of 5 chicks they defended fiercely from anything that came near them so the water was alive with activity making spotting fish difficult.


I did managed to see a group of fish making their way through the islands and in to the shallow water where I watched a few fish tilt and feed just behind a low lying weed bed. That was all I needed to decide on the area so I dropped my bucket in a swim and headed back to the car to load up.

I got back in the area and set up one of my rods with a bare lead and flicked it the 40 or so yards to where I had seen the fish tilt up, and sure enough it was a really smooth area in-between two small weed beds. I clipped up just before the lead pulled in to weed and then wrapped the rod between my distance sticks. I did the same with my Spomb rod and then dropped about 12 Spombs in the area and got to making the rods up.

I decided that I would fish two rods on the area and then I would have a third rod to a small inlet on my right with just a few loose baits around it. I got to work sorting out my bag rigs which consisted of a supple braid tied to a Nash Twister hook fished blowback style and when used in conjunction with a balanced bait in a solid bag is a rig I have 100% confidence in!

I changed my bag rigs early last year after a session with Mark Watson on the A1 pits. He was giving me a bit of a casting tuition while we were on a social and I was using a version of the KD rig at the time. We got chatting on rigs and Mark showed me the Twisted blowback. He showed me how to tie it and explained the benefits of having the shrink tube kicker, and why he angled the cut off.

During that session Mark had several fish up to 32lb and the hookholds were immense. Much better than any I had. So after the session I went home and bought all the bits I needed, rings, Twisters, shrink tube etc and tied a few of my own up.

 I had a fantastic year last year up until Autumn fishing bags over boilie with the Twisted blowback on a few day ticket waters. But over the winter I started to over-complicating things and shied away from my go-to method of solid bags over boilie. I have no idea why, maybe seeing too many videos of other anglers or such, so this session was a back to basics session for me and I went back to my old faithful.

With several bags tied up and both rods clipped up to the distance I dropped two bags on to my baited spot and flicked a short Chod in the edge to my right and settled in for the day ahead. I noted a few fish coming in to the shallows but they skirted around the margins ignoring the open water, they obviously knew they were being fished for, however I was still confident that come darkness they would come in and feed with a bit less caution. So as the sun set behind me I recast the rods, both with semi-buoyant artificial hook-baits compressed in bags made from a mix of pellet and crumbed wafters. Happy with everything I settled in for the night and indulged myself in my book via torch light.

I woke as the sun crept over the tree line on the far bank and was making a brew while watching the coots diving on my bait, enjoying a free meal. After a few minutes of watching the wildfowl fill their boots my middle rod gave a few bleeps before ripping off, at first I thought it was a coot until no bird resurfaced about the bait and I struck into my first carp from the lake. With the water being so shallow it wasn't long before the angry little carp was charging across the surface. First it went in too my left hand rod and then in to the waiting net. A celebratory jig was most definitely in order and after that I got the little guy unhooked and safely in the retaining sling while I sorted the rods back out and placed two fresh bags on the spot.

A stunning bar of gold in the morning light. I was so made up with this fish. I wasn't the biggest in the lake but certainly gave me a huge confidence boost. After suffering carpers block for the past few sessions at the syndicate and on other day ticket waters it was the most welcome carp for a good few months.

Unfortunately nothing else materialized from the spot and as the sun got higher in the sky I decided to wind in the rods and go for a walk to see if I could spot some fish. This was a new thing for me. I've always been one to sit on a spot if I've committed a fair amount of bait to it, hoping that the fish would move on to it. So to wind in was pretty alien to me. As soon as I had wound the rods in and stepped out of the brolly the wind decided to pick up, and with a force on it as well. As I made my way to the windward end of the lake I noted a few fish heading down in to the deeper water, they were following the wind! I had decided on moving before I had even got to the other end of the lake but seeing a few fish feeding hard under the trees right in the corner of the lake cemented the move and the area I would target. I made my way back up the lake and soon had the barrow loaded.

Once all the gear was in the swim I walked around to the over hanging trees and introduced about half a kilo of mixed size boilies, 12mm, 15mm, barrels and halved baits but decided against putting in any hemp. I wanted to see if I got their attention with just the S7 bait.

I'd already had a fish so any thing now would just be amazing. The wind picked up and soon the sides of the brolly shook and the rain pattered above my head as a large low pressure front came in from the west. Mr Weatherman was correct!

Settling back with my book was all I could really do as the weather rendered me indoors for the time being but soon the day light began to fade.

I was confident with both the rods on the far bank and the third in the edge to my right under a second tree. Everything looked spot on and I was content being tucked up in my sleeping bag watching as the rain licked the water.

I woke to a savage liner at around 4.30 am and was sat up in bed looking at a calm lake and noted a small amount of fizzing coming from near a solid bag.

I must have drifted off and I was woken by my middle rod pulling up tight and the tip bending round. I darted out of bed and lifted in to the fish. To begin with the fish headed straight towards me to the left and popped up to the surface for just long enough for me to get a glimpse of it before powering off down the lake. She took 20 yards of line in the first run and soon I had her under control again heading towards the net before charging off again. My knees where shaking and I dropped the net twice as nerves got the better of me. I managed to compose myself and finally slipped the net under the fish. I stared in wonder at the fish sulking in the folds of my net and I knew I had landed one of the bigger fish from the lake. And at 25lb 10oz she was a new personal best for myself.

Again a small pva bag of mini pellet and crumb with a pink fruity squid artificial barrel as the hookbait was it's downfall and it has given me such a massive confidence boost in everything that I am doing. After the pictures had been done I settled down with a brew and some breakfast before getting ready to head home.

I learnt so much on this session now I'm more confident in my approach and bait. My rigs worked to perfection and above all else I learnt a move is not to be scared of if needs be. I'm learning my water and the fish behaviour so fingers crossed I land a few more from this special water in the near future.

Matt.