Shortly after our last outing "You gotta be kidding?" Nick was once again in 'unusual places to fish' mode!. This time around he wanted to show me what a real hole in the ground looks like!!. Mention a hole in the ground and commercial waters spring to mind but Nick was quick to point out that holes in the ground were around long before the commercials of today......."you gotta be kidding Nick" (deja vu). Anyway, to cut a long story short a date was set and as the day approached the weather worsened. Considering it was late November I suppose we should have expected a nip in the air and a bit of rain. Undeterred we were determined to make a day of it no matter what the weather threw at us. As it happens the weather forecast wasn't accurate, as usual, and the torrential rain turned out to be just an average rainy November day, but the drop in temperature was noticeable - we just hoped that the combination of rain and drop in temperature wouldn't spoil the day?. Nick's destination was smack bang in the middle of a farmers crop field in the town of Shadoxhurst just on the outskirts of Ashford, in Kent. From the road all you could see was a large dead elm tree and a bit of greenery, no water, no reeds, in fact nothing to arouse suspicion to the fact that there was a pond, and more importantly, a pond with fish in it!. We parked the car and Nick unloaded his minimal gear and we followed the public footpath that was running through the farmers field and parallel to the pond. Nick was once again travelling reasonably lite with just a seat box, umbrella, rod case and a weigh-mat plus keepnet. I asked Nick how the devil does he find such places? He replied with several options that would be open to anyone looking for such venues. Firstly survey maps, then word of mouth, public footpaths, by looking for greenery in the middle of plowed fields which indicate places the farmer can't plough which would normally be woods or water. Nick was also keen to point out that once a venue is located the next step is to find the land owner to ask permission to fish. This can be easier said than done! but it is a necessity in order to fish. Nick had found three ponds in the immediate area and had decided to fish this one because he hoped the resident shoals of skimmers, roach, rudd and carp would oblige (fingers crossed). Venues don't get much smaller than this (picture below).
It was immediately noticeable too me that this water was rarely fished with over two thirds of the pond covered in weed, which I must admit had me worried but my worries were soon quelled as we were greeted with a wave of a carps tail as it wallowed in the weed. Another good indication was the patch of coloured water in a 'weedless' swim next to the tree. The persistent drizzle wasn't going to dampen our mood and Nick soon had his gear set up. One rod was a Shakespeare Sigma IM-6 Graphite coupled with a Daiwa Capricorn 2000 reel with 8lb main line straight through to the hook. Terminal gear was simply a Korum float Blob and a size 6 Kamasan Animal hook - No prisoners with this rig then? Nick explained this set-up was for fishing the far side of the pond in amongst the bushes, twigs and tree roots "You can't afford to give them an inch" he said, "otherwise they will have you snagged in a jiffy". Second rod was a Carbonactive 11 foot 2 piece float rod, again with a Daiwa Capricorn 2000 reel with 0.18mm Drennan Specimen line and 0.14 Drennan Float fish as a hook length tied to a size 18 Kamasan Animal hook. Float was a Mini Drennan 1BB Onion Float with some locking shot and a couple of No8 dropper shot.
Before setting up his rods Nick fed a swim at the top end of the lake. 'Snag alley' would be more of a description than a 'swim'. A couple of generous hand full's of 6mm expander pellet thrown amongst the snags would soon have the carp rooting around. He would come back to this swim after a couple of hours to see if there were any indications of feeding fish (picture below).
Unfortunately for Nick several forays to this swim over the course of the day produced not a single bite or any indication of feeding fish - "That's fishing!" say's Nick. "Some days the fish are queuing up to be caught, but not today". So, without further ado, it's back to the action in his main swim. Nick had plumbed up at about 6 metres and found a depth of about 4 feet just short of the weed bed in front of him. By the grin on his face I knew he was expecting to impress me with a fish first chuck. He had already pointed out to me that his intention was to catch a few silvers before targeting the resident carp. "The silvers can be a bit of a nuisance sometimes but I'm more than happy to put a few on the bank before turning my attentions to carp" he said. A carefully measured under-arm flick sent the rig sailing out to his swim with two maggots as bait a bite was expected immediately.......immediately........now......Hmmmmm..... a pinch of maggot and expander pellet as loosefeed soon followed and the wait continued!. Nick was confused as to the lack of immediate action?. "No fish no feature" I told him, with a grin on my face!. But knowing Nick as I do I just knew he would get a result even with the added pressure of my remark, but I just couldn't resist it.
(Pictures above) It doesn't matter how many angles I get of Nick fishing.....he remained fishless for 40 minutes! In which time he had tried loose feeding maggot and pellet and also small nougats of groundbait. Hookbaits consisting of a combination of maggot, corn and pellet of various sizes brought little response. Even I couldn't work out what the problem was. The swim obviously held (or did hold) feeding fish, the coloured water gave this away compared to the crystal clear weedy swims. Maybe the cold rain water and drop in temperature had taken it's toll on the resident fish population?. It looked as though I would be finishing my hot flask of chicken soup instead of taking 'action' pictures. As we sat pondering what was going on we noticed a few tiny pin pricks of bubbles appearing on the surface - a sure sign that a fish was in the vicinity. Seconds later Nicks double 6mm expander hookbait was picked up by a hungry mirror carp which soon lay in his landing net and at about 2lb it was most welcome. Five minutes later we had a repeat performance from a smaller 1lb mirror carp, things were looking up. How wrong can you be? Twenty minutes followed with no further indications of fish. A change was needed. Often trying something out of the ordinary for the conditions and time of year brings a response - Nick decided to try paste. With no paste at hand he merely added a little more water to a small tub of his groundbait mix and within no time he had a small tub of soft paste ready for the hook. Hooking a pellet first he then carefully molded a blob of paste around the hookbait which would alow him to swing it out into the swim without dropping off.
For those non-believers amongst you who believe paste is not a winter bait read on...... Both Nick and myself thought that if pellet, corn and even maggot didn't get a response then how in the hell will a whopping big piece of paste get a response!!. Well, it did, an immediate response, but it was a bite Nick missed (snigger!). A quick re-bait and another immediate response saw Nick attached to something a little larger than his two previous fish. A tussle ensued with the fish doing it's upmost to find as much weed as it could - and boy there was a lot to choose from. But Nicks steady, but firm pressure, saw the fish beaten in less than a minute. The grin on his face said it all, a near 6lb carp in the bag.
Over the next couple of hours Nick added a further six fin perfect mirrors to his tally. He was still disappointed with the lack of silvers but all was not lost and for once the carp played ball when the silvers wouldn't. Venues such as this provide Nick with a wealth of fishing between the months of November and February. He's not at all keen on fishing matches or leagues during these months as he considers a large part of the fishing to be a 'lottery' and would rather visit a venue where he's got a reasonable chance of a good days fishing.
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