First English Fifty

After my successful morning on Lodge lakes it was time to think about Wasing, not that I hadn't been thinking about it for the past two months since its close. During the close season I had been applying bait to certain spots around the lake, one to allow them to feed confidently unpressurised and two to try and have some fishable spots come the start. The lake is clear and relatively shallow so becomes extremely weedy during the summer months and because of my limited time usually quick overnighters I needed to be able to turn up in a swim knowing spots would be clear and confident in my bait presentation. Because of the weed I tried to keep the spots to a minimum range this usually meant finding the slightly deeper water of one of the many gullies that run around Wasing. These gullies cross many of the swims at slight angles so you can apply bait at different ranges reducing lines spooking fish and I also tend to bait and fish the slope or bottom of the slope again to reduce spooking and improve line lay. With the pre baiting every bait item is kept small to encourage the fish to grub around and clean the spots, this usually consisted of hemp, mini combo pellets, little gems and crushed and crumbed crayberry boilies from Hinders. Nearer the start of the season I started introducing my 14mm dumb bell boilies to the mix these I would be using with home made 14mm cork wafters as hookbaits.

Wasing has a close season from June to July so the first of August is the big off and historically can be very busy. It was with this in mind that on Sunday the 1st of August being a bailiff I decided to have a walk around the lake. I was gob smacked to find only two anglers on the lake and these were both looking around and had not finalised where they were going to fish. I drove home as fast as I could and not expecting to be going fishing found my tackle in its usual state. Tackle sorted in record time and a quick stop at the local shop to pick up some food ( boil in the bag rice and what looked like dog food) I was back at the lake still to find only the two anglers.
Having a choice of swims on Wasing is a novelty at the best of times having a choice at the start of the season is unbelievable. With all three pre baited swims available I now had to make a decision, finally choosing the "woods"swim. The spots in the woods were about 30 yards out, trying to fish any further would have been suicide due to the large beds of weed that had formed all over the lake, behind and in certain ares in front of the swim. It is also the last swim before the nature reserve which is relatively shallow and holds a lot of fish during the summer months. It is from here that they often leave during early to mid morning heading into the main body of the lake where I hoped to intercept them on the baited spots.
Because of the holes in the weed that was fishing I opted to fish with flat pear inlines fished drop of style in conjunction with short lenghts of leadcore (12"). I like the flat pears because of their flat profile and when fished drop off style like to use at lease 3 1/2 oz or 4oz leads to enhance hooking and exaggerate drop off. For the 14mm dumb bell wafters that I was using I was still undecided on the best rig but had narrowed it down to two, one fished KD style incorporating a size 6 curve shank and the other using my go anywhere rig consisting of a size 6 wide gape, micro rig and small kicker. Both of these are fished using Atomic tackle 25lb Jel E Wyre hook links with a large loop formed at the swivel end to push the hook link away and a small shot to counter balance the wafter. These were fished relatively short about 6" because although I was fishing in the weed in small holes the actual spots were clear and because off the particles and small food items I was using by keeping them short it would result in more hooked fish.
I was in no rush to get the rods out, buy this time it was late afternoon and historically a quite period on the lake but by 7 o clock all three rods were fishing. Bait boats are allowed on the lake and although after many years of not using one on Wasing I had surrendered and it was with a boat that I placed my rigs with some hemp, pellets, broken, crushed and whole boilies. At about 9 o clock I saw two fish bosh out at around 80yds,half an hour later two different fish did the same on the same spot. The set up I was using enables me to change quickly to a solid bag and after trying a short korda supernatural hooklink of abou
t 3" a bag was sent to the area which I knew dropped away to about 7 foot but was unaware of the weed situation.I knew it would be touch and go whether I would be able to land a fish if I did get a pick up but I could not ignore them. During the night which was warm and overcast I lost two fish both on the long rod, both in weed even though the lead had ejected. I then made the decision not to fish the long spot anymore even though fish continued to show over that spot, the risks out weighed the rewards .
On first light I received a belting take, the lead dropped off and the fish came to the surface this fish behaved itself and I manged to steer it past all the weed beds on its way into the landing net. A 28 1/2 lb common sat in the folds of the net, not a bad start to the season. It was weighed and returned quickly and the rod repositioned as this really is bite time on here at this time of the year. As the sun came up and the visibility improved I could see bubbling and fizzing on two of the three spots so guested it would only be a matter of time. However by 10 o clock I still had not received a take, Simon one of the other anglers came round to see how I was getting on. Simon had nothing in the night and was contemplating a move I told him to get his rods back out as this really was bite time, he left with added enthusiasm. At 10 . 30 the bobbin on the left hand rod lifted to the butt, I was fishing with the clutch tight due to the weed so checked the line. It was very tight so I lifted the rod and pulled into one very angry carp, the lead ejected and the fish came to the surface just in front of a large weed bed. With the rod arched over I walked backward to stop the fish reaching the weed and managed to get the fish into open water it was then a matter of steering the fish through the last weed bed in front of me which I manged to do.
In the clear water I could see the large scales that run down the flanks of " the parrot" as it is known due to one side of its mouth bring slightly damaged and knowing this fish to be over fifty pounds ment the last few minuets of the fight were nervous ones. In the net the fish looked enormous and when I lifted it up it felt every bit a fifty pounder and this was confirmed when the scales went around to 54lb 2oz.