18th Feb. 3rd time lucky!

For the 3rd session of the season, I can safely say we were more confident than we had been so far this year. It was mild, the pressure was very low and it had been overcast the last few evenings. We were looking forward to getting back down to pit 2 more than ever.
6 o'clock Saturday morning came by. My brother Daz couldn't secure the car for the weekend, so as he lives in Blackwater, he was going to jump on the train again and meet me at the bottom of the bridge. I live about a mile from the lakes and normally walk my gear down there, but the day ahead threatened rain which meant carrying my titan down there... Not something I would want to look forward to. As I was walking back home from the pub the night before, I found an old trolley dumped in our carpark, and with a few beers in me thought it would make a great 'Carp Porter' so stashed it away till the morning!


We arrived at the lake around 6.45 and chose two swims opposing each other across the pit. We normally fish together or near each other, but this does put a limit on the swims we can fish. So with the aid of some 2 mile radius walkie talkies we took to our seperate swims. We were both a little shocked as the morning was colder than we had excpected and we were greeted with subtle frost and fog too. But still, we were ever confident as we set up and had our baits in place by 7 o'clock. A few knocks on my rods kept my spirits high as this low pressure was sure to get the fish less lethargic than they had been the past month.

The day rolled on quickly as always when fishing, with nothing more than a few bleeps here and there. No fish showing at all. All was still. Then something different happened. It started raining. Gentle at first, then strong enough for me to give in to setting up the titan. Soon after the rain stopped, I heard what I hadn't heard in a long time. My buzzers.
My right hand rod which was positioned on a nice gravel patch at about 30 yards range roared into life. I was on it in seconds, heart pumping. The second I struck the fish fished rolled on the surface and I spotted the scales of a gold looking common. I buzzed my brothers walkie talkie and told him 'I'm in!' Daz reeled his rods in and came round from the other side of the lake to where I was. After a scrap of around 10 minutes, I slid the bigger than first thought carp over and into my net. She weighed in at 19lb 11oz and I couldn't have been happier. Another stunning Pit 2 common. Lovely. Daz didn't have more than a few bleeps, and I had nothing more. We packed up and trecked it home, more confident and hopeful for the months ahead that are only going to get warmer and longer.

4th Feb 2nd sesh....

Our second session of the year was drawing nearer so we were keeping a close eye on the weather conditions. The week leading up to Saturday was absolute brass monkeys, so things weren’t looking as good as they could be! Added to the fact that we were only down for half a day – the odds were stacked against us. But, as harsh as the elements were, we were still chipper as we made our way over that lung-bursting bridge…. Luckily, the missus didn’t need the car so we didn’t have the pleasure of riding one of South East Trains finest! A 6:30am wake up call wasn’t the easiest thing to comprehend, but the bitter chill of a pre-dawn Saturday morning soon woke us both up and it wasn’t long before we were down at the lake having a mooch around for a swim to set up in.

Before the session we’d been brainstorming as to where we could fish and discussed the possibility of fishing the ‘other’ end of Pit 2. It’s the part where it tapers right down and theres a few swims facing each other – with the very end bank having no swims on it. It’s definitely the end that doesn’t get fished that often, in our opinion and that could be the edge that we needed in those tricky winter conditions. However, on arrival, we could see that someone had set up in the boards swim and upon closer inspection, someone turned into some people. So with a minimum of four lines cast out to the bank we would’ve been fishing on and not knowing their exact location, we opted to try for a part of the lake with no other anglers on. A quick scout around showed that Frimley’s finest residents were doing their usual winter trick – not showing at all! So, we opted for the swims 13 & 14, the Cut Out and the Breezeblock. These swims have consistently produced over the years and as the odds were against us today, confidence was definitely high on our list of things we needed working with us!

With our time on the lake slowly ticking away, we swiftly set up. I had opted to fish the Breeze Block, whilst Ricky chose the Cut Out. Tactics were similar to last session’s. I was fishing single hookbaits, which consisted of a Dynamite Hi-attract Pineapple 20mm on the rod that was cast directly out to a proven spot just off the island bush. Around 20 free offerings were ‘pulted out tight to the area. The other rod was fished with with a single orange flouro Dynamite Scopex pop-up, fished over a small bed of crushed and chopped Hi-attract Pineapple boilies. This was cast to a small marginal overhanging bush that always looks so carpy! Ricky had 3 rods out – one was fished just off the island, to a bush that carp often patrol round as they head in the more open water of the lake. Another rod was fished to open water – directly between the island and the bank, to a nice hard spot. His third rod was tight to some marginal snags, which again, as margins always do, looked really carpy! All three rods were fished with single Nutrabaits Techni-spice Boilies, with no free offerings. On paper, reading that back – its sounds perfect! You’d expect all 5 rods to go screaming off, and even though it was pretty cold, we sat back with our confidence sky high.

The morning came and went ridiculously quickly. Not good when you know you’re only fishing for half a day! The baliff came round and informed us that, again, not much had been out apart from Iain and his mate’s bumper hauls from January. Good fishing from them – and good for the confidence too. We both had a few knocks on our rods, which was promising, but they didn’t amount to anything. Our mate Deano was fishing Pit 3 and called in to say he’d just had one – I waited with baited breath to see whether a legendary monster had graced his net, but it turned out that a 6lb Pike had decided to take his cube of luncheon meat! Typical eh? At least he hadn’t blanked, which he cheekily added at the end of his call…. sarky t*sser! The temperature was really dropping now and we were starting to feel the cold. A few meal in a cans were hastily scoffed down and we were feeling a bit warmer – albeit affected by the obligatory flatulence that always follows those gastronomical delights ;)

Winter fishing on Frimley has always been tough and as we sat there scanning the water for signs of life, we were again eluded by its mysterious residents. The session started to draw to a close and as the temperature dropped even further, we prepared ourselves to start packing up. We were already preparing the next session before that one had even finished, talking tactics and methods and generally looking forward to getting on the bank again. Two (well, one and a half!) sessions into the year, with no action at all, you would’ve thought we would have a been a little despondent…. but you try stopping us getting down there for next time!