A disappointing night.

I arrived at the lake late in the afternoon, hoping that the day session anglers had packed up, but i was wrong. I managed to pre-bait a gravel spot about twenty feet out with a few kilo's of hemp and other particle with a spomb, I knew fish would be over it all night.
The swim I initially wanted to fish was overgrown,  and very often over looked, but just my luck, someone dropped into it, but luckily was fishing no where near my spots.
I managed to nick a few fish whilst waiting for the angler to pack up from a known catching spot in peg 73, on the other side of the lake, I didn't want to put too much bait in, just in case it drew fish away from my designated spot, so only a handful of crushed boilies and a few pellets were used in the margins.
This temped three, small dark Commons, all of which ripped away and put up tremendous fight.

Fishing slack lines, right under the rod tip.
The swim I wanted was just to the left of the left hand snag ear.

I had all my gear loaded on the barrow, with just the bare essentials needed for fishing out next to me, and come the time the anglers packed up, I slipped the rod away and dropped into my desired swim.

It was coming dark before I got my rod on my baited spot, and with the lake becoming empty of the day anglers, I began to have dinner, but before long, the chorus of the Delkim blared as the line picked up and the clutch began to tick.
The first mirror of the session gave a slow, plodding fight, desperately digging for the nearby snags, but persisting pressure dragged him slowly into the net. The fish was only small, maybe edging double figures, but like all fish, was a pleasure to catch. After slipping him back, I cracked on with dinner, and settled down for the night, occasionally topping up my spot with a handful of boilie and pellet.

I was well tucked away, avoiding any chance of spooking fish in the margins.

The night mist fell on the lake, and the swim was full of fizzing, I was excited to say the least.
The hue of the evening had faded, and the night was in full bloom, fishing a semi slack line to avoid and chance of spooking the fish, the bobbin occasionally lifted into life, but i was hesitant to strike, they were only liners.

For hours I was sat next to the rod, expecting a full take, but it passed ten o'clock without a take, and the activity in the swim had passed, I was disapointed, as I thought the pre- baiting would hold the fish for longer period. Before settling down for some sleep, I topped the swim up again with Creamy Nut boilies, and some betaine Carp pellet, and tucked myself away into my bag. Slowly zipping up the sleeping bag, I heard a disturbance in the water, then suddenly, my alarm registered a few beeps. I jumped out of bed and put my shoes on in a rush as the clutch began to tick.
It felt a better fish, slowly kiting out towards the far bank, I felt the fish dump the lead, and this made bringing the fish in a lot easier, again, another deep bellied Mirror. The fish was immaculate, scale perfect, and still had his curtains, a sure sign that the fish has never been caught before, always a bonus.
 

The Delk' remained silent for the remainder of the night, until about twelve, when I decided to reel in and get some solid sleep.

Come first light, I slung the rig back on the spot. This time, the spot was alive and fizzing like a Jacuzzi.
Whether it be Tench or smaller Carp, I managed to count about 6 or 7 small patches of fizzing, my confidence increased as I set my traps for the day.

As I have mentioned before, the channel carved by the river creates a very sandy, shallow patch, with this brings large amounts of debris being snagged in the shallow water of about a foot deep.
Every angler knows not to fish it, although it's a great holding spot for Carp, it's simply too dangerous and the Coots and Ducks will easily pick up a bait and cause you quite some trouble.
But early morning, a large group of Carp began to spawn, thrashing the water to a foam, it was certainly an enjoyable sight, but I didn't want this large shoal of Carp to pass over my spots with the chance of getting caught. I personally feel it's wrong to fish for spawning Carp.

With this thought in mind, I heavily baited a margin, creating the impression that a previous angler had packed up and threw a selection of bait into the margins, and sure enough it worked.
Before long I found myself leaning into a small Common.

I was trying my hardest to filter these smaller Carp, but it didn't seem to work.
My rig was the same to the rig i used in the last blog, but with a longer hair to accommodate a 15mm Creamy Nut boilie and a 10mm Mainline popup. I setup like this hoping the smaller Carp simply couldn't fit it in their mouths, but obviously they're very persistent!

The heat of the day rose, the Carp spawned all day, all over the lake, day session angler were struggling too, but I seemed to be catching the most in the margins, with a Carp every few hours, only a mere few inches into the protruding iris plants with a pva bag of pellet, boilie crumb and Creamy Nut liquid, which i have now used to replace the previous Sensas Tiger nut extract, as the new Severn Baits liquid is far more concentrated and creates a better cloud of attraction than the Sensas.

To put it as an understatement, the days fishing was hard. They were spawning and basking in the sun, it was simply too hot and too bright, and the lack of a ripple on the water certainly didn't help.

I'll be returning more often now, as I've finished school. I can put more time and effort into trying to catch one of these big Carp, I'm certainly going to be keeping my eyes on the top section of the lake.
But next session, depending on the conditions, I'm going to target  a large bed of lilies, where only recently, one of the larger Carp was caught.

I've recently started fishing a large, 21 acre lake, called Petersfield Heath, a notoriously hard water, on account of the minute of amount of fish in such a large volume of water. But when you do catch one, it certainly is a reward.  Fishing here will not be as prolific as Southwick. But I certainly hope to get on my publicity ban water soon, once they've stopped spawning there.

On the note of new waters, in the next two weeks or so, I'm fishing a small lake down in Devon, stocked with Carp up to Thirties. This is for a weeks holiday, but I plan on mostly fishing, and hopefully leaning into one of those chunks!

(Here's the link if you want to find out more http://www.waglandfarmcottages.co.uk/fishing_lake.html )

But in the meantime, maximum effort is going into Southwick.