After baiting the area on the new lake for three consecutive days I was confident that something would have noticed the free banquet, even if it was the crays, and I was looking forward to the first dabble on there.

The walk, to use the term lightly, from the car to the chosen swim wasn’t too far, however, in the heat of the day and the ruts in the ‘path’ made it one of the hardest barrow pushing contests I have ever entered and I nearly didn’t make it to the end! It was horrendous!!

Anyway, the swim was free, not too surprising bearing in mind the arduous journey from the car park, and with a sigh of complete relief the barrow tipped over onto the deck for one last time.

I tried to travel as lightly as possible but even so, I still had to take a big plastic dog basket, the puppy’s own sleeping bag, her food and extra water and various toys to keep her quietly entertained. All of which was very much worth the extra effort as she behaved impeccably, allowing me the freedom to fish in a relatively normal manner.

The day was hot and so I wasn’t expecting to se any fish until sunset, although one solitary carp bow waved over the area during the day. On dusk, just as the sun dipped below the horizon, the area in front of me slowly came to life, with the odd show from a bream and millions of small fry being chased by large shoals of juvenile perch, but still no carp.

As previously mentioned I was purposely fishing with rigs that would allow me to catch any bream as I wanted to get a feel for the numbers of fish that were visiting the area in order to adjust my bating strategy if needed.

The mossies were the only bites I had until around 1 am when a typical bream bite had me out of the bag. A gorgeous low double figure fish was soon in the net. The fish looked young and healthy and was followed by two slightly smaller examples on dawn as I was stood watching the water for any signs of my intended quarry.

Interestingly, all the bites came to just one rod despite all three being fished on identical rigs and just feet apart, something to remember for future trips. The other useful tip I have found on any water especially large open pits, is to watch the birds very carefully, and not just the coots or tufties. Most importantly, keep an eye on the grebes. They will often patrol the tops of bars and plateaus and so will show the direction of the features whereas coots etc will typically just dip down and pop up again.

I’m planning on putting bait onto the spot several times a week and now I have a very economical little van to run around in, it makes doing so a lot more affordable. The one change I will make to my plans will be to only fish the spot when the conditions are spot on, i.e.; a new westerly, which coincidentally starts this Friday and continues until Sunday, which are the only days I can’t fish!!!! Instead I will heavily bait the area at the end of the week and hope to keep the fish coming back for a look.

I’ll let you know how the plan works out. Tight lines…