At last some warm weather has finally arrived. I was beginning to think that the long, cold & depressing winter would never let up its hold. I think I must be afflicted with that S.A.D. syndrome...( seasonal affective disorder ) because this latest winter of 2010 has had me yearning more than most other winters past, for the cold to end and bring some desperately needed spring sunshine to lift my spirits and warm my head.

The waters round here in the Lea Valley have taken an age to warm up and the carp have kept their heads down and been very reluctant to leave their winter quarters. Unfortunately for me, the lake I had chosen to fish this spring meant waiting until only quite recently, for the fish to come out of hiding from an out of bounds area where they had decided to spend the winter. Well they would know the best place to escape the attentions of any anglers wishing to make their acquaintance.

As the weather slowly improved, finding the fish in these safe areas was becoming easier by the day. They were also coaxed into having a little feed now and again to a point where, as it got progressively warmer, feeding became more intense. I didn’t want to give them too much in these safe areas, just enough to remind them of our carpy sweets, but they just wouldn’t venture out into the main body of the lake. When one or two did, they knew the score and only chose the spots where they could enjoy the sun and stay out of harms way. Then about a week ago, as if a switch was flicked, out they came on mass to rediscover the 16 acre home that they hadn’t visited for the past 3 months. I had previously been baiting an area that they might pass over when they decide to leave the out of bounds area. I managed to catch a couple of mirrors to 27lb 15oz as they passed through, which was reward I suppose for the previous effort in trickling in the pre bait.

The lake is relatively shallow averaging 5 - 7ft. The next problem to be faced was the dreaded bird life now that the fish were out and about looking for food and flexing their fins.

Trying to keep bait in an area long enough for the fish to dine at the food laid before them, before all the tufties, mallards and coots got their respective beaks stuck in, was becoming impossible. Another fish was caught using boilies, but on most occasions diving birds picking up the hook baits in the gin clear water, made fishing life difficult.

Its spring of course and every bit of living water life wants feeding, but not on my baits thank you!  A way I normally overcome this problem, when the birds can locate a boilie at 50 paces and stretch ones patience to the max, is to use seeds as feed and hook bait. The birds find the small baits much harder to find, and clear up, allowing a longer lasting bait presentation. One of the first tactics is hemp & tares or hemp & maples. I normally have some bags of seeds in the freezer for these situations, but for some reason or another had forgotten to replace my stocks.

I was due to pop in for a chat and see one of my good buddies, Sonubaits consultant Lee Robbins (Who by the way is almost legendary for his Bream catching capabilities in the Oxford area). After I had relayed the tale of the pesky birds and my empty freezer, he suggested I try a tin of the Sonubaits tinned Hemp ‘N’ Maples that he had tucked away in his shed. It was an offer I wasn’t going to refuse.

Well, to cut a long story short, I popped over to the lake the other day for a few hours. I had a fair idea of where I would have a chance of a fish, having had one feeding on a margin spot recently on one of my walkabouts. Using about a quarter of the tin of Hemp ‘N’ Maple I spread it in that area. Using a couple of maples out of the tin I put two on the hair rig and was pleasantly surprised to find they were cooked perfectly and didn’t split in the process. If you haven't cooked maples before, the timing to get correct hook bait texture can be critical, over cooking will result in mush!

The coots as expected came over looking for an easy meal and swam straight over my baited area looking for any free boilies. They swam on focussed only on finding a tasty round easily visible boilie. My two maples and scattering of hemp went undetected; oh what joy you wouldn’t believe. 90 minutes later an unsuspecting carp visited the same area, and also didn’t find any boilies, but did find my two maples!!  Not a big fish of 22.12 but incredibly satisfying to have outwitted the coots on this occasion. Happy days ahead.