Ian Whitney

Springs in the air.

Great anticipation as ever preceded our next session, we had learnt from previous years that the fish liked a certain area  at this time of year and that the liked a big wind to stir things up. Work constraints mean that once leave is booked its pretty much up to the gods to decide the rest but the forecast looked good with strong winds, although there would be clear skies.

Dave, my fishing buddy of some 25 years arrived on the Sunday evening and was able to get into our preferred area. I literally got off a plane form Hong Kong at 06:00 on the Monday morning. By the time I had dumped my bags, got the car loaded and completed the 100 mile trip to the lake it was about midday, jet lag was going to be a bastard but the natural rhythms of sunrise and sunset should help. The lake is a 27 acre gravel pit, open and very exposed, as the gravel was extracted by suction not dredgers the bottom was relatively featureless, most of the lake being a uniform 5-7ft in depth. We where set up in our favoured swims, previous knowledge meant that no markering was required and soon the traps where set. We where fishing to a well established mussel bed, this was situated on a gravel bar running parallel to the bank at about 80 -100 yds range. We knew the fish liked a lot of bait, and in this lake that meant boiles. A large head of bream and tench meant that any particle or pellet normally resulted in a slimy net and no sleep. We where supremely confident in the Protavit, we had been introducing the bait over the last 18 months and catching steadily. With the wind over our shoulders, sticking the bait out did not result in the usual round of blisters and aching arms and we quickly established a routine of about 1kg per rod per day. The fish started to come on the first evening and the session certainly developed into one to remember, between us over five nights we had ten 20’s and a thirty with numerous doubles. All the big fish where passing Protavit in the sling and on the mat so we knew they where into the bait big time. The fishing tailed of toward the end of our session as the wind changed direction, and we couldn’t move as the swims where occupied but we where more than happy with the result.