1st session on the Lizard

Well it has been a while but I did my 1st carp session the other day for 8 years in the UK, I expected it to be a momentous occasion with fireworks and perhaps a marching band but no it felt just like fishing in the Netherlands 🙂

As it was a 1st session and because the British Carp Championships were being held at Thorney Weir ( my 1st choice) I decided to go to Lizard Fisheries near West Drayton as they have 2 lakes one of which is an alleged “runs ” water and I wanted an easy start. Tackle was prepped, sandwiches were made and an alarm was set and at 05:00 the next morning I was stumbling bleary eyed into the car so I could make it to the lake for dawn.

On arrival at the lake I realised just how cold it is still, although it has been topping 18 degrees in the middle of the day just before dawn, it was a bone chilling 1.5 degrees and soon all of the coats and fleeces were making an appearance. I may have looked like the Michelin man but at least I was warm, however withing the hours I was really wishing I had brought my thermals and even perhaps a hat and gloves. Let this be a lesson to you all, even though it may be mid 20’s in the middle of the day it is still damn cold in the night / early morning.

I had decided to fish the ever reliable CCmoore Meteor and back it up with PVA bags with my super secret spod mix. The mix contains a mix of CCmoore Meteor, Bloodworm and Milkimin pellets with about 20% fish meal pellet combined with some boilie chops and a healthy dose of Meteor liquid.

How could a carp resist that ? I also decided to keep with the Meteor theme and use some meteor boilies on the hair that had been wallowing in meteor liquid for several weeks to toughen them up and impart vital flavour. This technique has been really successful in the Amsterdamse Bos to the last few years and I was full on confidence. On retrieving one of the boilies from the water I decided to see just how far the glug had penetrated in the last few weeks :

As you can see from the pic above the glug had penetrated about 4mm into the boilie but what surprised me was that the center of the boilie appears to have been “bleached” by the glug. Still the carp ( normally) seem not to mind.

So how was the session ? well it want the most successful if I am honest. I managed 1 fish which even though it really gave a spirited account of its self ( and even took line) turned out to be a tench of about 5lb’s which in reflection may even be a person best as I haven’t caught one in several years due to their low population density in the Netherlands. In my defence several of the other carp anglers blanked on there and only one carp was brought out whilst I was there. Even the match fishermen were struggling and I certainly did not see any landing nets being used at all.

As a 1st session it was enjoyable enough, and on stark contrast to the Dutch carp venues, this one was packed even on a Wednesday, with “colourful” characters. Not speaking Dutch I have been insulated from these people for quite a while. It was entertaining at least to chat to some of the anglers especially one that assured me that one of the other (private) lakes in the vicinity ( which I think I may have a ticket coming soon)  was on day ticket. A very confused angler.

You will note that I have attached the meta tag “blank” to this post, I just hope that it doesn’t become the most popular tag in the tag cloud 🙂