Well well Wels

Judith and me were away this week, staying in a log cabin just on the outskirts of Gillingham, quite and well equipped, no complaints. With the close proximity to Todber, and with neudith never having caught a catfish it would have been rude not to have a go, so i booked us a 24 hour ticket from 11am on Wednesday, till 11am on Thursday. We had a quick look on the lake Tuesday as Nigel hawkins and his better half joanne were doing a 48 hour stint, ending at 9am on Wednesday, After a quick chat with them, they confirmed that the lake had switched off, and very little in the way of cats, or carp had been showing. In fact there had only been one fish out whilst he had been there, so that hit the confidence a bit, he fishes it quite a lot and it was as hard as he had seen it, they were camping on peg 5 which is one of the better swims, and the only fish caught had come out of peg 3 which is opposite, he did say if i wanted to get there early on Wednesday i could jump into there swim and he would leave his bivvy etc there and i could take it back and he would collect it from premier angling in the week, but i had to say no as there were a group of anglers booked on for 10 am and they would get first choice, so we left them to it and it turned out nigels only action was to lose a cat down the channel between the island and the spit slightly to the left, and still when he left there had only been the one cat caught. We still got there at 10 next morning to find the group of anglers deciding on the pegs they wanted, so judith and me ordered a burger from the food place in the carpark for later that day 6.30, then waited for them to make there choices, that done the only swim left was the one nigel had been in, which was suprising as it is rated as one of the better swims with an island with a channel and some open water straight out in front. So 5 trips from the van later ,

and a face time call to kieron to help assemble the bivvy, which was very cosy for two, i was ready to get the rods in the water.

Rather than put the rods on the wooded staging as others do i positioned then to the left, so in the event we actually caught anything we would have a safe clear area to stand and play it.

As it was being hard i decided on a very cautious approach, as nigel had fed a bit on the end of the spit i positioned one bait there, and the other one towards the corner of the isalnd, bait was double 21 mm halibut pellets to which i moulded some halibut groundbait around as an extra attraction but without giving the fish to many options, and apart from that, some of the other anglers seemed.to want to feed enough bait as though it was summertime, but the water temp had probably plummeted in the last couple of weeks, and i thought less may be best to give us the best chance, so although we had had a couple of bleeps from the spit bait. , there had been nothing concrete, so we wound in our baits at 6 and wandered down the carpark to collect our burgers, which are all freshly made, and at 8oz , not to small iether, before fetching the food i changed the set up from ones with lead clips etc to some free running rigs meaning the fish didnt have to shift a heavy lead to register any action, whilst at the burger van kier from the todber shop was getting some food and he had told me to position a bait further off the island to the right in more open water as he said the cats seemed to be wanting to be in that open water more than around the islands, so with one bait in the gully and the other in open water, it was burger time, and i must say it was really good, one of the best dirty burgers ive had in a while, Mine finished i sat back , but only for a few minutes, the open water rod was off, so judith had to ditch the remainder of her burger and grab the rod, and she had her work cut out, this fish was giving her a proper work out, and i must say i was suprised at the power of this fish, but she did really well playing it in, the only help she had from me was to give her a bit of advice as to which way to pull, firstly to keep it out of the channel, then from the marginal reed beds, and i must say a big thanks to the angler to my right , whose rig was picked up during the scrap, but he just gave it all the slack line he could, this was a good fish but i didnt realize how good till i netted it, so we got it on the scales , and it registered 52.5, less the weight of the net which was 2.5, giving judith her biggest ever fish of exactly 50lb absolutely buzzing for her, she did really well, it was a strong fish which stripped line against a very tight clutch, shame it was to big for her to pick up safely, but the picture seems to do it justice.

Fish safely returned, baits repositioned and sat back not really expecting anything else , so when the same rod went off again, it was my turn, judith did the netting for me, on which was still a nice fish , but at 34.9, a lot smaller then hers, but im not complaining, and it was a good fight, which at times made me think a bit, so her achievement is even more noteworthy, not the best of pics but by now it was raing hard and blowing a gale.

And apart from a smaller one of abiut 15lb in the early hours that was it, three runs and three cats,at a time when the lake had switched off a bit , i wasnt complaining, the group that were there had struggled with only one of there number banking one, but at 40lb still a nice fish, but being hooked in the tail, which must have been interesting to say the least, hus mates wouldnt let in count lol. Although it was enjoyable even with the gales and rain, i dont think i will be doing to much of it, sat in a bivvy behind carp rods, perhaps in better weather during the summer, i csn see it being lovely, who knows.