Tom Oliver revisits the month of February...


Unfortunately I only managed to fish two 24hr sessions this month due a short break with my girlfriend in Amsterdam and other family commitments.  

The first 24hr session coincided with some very sunny clear warm days on the third weekend in Feb and I decided I wanted to fish the other lake on the syndicate with the big fish. You see the lake is around 8 acres and has an unbelievable number of 30lb+, 35lb+ and two forties to go with the back-up stock of 20lb+fish.  The lake has not done a bite since November now I think and has been completely devoid of life despite a brave few having a go, however on this occasion I just fancied my chances.

I set up in a swim where I last saw a fish show before they shut up completely at the back end of the year.  I spent a good hour looking around before doing this and saw no signs of fish however the birds were all localised diving on some sort of food source in the same area I chose to set up in. This was the only sign I had to go on so got on with the tedious task of getting everything sorted. I would usually always get my rods out first but as I had not been for so long my stuff was in a right state so choose to take my time and set up the house first. I didn’t want to rush anything and screw up my chances if any and watched the water like a hawk whist getting things sorted.  I had a lead about with the marker rod and found some deeper water with some firm silt to the right of my swim at around 60yrds and a nice strip of clean gravel to the left of the swim at around the same distance. I baited the left hand rod with a mixture of Cell pellets, 15mm and 10mm Cell boilies supplied by Kent Particles and fished a snowman rig over the top. I tied the snowman rig with around 7” of 25lb Gardner Sink Skin and a size 8 Continental Mugga; this was baited with a glugged 15mm Cell bottom bait and 10mm pink Cell pop up. I have found that pink is a great colour to fish over bait and the fish seemed to hone in on it!

I decided to fish my right and middle rod on zigs for the day in the deeper water then just switch to fishing chods over a light scattering of bait during the night. I set one zig at 12ft and the other at 8ft and was just about to cast the first out when a mirror of around 33lb poked its head out 30yrds out to the right of the swim. I quickly flicked the 8ft zig out then changed the other to a choddy and put it bang on where the fish had showed. I was feeling very confident but the hours were soon passing and it got stupidly cold as darkness fell and my confidence was starting to waver to say the least. I awoke around 6am and everything was as it was before I fell asleep; devoid of any life! The temperatures were so low I had a layer of ice on the inside of my brand new Aqua M3 bivvy, never the less I stuck it out until around mid-day but apart from that initial sighting I saw nothing and received no action.

With temperatures remaining cold for the rest of the week I decided my time would be best spent on the Big Lake for the chance of a few runs and a possible 20. I set up in an area I had been doing well from and got to work with the marker. I found a nice firm silt area in 9ft of water behind a bar at 106yrds to the left of the swim. I decided as the area was quiet large to fish all three rods on it and bait heavily with 5kg on the initial hit. I baited with a mixture of pellets and 10/15mm Cell from Kent Particles and it was a tedious task with the crosswind. I made extra care to ensure they all landed bang on and I was ultra-happy with the end result after half an hour of hard work. The reason I baited so heavily and put all my eggs in one basket so to speak is because the fish in this lake tend to stay in very large shoals and when they move in with hunger they can mop up a hefty amount between them. I clipped up the rods with a bare lead and used two storm rods to mark them out to ensure they landed bang on each time. I then decided to rest the swim for an hour after the disturbance from putting the bait in and got some pva sticks tied and rigs baited etc. The hour soon passed and all three rods sailed out bang on first time and I was very confident.

After around an hour the tip on my middle rod was pulling around and the line then pinging out of the clip and it was game on for the first time this month. Before long a pretty 14lb mirror was in the net and it was a great start. Just as I was finishing the self-takes the same rod I had recast was away so I quickly slipped the first fish back and bent in to the second fish of the session. This fish felt much heavier than the first and turned out to be a mirror of 19lb and I was one happy angler. The action continued regularly and I even had a double take an hour or two later. Most of the fish were 14-19lb and only one fish was below this. After around ten fish the action died and I thought they may have moved as the light was fading.

I decided to give them some more bait and proceeded to give them another 5kg of the pellet and Cell mix and the action started again ten minutes later. These fish were clearly hungry and clearly liking the bait and I think many of them were just starting to properly wake up as they were covered in leeches.  Just before darkness I managed a 20.02lb mirror and although not the prettiest fish it was the first over the magical mark. The action was steady and constant and by around 2am I was knackered and decided to reel in and let them finish there meal in peace so I could get some much needed rest. I set my alarm for 5am and planned to re-bait with 5kg ready for their morning feed.

Well I slept a little longer than planed and re-baited at 8am! Oops! This didn’t matter as within minutes of recasting I was once again in battle with an angry upper double. I returned the fish and had a conversation on the phone with my friend, we both said it was strange I had not had any of the lakes biggies (25lb+) of which there were around eight in total including one over 30lb. As I hung up the phone my middle Maxi Bug was cracking in to the blank of the rod and immediately it felt like a better fish. The fish was hugging the bottom at range and kiting from left to right, slow steady pressure soon had things swaying in my favour and before long I had a clearly bigger fish in the deep clear margins of the lake. After a couple more attempts for freedom the fish was lying in the folds of the net and looked easily 25lb. Upon lifting the scales they recorded a weight of 26.08lb and after getting some nice shots I text my friend and thanked him for talking that one on!

After a few more fish the action once again stopped indicating the fish had cleared me out and I decided to call it a day. I was more than happy with my results, I finished with 25 fish landed and 5 lost in the 24hrs bearing in mind I had reeled in for six hours and spent two at the beginning getting set up. Most of the fish were upper doubles and it is probably one of my best ever February catches, by fishing beyond the range of the average angler down there I managed to capitalise on the action by fishing where the fish felt safe and had decided to spend most of their time this winter. It can be tricky with strong winds but by scaling down and using 10lb Pro Carp Mainline coupled with a shockleader it really was very simple the main reason people can’t hit distances of 100yrds is their line is too thick in diameter. If you haven’t tried the Pro Carp from Gardner yet give it a go it is ultra-low diameter for the breaking strain and very strong as well as sinking like a brick.

I am hoping to start concentrating on the little lake from now on in readiness for when they do wake up and to learn the topography of the lake to give me a better chance if moving on to showing fish when they do wake up. I also have a long weekend at a friend’s lake in France to look forward to so next month’s piece should be a good one!