A12 Lakes – Cuton – Specimen 2
28/06/2009
This was the first time I had been to this lake and I was a bit sceptical with the A12 so close, I had heard that fishy baits were meant to be best on the lake. So having booked out what we believed to be whole side of the bank we arrived at the lake to find that the was not the case the lake was full 27 swims minus 5 swims for our group, this was not what we were expecting, as now we were all sat on top of each other with no room to spread out. Ideally we would of turned around and headed to another lake but with the sound of thunder overhead and a light shower of rain starting we decided to bite the bullet and setup here quickly before the storm got worse. With so many lines in the water and hearing news it had been fishing well the day before we wasn’t expecting much but I hoped the new bait would provide at least one fish and provide me with an edge.
With the rain starting to come down harder I quickly set up the two rods with a simple hair rig and baited each with an 18mm BBQ Sardine and Oyster Boilie which I had soaking in BBQ sardine and oyster amino liquid food since Friday and cast them out in two spots one close to the margin and one half way across the channel. After setting up the bivvy and with the rain starting to stop, I thought it was time to add some bait to the water, I mixed up some ground bait and added some of the amino liquid to the mix I then used this with the boilies to bait up three swims the two I was fishing and one on the bank on the other side which I would keep baited but wouldn’t fish till the following morning. The overnights spots only had a couple of knocks on them but nothing much was going off on the lake anyway and the side we were on had no catches that we saw through the night.
After an uneventful night I got up at about 4.30 to a mist that had reduced visibility to about 10 yards so decided not to recast just yet. I then walked round and added some more ground bait to the un-fished swim and another good handful of boilies. The Sun was coming up and the mist was starting to clear when at 05:10 my friend fishing to the left his left hand rod went off, and in came the first catch off the session 14.5lb (weighed) Mirror.
With the mist now nearly gone and the temperature starting to warm up I knew this was the time to move to the pre-baited swim I hadn’t used yet. I had found an odd shaped boilie in the bag the previous night and already had in my mind this was the one that was going to produce a catch. It had been sitting glugged up over night so I stuck it on the hair and cast it out; I hit the spot I wanted first time. I then changed the second rig to a 360 pop-up rig and chopped down a pre soaked 18mm BBQ Sardine and Oyster pop-up and tied it on to the hook I cast it out about 4ft to the left of the other rod.
After an hour nothing else had happened the lake seemed to of died before it even got started. But then on the far end of the bank my friend’s rod went off and in came a 7lb (est.) Mirror 20 mins later and my friend in the swim to my right his rod went off and in came another 7lb-8lb (est.) Mirror. Then about 25 minutes later the sound I had been waiting for my right hand rod the one with the odd shaped boilie went screaming off, picking up the rod I knew it wasn’t a big one but a catch was a catch especially with how the lake was fishing, I got it in and it was a nice 8lb (est.) linear Mirror.
Unfortunately that was it for the day catch wise the temperature was well into the red and the fish didn’t seem interested we tried on the surface and fishing Zigs just below the surface but they weren’t interested. All in all it wasn’t a very successful trip, but I wouldn’t blame any of this on the bait I put this down to all 27 swims being used meaning a good 60 lines in the lake so you were fishing on top of each other something I don’t believe should be allowed on lakes, the searing heat and the amount of bait already in the lake, as we witnessed ducks picking boilies up out of swims which weren’t the ones being put in so I think the fish weren’t interested in the fresh food going in and the last problem we had is we had the side of the lake with the A12 running alongside this is a very noisy road that didn’t stop all night and even though some tress have been planted to try to reduce the noise it isn’t nearly enough, meaning if you stepped more than a few yards from the bite alarms it becomes difficult to hear, and all that noise must have some affect on the fish, I think all these things together contributed to a poor days catch.
All in all if you are going to fish this lake I would try to get as far from the A12 as possible, but it is not one lake I would recommend fishing at weekends, as its just to full.
Next lake Par Fisheries
Rhodri Evans