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The old School

30/10/2006

As I have been a member of our local lake for 10 years plus you could say I should have moved on by now, but the prizes in the lake are second to none. In the early eighties I moved to Woodley and coming from family who has got a big fishing history I was always near water, either with my parents and brother or with school friends. I will not bore you with the early days as it was your normal stickle backs and bleak!

My taste for the real thing came when I bought my first Rod and Reel and started using a cat food special and a ground bait to bind it altogether. I finished in a swim on the local lake called the bay, the lake was Southlake and at the time it held fish to 32lbs which had a name of Nelson. My first fish out of the lake was a common of 8lbs, no camera in those days.

I was bitten by the bug started work and bought my first set of rods, reels, and buzzers. I spent a lot of time on Southlake catching fish to 27lbs. Over the years spent on the lake different anglers came and went and in the 2002 season a big surprise happened, a fish of 39lbs12oz was caught, as you could imagine, my fire was truly light I new the angler who had caught the fish soon pictures were seen and by the time I had decided what to do the place was rammed with anglers.

Towards the end of that season I bumped in to a guy doing two nights a week, 1 Wednesday and 1 Saturday his name, Tim and after a couple of chats and cups of tea he asked me if I would be interested with his two other friends and him in going on a bait with them. The bait was chosen from the ocean fresh stable which is owned by Tim's friend Leigh, he gave us a list of different baits to use and we decided on based on first impression only to go for a new bait. The breakdown of the baits and potent smell really impressed me and everything in the lake benefited from this.

Up to 100kg of the Red Shrimp & Garlic was put in over the close season and the fish were really getting their heads down and confidence was sky high between the lads.

The new season started and I was chomping on the bit to wet a line, my fishing had been up to this time days only, but since the offer of the bait, to get the full purpose of the baiting campaign we had just gone through I had to start doing nights.

This was not a problem as I do not sleep well so my fishing was still going to be 100% full on. A lot of the smaller fish were showing on the baited areas and would seem to clean out all of the bait before the big fish would visit. After watching the smaller fish feed on the areas I soon saw a pattern forming in which the big fish putting big beds of bait down to danger, so feeding on the fringe was safe.

"Double Belly 29.6lb"

My success was getting better with fish to 29lbs 6oz (double belly) by September the campaign was coming together. It was only a matter of time before one of the bigger fish slipped up. Late September I noticed the better fish were moving more on the South Westerly winds so I planned to bait an area that funnels down to a small island 3 times a week. I would bait up a gravel run and half way through October the first 30lb common in the lake graced by my net 31lb 4oz what a cracker.

"Pear Drop 31b 10oz"

This part of the lake produced for me quite well and with the weather getting colder by the month after Christmas, did its normal shut down. The new season coming up would be 2007 and to see if the bait would still work I received some more and carried on with it. My time on the lake was spent mostly in the colder months September onwards even though I did bait twice a week this seamed to be the edge I needed because from mid September to the end of November fishing weekends only I managed to catch 4 of the old school.