My ‘weekends’ start on Thursday night as I only work a four day week and as usual I rushed home, packed the car and hit the A303 on my journey to Pingewood lagoon near Reading.
As I pulled into the car park hoping to get the same swim as I usually aim for I was shocked to see a full car park. I spoke to one of the regulars who informed me the whole of the cottage bank was tied up.
I grabbed my water butt and went for a quick walk heading towards the lawn swim, as I was stood there watching, a fish stuck its head out to the right which would usually of made my mind up, except my mate Billy said there were fish showing in front of the left hand container. We went round to the swim for a look and whilst there we spotted a few more fish showing that was it my mind was made up.
Knowing a few spots in the swim from previous sessions I started the first night by placing a zig rig out on the left rod at about 30yds were a fish had shown earlier. The middle and right rods were both fished chod style at about 50 yards one on a white DT flouro N-blend and the other on a DT yellow flouro pineapple pop up. Just on darkness I scattered about a kilo of the blood and orange over a large area to get the fish rooting around.
The night past really quiet until 7.45 when the yellow chod just ripped off, the biggest nightmare (as it kited right straight from the off) in this swim is there’s a massive bush that’s about the size of a normal garden pond in the right hand margin. I held the rod out as far to the left as possible until I felt the line touch the branches on the end of the bush. I had to make a decision and it was to strip and get in to try and get the line as far away from the bush as possible.
Just as I thought I was winning the fish decided the bush was its best escape, next thing I saw the tail of a mirror slap on the surface and before I could do anything it had thrown the hook on to the biggest branch it could.
Gutted was not the word I used as you can imagine after losing the first carp I’d hooked from a lake like Pingewood especially as it’s the sort of water where you don’t get many runs in a season.
The rest of the day was spent watching the water and thinking about the next chance, Nigel popped down and we drank brews while chatting about the previous goings on.
While we were watching the lake we kept on noticing the tufties were looking quite spooked and didn’t like going into certain areas of the swim, I’d made up my mind to switch all the rods over to chods and the third one was going out on a white flouro N-blend as well.
Another quiet night followed but I wasn’t going to give up as a south-easterly wind started to blow in my favour. As the day went on a few fish started to show over the spots I was fishing, then at 17.45 the right hand rod bobbin lifted to the top and held, my first thought was a tufftie or a pike going through the line. Then that lovely sound as the line pulled from the clip and the clutch started clicking. Shock - another run! I lifted into the fish but this one behaved itself and kited left and then came straight to the net.
I’d done it, I’d landed my first carp of the year and what a fish it was. The Crop Tail linear at 35lb 1oz!
With the photos and weighing all done it was time to get the rod back out. At 21.00 it was battle stations again and this time it was a very angry common weighing in at 24lb 14oz that had picked up the flouro n-blend on the middle rod, exhausted and all phoned and text out I called it a night. The next morning I woke to a perfect misty morning and packed away slowly to do the drive home and for the first time in a while I left the lake with a big smile on my face knowing that all the hard work and effort had paid off.
