It's been months since I've entered anything in here so it's time I started waffling again. Despite the lack of entries I got plenty of fishing done over the Spring and fared pretty well so I thought I'd flick through my photo album and recount some of the captures.

24th March - Shh.

So, the fishing was going rather well on the little venue close to work. Regular baiting trips and short sessions seemed to be throwing up quite a few fish each time and I was starting to feel close to catching one of the ones that I really wanted.

The only fish I knew about prior to joining was this cracking leather with lovely mahogany flanks and a characteristically sloping head.

A mate of mine had caught him a good few years back, probably 4 or 5 thinking about it, at around 15lbs or so and I'd had it feeding over me numerous times while stalking the previous year so I knew he was still about. I never got it to pick up my hookbait unfortunately but I knew I had to catch him, being king of the pond and all that.

I was catching every session off the baited areas and nobody else was fishing the lake so I was confident he would be in the area, enjoying the only proper food he had available to him. Sure enough a couple of short trips later I hooked a fish that felt much more substantial than the others. The clear water enabled me a glimpse early on in the fight, enough for me to be 90% sure of what I'd hooked. A few minutes later it was in close and was indeed " the leather"... it had fought well but was almost ready for the net before it decided to have one last run in the direction of my other line, a little side strain and ping, off it came. Again the clear water made things all the more vivid. He seemed to hang there as they do you know... practically weightless just under the surface for what seemed an age but was realistically only a few seconds, before righting himself and slowly waddling off, almost arrogantly.

Anyway, a month or so later vengeance was to be mine. The water had coloured up considerably, more so than I'd ever seen it before so stalking was out of the window, and a few short trips fishing in the edge to bubblers failed to excite me much, though I still caught a few fish. I decided while the water was murky I needed something a bit more visually stimulating so set up my stalking rod with a section of quill, fished on the lift... proper old school stuff.

I popped down for another after work session and baited both sides of a large fallen tree that sat in one of the lakes corners. Fizzing gave away the presence of the fish for a good hour or so but I found that whichever side of the tree I fished, the fish would instantly move around to the other side and feed on the spot that had no rig on. I chased them about for a bit before coming up with a plan. I'd had fish fizz right over my bait a couple of times without an indication and had wound in to find my bait covered in decaying leaves. To counter this I sidehooked a bit of buoyant white (it was the most productive colour when boilie fishing) fake corn and one real bit so that it just sank under the weight of the hook. I flicked this out to the baited spot and quickly nipped round the other side of the tree, unsurprisingly finding that undisturbed spot fizzing away like a good'un. That's where the plan came into action... I balled up a little mole hill soil and lobbed it ontop of the fizzing fish, in the hope that it would move them to my spot where my baited rig lay in wait.

Not 5 minutes later a vertiable jacuzzi started just behind my float before it literally buried, a more sail away bite you couldn't imagine. The resulting strike was met with some serious resistance and after a monumental scarp on the centerpin I rolled "the leather" into my waiting net.

A reel feeling of achievement and jubilation coursed through my veins when I hoisted him onto the mat I tell you... it was only 16lbs or so, a bit smaller than I had thought but as I'd specifically wanted to catch that one individual fish it really was a nice feeling.

Unfortunately when I came to get some trophy shots my remote had died... the 10 second timer just about did the job well enough.

I haven't actually been back since this session... though I know there's a beautiful, long and sleek common in there that I wouldn't mind having a crack at soon.