Knotts Lake, Friday 22nd April 2011

An opportunistic afternoon session in pursuit of tench (again). I was pushed for time so couldn’t prepare the liquidised bread but lobbed the hemp and a couple of tins of corn in the car and headed off.

I still haven’t caught a tench on the lift method so float fishing the margins was plan A. I chose a spot with overhanging trees either side and a depth of about ten foot a couple of rod lengths out. I’d forgotten my thermometer but it was a lovely warm day and I’d guess that the water temp was in excess of the 57 degrees F that I‘d measured last time out. The proximity of the float meant that I could throw in the hemp/corn quite accurately so not being able to ball up with the bread wasn’t an issue. Bites were an issue, after three hours my float hadn’t indicated anything. I’m sure it was set up correctly and I knew the feed was in the right place, a couple of line bites suggested fish were there but I’ve seen them cruise the margins before so maybe they were just passing through.

I succumbed to the temptation of ledgering at that point, this decision brought pros and cons. I could fish a swim further out where I was confident of catching something but it might be a carp and I wouldn’t be able to feed as accurately as I wanted to with the catapult. This latter point turned out to be very true, feeding was a scattergun affair and I’m sure that most of Berkshire received a grain of hemp or corn at some point during the afternoon. My confidence in catching was also well founded, even down to the species as a 12lb 8oz common carp posed for pics;

To be honest he was quite lethargic to begin with, bringing him to within landing net range was without drama and even when he saw the net the revitalised struggle was solid and persistent rather than brutal. Care was still needed though, he just would not come to the surface and ten minutes passed before Harrison could chalk up a PB double, shame it wasn’t a perch.

That was my only bite of the session, I loaded the car late afternoon and took a walk around the adjacent specimen lake. This was an eye opener, more bivvies than you could shake a stick at and enough beer to keep most of next week’s street parties going. I stopped to chat with a double bivvy encampment of a family complete with wives, toddler, beer and BBQs. I’d seen them arrive earlier and noted that the toddler was on water carrying duty, a tall order when the water in question was in a 5 litre container. She’d probably volunteered not realising the enormity of the task and to her credit almost made it to the swim but mum had to help out for the last stretch, the boys advance party was putting up the bivvies and sorting out the rods.

Their plan was to eat, drink, be merry for the evening and enjoy the good weather, perhaps not my ideal angling session but it was a family event and that’s a good thing. I hope they caught fish too.