January - A very slow start

I know it's the middle of winter, and that's it's meant to be hard this time of year but you'd still expect a nibble off of a bream now and again wouldn't you?!

For me it's been a couple of shortish day sessions and not even a sniff from a snotty! When I've been on the Park Lake there have always been a couple of match guys down there who have had a few little roach and skimmers, but they've been using size 20 hooks so if they weren't getting anything then it'd definitely be a sign to go home!

My first session I decided to go with my baiting approach of getting quite a bit of food in the swim as there should expect plenty of fish around that'd be interested and would have a go at it - not so, even the rod with the single grain of corn on failed to register a bleep! However I did manage to have a good play around with my camera and put together a video to try and capture the essence of fishing, if you haven't seen it yet then check it out here.

Between the two sessions I did try and get down to trickle bait in on a regular basis but managed to time it with the coldest week in January - the lake was frozen for a couple of days with a couple of patches free from ice where the ducks moving around had kept it from freezing over.

As the lake had only just defrosted by the time I managed to get down for my second session I was a little skeptical about my chances, but felt that as long as I kept moving around the lake and putting a bait on the prebaited spots I should pick up a bite at some point. You might be able to guess the outcome, but I spent the first half of the day moving round a couple of different spots on the lake trying avoid the match guys who were plotted up on a number of the pegs, with absolutely no luck! The thing that managed to rub it in even more was the two lads who turned up just after lunch and proceeded to catch what looked like a nice mid-double within 5 minutes of arriving!!!

But it's all just added fuel to the fire, make me work harder next time and remember to concentrate on what I'm doing rather than worry about the others fishing the lake and what they are up to!

One Life - Live It, Love It 

The Park Lake - Intro

The Park Lake is just that - a free fishing lake in the middle.of a public park near to where I work. It's not more than an acre in size, and is predominantly a match fishing lake and somewhere people are likely to start out fishing and catch their first ever fish.

I'm going to be fishing here as one of a few venues this year for a number of reasons:

• it's quite close to work so allows baiting up before and after work, and in the summer shorter sessions whilst there is still some light.
• the water is pretty shallow so should fish a bit better during the colder months
• this is quite a highly stocked venue, so should be able to nick a bite most times

Whilst the fish won't be anything to break any world records with, it's always nice to have somewhere that you have a good chance to catch one or two in a session, and there may always be a surprise lurking around that will be a real bonus! From what I've heard most the fish only go to around mid doubles, but a few fish get caught each year between 20 and 30lb.

I have seen a couple of others that look like they are also targeting the carp, but as I said most people are either fishing with a pole, waggler or light feeder rod so I'm in the minority.

The tactics for this place (It's always dangerous to have a plan, but even more so to not have one!) is to keep a decent amount of bait going in on a regular basis - as I have to keep the costs of bait down like most others it'll be made up of various seed particles and pellets, with a few flavours added in. I fished a similar style venue when I was at university so I'm hoping that these will work just as well as they did then!

I'll keep you all posted!

If you missed the video that I posted from this venue a couple of weeks ago - check it out via this link!

Sometimes it's just nice to be out - Carp Fishing

One Life - Live It, Love It