Angling-Adventures.co.uk

Well the big day dawned bright and sunny and today was the day I was going fishing! Hurrah! Escape for three whole days, no give me, get me, fetch me, do this, do that, do the next thing, freedom………..

We were going to fish Cottington Lakes Cottington Lakes in Kent and had booked ourselves onto Lake Christine one of the oldest lakes on the complex and allegedly home to some big fish!

 My fishing companions were to be Rickster, Wez and Paul. I have fished with Rick and Wez before but not with Paul, although I did make an attempt that ended in Tesco’s car park in Folkestone with my front brakes seized on and had to be rather ignominiously recovered to Ramsgate on the back of an AA lorry.

As Paul is an Essex boy and we are from Kent there is always going to be an underlying friendly rivalry between us but more of that later.

We had arranged to meet up at the fishery café and stuff ourselves full of cholesterol before we set up our gear and started fishing in earnest, at this point I should point out that Rick and Wez can eat like horses and still remain rake thin but Paul and I only have to look at a fried egg and the pounds pile on, but who cares I’ll go on me diet tomorra!

We had been told that the killer bait was a special one to Cottington rolled by Premier Baits for them called The Teaza. I also had supplies of a Premier bait called Matrix which does the business on many lakes both here and abroad and some Camos and Matrix Super Indian. Also in my bait armoury was some CC Moores Odyssey XXX.

Although we had the lake to ourselves it was difficult to choose swims as they all looked so inviting we eventually settled on who was going to fish where and set up our bivvies and rods and cast out, and then sat and waited for the fish to start biting. And we sat and we waited and we waited and sat then sat and waited some more. Nuffin! On reflection a strong easterly breeze, bright sunshine and hot temperatures are probably not the best fishing weather but this was what we had and we had to make the best of it. Wez started wondering out loud if there were any Tench in the lake. Later that afternoon his alarm started and he wound in a very fine looking Tench !! question answered. Eventually he got bored and set up a float rod and started messing about in the margins and bagged himself quite a few nice Roach, at least he was catching something. At about this time there was some excited cries from the other bank where Rick and Paul were fishing, it seemed that Rick had hooked into a fish that was big enough to put a decent bend in his rod, Wez and I watched and waited with baited breath to see how big it was, not quite sure but it was a big double anyway, straight away we had to know what bait, what method, etc, etc so we could copy him and land a bigger fish! All to no avail I am sad to say as our swims continued to be lifeless. We could see some large fish cruising around and crashing out of the water but they just didn’t seem to be interested in feeding but full of optimism as anglers are we convinced ourselves that tonight would be different and we would up and down all night catching.

 At about this time great commotion and much activity on the other bank as  Rick had hooked into yet another fish, Wez and I stood watching as the battle ensued for about ten minutes until Pauls presence on the trip became obvious, he was to be Ricks ghillie, when the two of them finally managed to get this unfortunate creature out of the water and into a weigh sling it became obvious from the screams of delight and the boyish grin on Ricks face that this was in fact a halfway decent fish. It went 25lbd 8oz.

There was apparently some discussion between Paul, a Matchman and Rick about its weight before weighing it and it seems that Paul had rather underestimated it.   

Early evening arrived and there came a call from the other side of the lake from Paul in a way that only Essex boys can that grub was up. We reeled in and took our eating irons round to where our dinner was being prepared, what a veritable feast awaited our arrival, Rick had prepared a HUGE chicken stir fry, enough to feed four hungry anglers and some left over. As we sat down and started to tuck in the anglers Sods Law came into play, one of Ricks rods screamed off at a rate of knots, various meals disappeared in different directions as we leapt up to watch the action and savour the moment as we witnessed someone actually catch a fish. Another fine fish, various estimates were made as to its weight, Paul estimated 15 ½, I reckoned 15 and the angler concerned thought it was about, well I wont embarrass him here……………………………………..anyway it turned out to be 14lbd.8oz.

Allegedly at this point I let loose a string of profanities in Ricks direction, well dear reader I must tell you that I am known for my patience, tolerance and general polite demeanour and would never call anyone a spawny, unwashed, baldy headed, long streak of a jammy git angler, or wish the fleas of a thousand camels to infest his groin, no matter how many more fish than me he was catching.

That was about it for day one so we drifted back to our bivvies and eventually got our heads down for the night. No fish were caught during the night but we were kept awake by the constant crashing of fish in the lake.

Being just after the longest day meant that the bluddy dawn chorus started about 4 am so about 10 past I got up and made a cup of tea, wound in freshened my bait and recast both rods, crawled back into my bivvie and tried to go back to sleep.

A couple of hours later a few beeps woke me up with a start looking at the light the receiver I could see that it was on my right hand rod so I got up and stood over the rod poised to strike, ten minutes later having stood like a statue cramp was starting to set in and I concluded that there was nothing there so I reeled in again to rebait when the tip of the rod started to bounce like a small fish was attached. Much to my amazement when I got the lead near to me I saw colour and movement under the water and up came an eel. Not a bootlace but a proper eel weight about 1-1 ½ lbds.

Just then calls from the other side of the lake indicated that breakfast was about to be served so reeling in my other rod Wez and I set off for the far side. I mentioned earlier about Pauls function as Ricks net boy but he also had a secondary one and that was as breakfast chef. On arriving at the eating area we were greeted with the most enormous wok full of fried goodies, a veritable cholesterol feast! Paul had excelled himself and we all sat down to two sausages, three bacon, mushrooms, baked beans and two home laid eggs plus bread and butter, absolute heaven!!!

Fully stuffed we eventually waddled our way back to our fishing spots to catch some fish.

On getting back there was a tremendous commotion going on in my swim with a duck going bonkers in the reeds. Like a bluddy numpty novice I had left a boilie on a hair hanging from the rod tip and the inevitable had happened and the duck had taken a liking to it. A quick grab and some timely assistance from Wez and the duck was released none the worse for wear. So I rebaited and cast out again. One rod with The Teaza on went out towards the island and one with a Super Indian Hi Viz pop up on it tight to the margin about 20feet to my left.  After about a couple of hours the left hand rod started twitching and bleeping, quick as a flash I was up and grabbed it, Yay,,,,fish on!! I started to wind in thinking that it was only about 8-10lbds judging by the lack of resistance, no matter it was a fish!  Suddenly the stupid creature realised it was hooked and off it went at a rate of knots putting a real bend in the rod  and pulling left then right. “ Oh goody “ I thought a real fish! After about six or seven minutes I managed to get it to the bank and Wez did the honours with the net. Out of the water, on to the landing mat and out with the scales.

This must have been a real feisty fish as it wouldn’t stay still in the weigh sling either but we finally settled on 24lbds exactly. A quick photo and back in the water, this turned out to be a bit more difficult than you would think, 24 lbds of angry mirror carp that doesn’t want its picture taken versus a determined angler is a sight to behold, eventually we managed to get one and the fish went back.

Time for a cuppa , rebait and wait for the next one! 

Well it wasn’t to long before the same rod went round nearly double on the rest but strangely the buzzer didn’t go, anyway I leapt up like a man possessed and grabbed the rod and started to reel in, this fish wasn’t daft! As I was fishing tight to the margin reeds you get one guess where it bolted to, yup, straight into them, despite tugging and pulling it wasn’t coming out, so I gave it plenty of slack and say down to wait, I even put the kettle on again. Eventually the inevitable happened and he swam out of the reeds into open water and he was mine! Another nice Tench.

That was it as far as the fishing action went on our side of the lake although Rick did have another fish and Paul had one during the night. The remaining highlights of the trip were Ricks Chilli Con Carne that evening and another of Pauls humongous cholesterol jobbies the next morning.

We had to be off the lake by 10 o’clock  so we started packing up quite early, as I mentioned before clear blue skies and blazing hot sunshine are not the best fishing conditions but yet again Sods Fishing Law came into play, just as we had everything packed down bivvies and brollies closed the heavens opened and all my gear got soaked, fortunately I only live about half an hours drive home and sure enough as soon as I got out the car the sun came out again, this let me set my gear up in the garden to dry out nicely, what’s more it hasn’t rained since and has got hotter by the hour and it is apparently the best summer for three years!