Date: 22nd Jan 2019
Weather: Mild, 6c, wind 13
Lake: 7
You could say that fishing in January is challenging but any opportunity getting out onto the lake to practice casting with new rods, plus practicing general water craft is good effort in my opinion even before a potential catch. Over the festive period I treated myself to a full set of new carp rods and spent hours in the garage setting up with new line spooling three reels in anticipation of my next trip.
On the 22nd I headed down to Seven Lakes for a few hours to test out some casting with the new rods and put my old favourite ‘the method’ into action for a potential cold weather carp. After arriving and rigging up with a very lightweight set up, my first hour was spent practicing casting from the peg close to the pipe. After a while I was clipped up and hitting the margins on the far bank comfortably.
I decided that due to the weather and a bit of sunlight hitting the far end of the lake (it was 2pm in the afternoon by this point) I switched to fish the warmer end of the lake. After an hour and a half with two rods either side of me in the margins and my third over in the opposite bank, my near left rod started screaming off! It felt decent and put up a good fight and after 5 minutes of a slow but comfortable and drawn out fight (wanted to bank the fish gently) he was in the net. A lovely 7lb common in perfect condition.
I was happy enough by this point and with some urgent news from home I soon packed up and headed off having achieved my goal on a beautiful lake, in quiet and peaceful surroundings. I did see a couple of dog walkers but nobody bothered me.
J Sykes
