Well I did manage to grace the bank for a few hours today, I arrived in the Island car park at mid day.
I got a bucket of mixers out of the van and set off in hot pursuit of my prey, I decided to have a quick look in the "Fridge" on Heron lake as it's right next to "Island" and is the first swim you come to between the two lakes.
I was greeted by quite a few fish, the majority of which looked well over 20 lb, I fired out a few mixers and watched as one was slurped down straight away, perfect!
I fired out a few more handfuls then popped round "Island" to get an update on the latest captures from "Brownie" and to see if there was anything worth putting a bait to on "Island".
After a quick chat it was quite clear that there wasn't much occurring on "Island" other than Gav's capture of the stunning "Plastic Linear" at 28 lb+ well done Flex!
I trotted back round to the van and got the kit before make the very short journey back to the "Fridge", I sat on a log and continued to flick baits out but they didn't seem anywhere near as interested as they did when I first arrived.
I continued to flick out a few mixers at a time for over two hours, the fish were still there but only ever taking the odd mixer, "not having it" you might say.
After another 20 minutes or so they seemed to get a bit more confident, I would have preferred to wait a bit longer but was worried the right time might pass, so I gently cast out beyond them before slowly drawing the bait back to the hot area.
Just as I did this, the wind turned and the swim looked dead, completely devoid of fish and then to top it all off the flying rats got scent of the mixers and swarmed over the area, I reeled in and spat my dummy out.
I decided to have a quick look at Island, and spent about an hour in a secluded corner of the lake trying to get them going but they just didn't seem interested, I threw in the towel and went back to the fridge with my tail firmly between my legs.
On my return to the fridge, it looked completely different to when I left, the flying rats had left and the fish had returned.
I started flicking mixers out again, just one or two at a time for about an hour, they seemed to be getting more confident by every pouchful, I could see a fish was taking very confidently down the right hand margin so I gently cast a bait onto it.
A minute or so later a pair of lips came up and engulfed the bait before causing an eruption as I lifted into it, after a short scrap in the heavily weeded corner of the lake she was soon in the net, I couldn't believe how easy it came in, I expected the weed to cause me much more trouble than it did.
I guessed she was about a low double but in reality the weight was immaterial to me, I had a quick picture before returning her to the crystal clear water of Heron Lake, I then left for home a happy man.
I spent all afternoon down the lake, but actually only fished for about 30 minutes, I've always known it's best to get them feeding confidently before putting a bait out, but have always struggled to sit on my hands for the right moment.
But since I realised the error of my ways, I've managed two fish on the bounce.......things are certainly coming together now.
Be Lucky,
Smithy