Well I was hoping to be sitting down to write this piece whilst floating on cloud 9 but in truth nothing could be further from the truth.
Since my last piece I managed a couple of quick overnighters on “Raptor” but left each time with nothing to show for my efforts, it was as if having a weekend away from the water after having a take on each consecutive session previously had given me a mental block of some description.
After a text out of the blue from my old friend “Dumpy” we arranged to have a long overdue social on Sandmartin Lake on the Bluebell Lakes Complex, it had been over two years since we had last had a brew together so I was looking forward to a good catch up and talking about old times and sessions in years gone by.
As planned we met at the lodge the following Saturday, my brother in law “Martin” also joined us for the night so after a quick natter in the car park we purchased our tickets and made our way around the lake with buckets firmly in our hands.
The lake was very quiet with only one other angler on the water so we had plenty of water to choose from, I quite fancied the swims opposite the road bank on the end of the wind but “Dumpy” suggested the road bank – after a bit of banter I managed to persuade him that the end of the wind was the better option and with that we went and fetched the vans and parked them up in the car park at the end of the bank.
It didn’t take long to get the barrows loaded up to get the kit to the swims and before we knew it we were all standing in my swim having a giggle and a smoke before we got our serious heads on and got the rods rigged up.
I kept things nice and simple, the left hand rod was fished helicopter style with a 9 inch hydrolink hook length and one of my homemade Live System Pellet shaped hook baits on the hair – this was cast out 15 yards just past the tree line and was followed up with 30 ten millers catapulted over the top.
The right hand rod was fished with my normal lead clip arrangement and a short braided hook link, the hook bait was a 10mm Live System snowman presentation with a small PVA bag of 10 miller nicked onto the hook – this was then cast 40 yards out and landed (Eventually) with a firm donk.
Being only on a social overnighter I didn’t bother leading around with limited time, the lake was very quiet and the last thing I wanted to do was push the fish towards the opposite bank instead opting to just feel for a drop but it later transpired that I was fishing in 16 feet of water!
With the rods out we spent most of the afternoon sat in my swim chain drinking coffee, with laughter echoing out from under the canopy I think we succeeded in pushing any fish that were in the vicinity to the other side of the lake – well that’s what I keep telling myself but in hindsight I reckon “Dumpy” had his location spot on although I would never admit it!
By early evening my sides were aching so much from all the laughing, most of it admittedly was at my expense but still it was great to see old friends again, however I soon had the last word after watching “Dumpy” trying to light the BBQ for two hours, at first it was funny but I could see it was getting to him so after having a bit of input of chucking some petrol on it I left him to it and went and made some pesto pasta determined not to go to bed hungry!
After I had finally filled my stomach “Martin” walked into my swim just as the light faded with a pack of caramel digestives in his hand, being the big brother of his future wife he certainly knows how to win me over!
We sat up well into dark watching the water, my earlier thoughts of “Dumpy” being right with his location was confirmed as we saw several good fish come clear out of the water in the moonlight towards the far margin – if I wasn’t spooled up with fluorocarbon I may have stood a chance of getting near them but as I was it just wasn’t worth even attempting it, I was on a social and exhausted from giggling all day so a move at midnight just wasn’t going to happen either!
Eventually at some time during the early hours “Martin” vacated my swim so I succumbed to my tiredness and climbed in the bag, my head had barely touched the pillow before I fell into a deep sleep unfortunately sleeping uninterrupted until the first rays of light broke over the horizon.
I rubbed the sleep glue from my eyes and gazed down at the hangers which were exactly where I had left them, it was quite a chilly morning with a nip in the air so I stayed in the bag and stretched out to the kettle, fired up the coleman and eagerly awaited the first brew of the day – the kettle seemed to take an age to boil but eventually I soon had a steaming hot mug of the good stuff firmly in my grasp to watch the morning unfold with.
My 6am it felt warm enough for me to climb out of the bag, so I fired up the coleman for the umpteenth time and went to see if “Martin” was awake and fancied a brew, he was already awake sat on the edge of the bedchair and greeted me with a very chirpy “MORNING” – I was fully expecting him to follow that up with “Couldn’t do some photos could you? I’ve got a lump in the edge!” but unfortunately other than a few liners during the night he had nothing to report.
After sharing a couple of brews I went and sat down by my rods for the last hour willing one of them to rattle off but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be and I was soon packing all the gear down, saying my good byes and barrowing back to the van with my tail still firmly between my legs.
With the social done and dusted I was keen to get back down “Raptor” to redeem myself, I knew that it was going to busy the following weekend so decided another Friday afternoon off work so I could get down there lunch time to guarantee me getting a swim, I was getting slightly disheartened having to do this as it just doesn’t seem like fishing to me and it was beginning to ruin the nice thoughts that I had of the place as I had fully expected it to quieten down by now.
I was down there by 1 o’clock on Friday and it was a good job I had made the effort as there was already 5 people on the little 6 acre lake, I grabbed a bucket out of the van and made my way up to the quietest end of the little lake and dropped my bucket in one of the remaining free swims, as I had walked up I recognised a friends oval so with a swim secured I made my way back up the bank for a chat and to see what had been occurring in my absence.
I was greeted with news that my mate had landed one of the A Team that morning and it was looking good for another, I spent the next hour sat on the grass in his swim gazing at pictures of some of the fish he had landed during my absence – he had really done well and I was chuffed to bits for him.
I soon noticed one of the guys up the bank was packing up, I really fancied the area and had seen a fish show there whilst I was chatting so I bid my mate farewell and made my way back to the van to grab the rest of my kit.
I was soon barrowing through the long grass at speed, the angler that was packing up was now stood in my mates swim so I barrowed straight past to the top of the lake and parked up the barrow to claim the spot, then went and fetched by bucket from the swim that I had previously secured.
With everything now in the swim I set up a rod as quick as could with a 3 ft zig and flicked it out to the island to the right of the swim where I had seen the fish show earlier whilst chatting to my friend, before I could even think about getting the other rod sorted I had to have a drink it was roasting, a litre of cranberry juice went down all to easily and didn’t even touch the sides!
Whilst lying in the sun I contemplated what to do with my other rod, in the end I decided to leave it on the quiver for a few hours, keep the swim quiet with just one rod out and see what occurred.
By 5pm several more people had turned up and the lake was fully stitched up, if I was turning up now I would have turned around and gone home – it was at this point that I decided I couldn’t keep taking time off work just to get a swim, I would leave the venue alone for a few months, head back to “Snag” and try to see to unfinished business and hope that the little venue would quieten down, failing that I knew it was very quiet in winter and carried a good winter form too.
With everybody else now casting out and baiting up I thought I would take the opportunity to get the rods sorted for the night, the zig rod was replaced with a 10mm Live System snowman presentation and PVA bag of 10 millers nicked on the hook then flicked back out to the island.
The left hand rod with fished with 2 glugged 10mm Live System bottom baits on the hair and again a small PVA bag nicked onto the hook before being flicked out to a spot where I had enjoyed some success on a previous session which was now unfortunately some time ago – I just hoped that this being my last session for some time it would see me climb the wall that I seemed to have come up against.
Finally the heat from the sun had begun to subside and the temperature was much more comfortable and with the rods out there was nothing more to do than to sit back and enjoy a perfect summers evening.
The evening flew past in the blink of an eye, it was dark before I got round to cooking up some dinner and after that was demolished I went and sat by the rods to see if I could hear anything rolling in the darkness, however the only thing I could hear was the flock of geese that seem to be doubling in numbers everything time I come down to the intimate water.
It was midnight when I eventually climbed into the bag and I drifted off very quickly, the next thing I heard was a few bleeps from the Neville – I sat up and smacked my head on the centre of my oval which didn’t seem to bother me at the time as my adrenaline was pumping but when I realised I was awoken by a liner it began to hurt a little more, but still I was confident so drifted off back to sleep fully expecting to be awoken by the Neville screaming for my attention.
Unfortunately it was the geese that woke me up just before 6am and as I fired up the coleman for my early morning brew I couldn’t help but feel deflated, time was running out and I would soon be saying goodbye to the lake for the next few months at least.
It was about 07:30 when my Neville let out a few bleeps then tightened up, I was on it in a flash – my heart was pounding to the point I thought it was going to burst out my chest, however the feeling lasted only a few seconds when the tell-tale tap tap on the rod tip told me that a bream was the culprit, I unhooked the little critter that was about 8lb or so and returned it safely before sitting on the bedchair with my head in my hands.
After several cups of the good stuff I decided to call it a day, my slow pack up didn’t take long and I was soon barrowing through the long grass towards the van, I stopped off to say good bye to a few friends and wished them well before promising I would be back soon and I certainly wasn’t going to be a stranger then sadly and rather unwillingly left for home upset and disappointed that ”Raptor” wasn’t the place of peace and solitude that I had hoped it would be, but in hindsight with the stock that it has I really couldn’t expect it to be – you can only keep things quiet for so long no matter how hard you try to keep things quiet, word always gets out.
Until next time,
Smithy