The Wiltshire Sessions

by Jonny Bravo

 

It was late summer last year when a friend of mine first told me in hushed tones about a little water in the Wiltshire area that was home to some real special fish, it was quite small, depths of around 4ft with a stock of around 35 fish, 4 of these would regularly go over the thirty pound mark, with the biggest resident being a mid thirty. It sounded Perfect!!
With winter fast approaching, and the lake in question not being too far away, I thought it would be ideal for the winter days, with a few nice fish to target also.
The very next day we set off early in search of the lake and after a couple of hours of taking wrong turns and sat in traffic we managed to find its whereabouts. On first seeing the water I must admit I was a bit sceptical about the true stock of it, as its not uncommon for people to throw the odd blind here and there, and fishing blind, I wasn’t really prepared to do..
On that first trip we were to meet the lakes friendly owner, and after a little chat he was happy enough to flash us a few pics of some of the lakes better residents. I’ll never forget it when he showed me the big un’, a solid looking linear with big plated scales. A real stunner in every sense of the word!! Me and Steve were like kids going through the photo album, most of the fish were like pea’s in a pod, all solid looking with big plated scales, I’m not too sure what was going through Steve’s mind at the time but I was already planning my first trip..
What I will add is the lake is a day only venue, with a few bans in place, barbless hooks, only 1lb of bait, no boilies, no nuts etc, there was no way round these rules as the water is well bailiffed, and with the fish that were to be had, it just wasn’t worth risking getting a ban. Not at first anyways…hehe!! 

My first trip was around late October and it couldn’t had gone much better after I was lucky enough to bag a real nice 28.10 mirror from the edge, which I caught over a big spread of maggots.

We fished it at least once a week for the whole of  November and December, and amongst ourselves we managed most of the lakes better fish, and at this point I’ll admit, we were getting a little despondent.. None of us had managed a fish over 30lb’s, I’ll add that neither had any of the other lads having ago at the time, so after a quick chat with mike one day whilst on his rounds, I asked if he could pop back with the photo album , and show me which of the fish were 30lbers again…
Whilst flicking through, mike was going “that ones around 31,this ones 32“ etc, to which point, my heart sank a little as these fish were the ones we’d already caught, which were not quite the weights he was hoping them to be…
It was at this point that we chose to cut our losses and leave the lake for the following winter…Ok none of us had caught the big un’ but between us we’d lost a fair few due to hook pulls, whilst using tiny hooks and light hooklinks, which we found was by far the best way to outwit these very cautious feeders…Perhaps one of the losses was the big fish, who knows, so with that in mind we decided to leave the lake for another year, with the hope of returning nice and early next winter!

Returning this year, I d heard that the lake was suffering from a massive plague of tiny fish, carp that were around the 1lb mark which had successfully grown on from last year, and the years previous successful spawning. Some anglers were catching 10-15 a day, and with the rules and regulations, and baits you could use, there really wasn’t anyway of getting around it. And the last thing you wanted to be doing on such a shallow lake, with such spooky fish was repeatedly casting..
I already had a plan hatched in my mind, and decided that I didn’t want to be suffering the small fish and thought it would be best to bite the bullet, so to speak…There was a few lads field-testing a bait on the water, a boiled bait I might add, so what’s good for them, well was certainly good enough for me…Plus, I really wanted to be on a level par with the rest of the anglers having ago…
I made sure to knock all my hook baits up in small 12mm pellet shapes( just in case) and bait with 14mm essential cream CSM boilies (also pellet shaped I might add)…I had a good idea as to where I thought the big fish was likely to come from, based on last winters results and findings…and with the wet and mild weather we were supposedly receiving over the next few weeks, I thought I’d put all my eggs in one basket and bait an area that I knew they would frequent when the weather got wet and windy..
First trip back, It couldn’t had been worse!! It was clear sky’s, bright and sunny with a high pressure, the fish just didn’t come no where near the area I was fishing and admittedly, it was a bit naïve of me not to move that day, as both me and mark had a hunch where the fish were likely to be holding, and after climbing a couple of tree’s once the sun was high enough in the sky, sure enough, they were about as far away from me as they possibly could had been..
That afternoon, mark was lucky enough to bag himself a real nice 25.12 mirror which was a dead ringer for the lakes big un’ ,after the photo’s were done, we sat and drank all of marks tea supplies and talked excitedly about last winters findings and what weights we thought each fish would be this coming winter..
On packing up that day, I spread the rest of my bait, over the three spots with the hope of getting back as soon as possible…
5 days (and another bait up) after we were back, with the conditions being so much better this time, gentle westerly winds, lower air pressure and lots of cloud cover.. I had a nice 23.15 mirror on my left hand rod with-in an hour of chucking out ,this was followed up by a nice chunky 27.04 mirror around mid day.
Things were coming together nicely,.. Upon packing up I made sure to spread the remainder of the bait around the three area’s again…

The forecast for the coming week was just perfect , and I planned to get back ASAP! I told mike to expect me back in 3 days with a view to fishing 4 days on the bounce, as I was sure this was the week the big fish could grace the bank.

Wednesday evening I popped down for a quick bait up, just about a pound of bait over each spot..
As I knelt at the waters edge, the light slowly fading, it just looked perfect,.. I didn’t see no rolling or anything, but it just felt right, the weather was moody, with plenty of cloud in the sky, and with the south westerly winds forecast to remain until at least mid day the next day, I knew they’d get on the bait that night…

As I pulled up in the near by lay-by, it was still only 5.20am, the rain was absolutely pouring down, so I baited all three rods whilst sat in the warmth of the car, I wanted as less disturbance with torches etc as possible once at the waters edge…
I carefully flicked all three baits which were clipped up from the previous trip, into position, and scattered just 20 baits over each rod, just in case there was any bait left out there from the previous night.
It all started out as a bit of a nightmare, as much as I wanted everything to go perfectly, id managed to forget my torch, my buzzers and bank sticks!! It was still about an hour before it got light so I laid all three rods on the deck, slackened off the lines and knelt between the rods to listen for any fish rolling out in the darkness…Only 15 minutes later the clutch on my right hand rod was whizzing away…What ever I was attached to, ripped yard after yard of line from the clutch as it made its way across to the far margin, where it just slowly plodded up and down,.. I must of played it for around 10minutes or so, though as soon as I started to get the fish to see things my way, and eventually started to gain some line back on the spool, the hook pulled….
I sank back to my knees, and punched the floor, as knew id just lost a good fish, perhaps even the big un….The whole fight was just so slow and heavy, I was running the whole fight back through my mind, as you do and couldn’t stop thinking about what id just lost, when my middle rod was away…Two bites in the matter of minutes, …They were having it big time!!, After a spirited fight and me praying the whole time, that the hook would hold, a nice chunky mirror slipped over the net cord, and at 26.08 ‘almost’ made me feel a bit better about the earlier loss…I slipped him into a sack, for photo purpose’s, plus dad wasn’t too far away, as he was popping down with my buzzers, bless him…

It was slowly becoming light, though with all the dark clouds it was still fairly dark, I sat back drinking my first brew of the day, under the confines of my brolly, as the relentless rain was still pouring, when my left hand rod’s, reel clutch gave out three short bursts…I was on it in a flash, knocking my tea, kettle and Coleman stove over in the process …
As I lifted into it, the fish boiled on the surface then slowly started to make its way up the centre of the lake. I let it take as much line as it wished to do so, in fear of a repeat performance of what happened after the first take…As it got around 40yards from me, I carefully applied as much side pressure as id dare to turn the fish back on itself, ..and luckily, just as it was about to reach the nearside snaggy margin, it turned and slowly headed back to the exact spot I had hooked it from, it then came up in the water and just held firm, at this point It was still half light, though I could see from the amount of water it was moving that this was a big fish, …..In my mind I just knew what it was.…
I slowly walked back as far as I dared, the whole time the fish was just wallowing on the surface slowly coming towards me,…. Once it was close enough to the bank I quickly wound down, walked back to the waters edge and sunk the net. Once it was close enough for netting I waited holding my breathe until its head was right on the spreader block before lifting the mesh up around it,… there was a big explosion of water, as it made one last bid for freedom, though it was safely in the bag…I put my hand into the net to un hook it and at the same time rolled the fish onto its side, revealing the double scale along its right flank confirming that this was in fact the kraken!!!…I breathed a sigh of relief and punched the air…I was well happy…

I sat there in the pouring rain, holding onto the net, waiting for my old’ man to turn up so we could sort everything out, after all, the 26 was already in the sack, and it would had just been to much messing about to turf one out, and put another in…Plus I wanted to be able to take the best possible care of them both whilst on the bank…
I rang two of my mates plus the old man to tell 'em the news, and they were all just as happy as I was myself, (well almost as happy)!!!…The old fella turned up not long after, and a weight of 36.02 was confirmed.
To be honest, the weight was irrelevant I was just made up to of caught such a stunning fish…
She behaved perfectly for the camera, although I struggled to keep the smile off of my face throughout!!!…

It was one of those few times when it all just comes right, and to think, It started out as a bit of a mare’ losing the other fish, and forgetting my torch and buzzers….Though I will add that was all quickly forgotten about…

I moved a little way up the bank around mid day, and managed two more fish, one a double and another at 25.12..A nicer leaving present I couldn’t think of…
Before my winter campaign had properly got underway, it was all over…Though I for one am not complaining!! It now frees me up to have a closer look at another water I’ve known about for awhile where a nice mid thirty common happens to live…Fingers crossed things will go half as well as they did on the Wiltshire water!!!

Be lucky!!!
Jonny Bravo