Here’s a write-up from Shane & Jamie after an extremely successful session at Watersmeet, a 2 acre lake with accommodation…
Excitement had mounted as we approached Watersmeet for an early season taster of what this lake can offer. On arrival we unpacked the van and had a good look around the lake to try and locate the fish. Scanning the calm waters everything looked to be in good shape and we soon saw carp showing. After an hour or so of deliberation, we decided to set up in pegs 2 and 3. I had decided on peg 3 as fish were showing on far margins and having fished Watersmeet before I know many carp have come out from far margins throughout the night so this seemed a good place to start.
Jamie had opted for peg 2 which gave him free reign to fish the middle of the far margins and also cast up towards the shallower water during the day while keeping bank noise to a minimum in the shallows.
The Lake
We didn’t feel the need to get marker rods out as we have previously spent time checking the depths and bottom of the lake and had a good idea what we were fishing over, we both decided to pick 4 spots each to Fish. With each of us fishing 4 areas using just 3 rods it gave us an extra baited area so we could alternate rods, giving each area a rest and a few freebies for the carp to safely eat. This is a tactic we have found works well.
I was fishing 1 rod on the pampas bushes, one between the two bushes on the far margin and 1 rod 6ft off the boulders whilst Jamie was fishing one rod near the willow tree and 2 rods to the far margin under the Oak trees. Our chosen rigs were various so we were using the chod rig and 360 rig for under overhanging branches and Jamie opted for his simple ‘knot less knot’ rig fished with a 15 mm wafter. The fish are not too rig shy at Watersmeet so we didn’t feel the need to be too technical.
The bottom end of the lake, furthest away from the house.
The bait
Our baiting approach was fairly simple 5 or 6 baits and a few chops with a handful of pellet on each rod after every fish and one heavier baiting over each rod early afternoon, maybe 30-40 baits and a few scoops of pellet, which isn’t a massive amount of bait considering the size of the fish but we wanted to keep the carp hungry and searching rather than giving them one big dinner plate to gorge on.
Our preferred bait was mainline cell boilies as they have always been a proven fish catcher at Watersmeet. We knew this from experience, netting 1400lbs worth of fish in a week back in 2009 (had to slip that one in!). For so early in the season the weather was on our side for most of the week with average daytime temp roughly 12-15 degrees reaching 17 degrees for a couple of the days, whilst night time temperatures were dropping down to between 7-10 degrees so not too bad for this time of year.
The alarms sound!
The fishing got off to a very quick start and a lovely mint 27lb mirror was on the bank within 30 minutes or so taken from the pampas bushes spot and the first 30lber caused the alarms to sound again before nightfall.
Shane with a cracking mirror
30lb 4oz
We already knew the lake was not going to disappoint us and our confidence was high. The carp continued to feed at regular times throughout the week with Jamie’s reels screaming off his shallow water rod regularly throughout each day and me picking fish off early morning and again in the evenings from the deeper margins. Some fish were caught in the night, these were mostly from peg 2 with Jamie’s busiest night totalling 6 carp landed between 11pm and 5am and so very little sleep! Every lost wink worthwhile.
One of Jamie’s catches
34lb 7oz
35lb 6oz
Multiple catches are common when the carp are on the bait having up to 12 fish in 24 hours. But we were really chuffed with as between us we managed to bank 57 Carp in 7 days with Jamie landing 35 fish 1x30lb mirror 2x34lb mirrors,1x35lb and 1x36lb and loads of high 20s and a few back up 17-20lb.
I managed 22 fish including one of the big mirrors at 43lb,a real lump, 2 x 34lb(common & mirror), 1x30lb common and again a lot of fish around the mid to high 20s and a bonus 19lb koi (one of the best fights all week) totalling up to 1505lb between us which easily beat our previous record (which we hadn’t thought possible). Overall we had another amazing week at Watersmeet and landed some fantastic looking carp.
So if you want a bend in your rod get yourself to Watersmeet and I hope others fishing the venue find this information helpful.
For more information on Watersmeet follow the link – Fishing Holiday
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