Carp Fishing, Roman Lake, Furnace Lakes Fishery, Slinfold

The one that got away

Roman Lake, Furnace Lakes Fishery, Slinfold, West Sussex. RH13 0QZ

Furnace Lake Fishery

Having spent the winter Pike and sea fishing, It was just about warm enough to do a nights carp fishing at my absolute favourite fishery, Furnace lakes. Apart from being a well managed and beautiful venue and in my opinion each lake has just the right amount of swims on to make it not seem to crowded. It also boasts some of the cleanest toilet facility's that I know in any establishment, not so much a concern for us men, but something that the girls really appreciate. You get a little ride from the car park to your swim with your tackle on a quad bike and trailer, and the place just stinks of big fish. On a quite summer night with no wind you can hear the fish crashing about all over the complex, it resembles someone throwing paving slabs into the water, and adding to the excitement of this magical place, your next bite could easily be a new personal best fish. Of which I have to admit that although I've caught 20 odd carp in the high teens, I actually haven't had a 20lb+ carp.

Here fishy fish!

Me and Sarah arrived early afternoon for a 24 hour session, after a frantic mornings shopping for tackle, bait and food, and a big spring clean of the tackle as it was the first time it had seen the light of day for at least 5 months. The plan was to fish for carp, three 12" Fox Ranger XTS 3lb test rods, two Shimano Baitrunner ST6000RA reels loaded with 15lb Fox Soft Steel mono, and an very old unbranded  baitrunner reel with about 18lb mono line, that I was reluctantly forced to use as I had forgotten about breaking one of my Shimanos and just hadn't got round to replacing it.

Long hair, chopped lob worm, Yum!

At the lodge we decided to fish Roman lake rather than the usual Kiln lake, for no reason other than a change. I never quite know how to fish with three rods, but I figured for a short 24 hour session, it would be best to cover as many options as possible. So I opted to fish one rod close in against the reeds in the margin, single popped up corn bait over a bed of sweetcorn, hemp and spod mix, very easy to accurately cast and feed during the night without big splashes, just a initial dump of bait on arrival and a little handful thrown from the bank over the reeds every hour. The second rod, in the middle of the lake in open water, with halibut pellet bait fished over a heavily halibut flavoured large ground baited area with lots of loose pellets the same size as the bait. The third rod was to be Worm bait, fished tight to the far bank under a over hanging tree against a lily pad, with no feed. I had been watching the lily pads moving whilst setting up, and thought that disturbing the fish with loose bait wouldn't be of benefit, and I'm absolutely certain that no fish can pass up the opportunity of eating a big, fat, wriggling, juicy lob worm, well that's what I tell myself. It's a tactic that has winkled out more carp for me than any other bait.

Caught all by herself, why am I here?

I have to admit, apart from one missed run halfway through the night on the pellet rod, it was dead. Not a bleep, no fish crashing, and unusually not a sound from any bite alarm on any lake. At around midnight after our bbq, I recast all three rods with fresh bait and extra feed, and tucked myself into the sleeping bag with Sarah and had the best nights undisturbed sleep whilst carp fishing I can ever remember. Night turned to day and still nothing! Sarah was Fishing the far bank rod, and we decided that maybe a change of bait was needed, she wanted to try a 20mm cube of luncheon meat, which at least was getting action, the small fish loved it, nibbling away at the edges, until it became a small marble sized ball, it was kind of annoying listening to all the little beeps on the alarm, but at least it kept us on our toes. I changed the margin rod to Red Robin 10mm pellets, and the middle rod to 12mm Monster Crab boilies, but no runs, although Sarah managed to hook and land a small bream all by herself, on the luncheon meat rod whilst I was in the toilet.

Homemade balanced pop up rig

Then an hour before leaving time, the annoying bleeping luncheon meat rod alarm continuously bleeped, and the bobbin gently rose until it reached the rod, the baitrunner kicked in, and slowly gave about 2 meters of line before I struck. I was in! It felt big, but it didn't scream off, instead the fish felt like it was just slowly swimming around without a care in the world, I had my suspicion that this was a catfish rather than a carp, or it was a big carp that really didn't know it was hooked yet? As the fish swam along the far bank, there was nothing I could do to stop it, stripping line slowly off the reel. It was then I realised why I had replaced this old reel, It was shit! The clutch kind of snapped violently releasing about a meter on line each time before stopping sharply, making the rod bounce! Not good with a small barbless hooks, and if that wasn't enough, I had made the cardinal sin of not taking the line out of the reel clip, which luckily snapped clean off the reel when it needed to. The fight continued, I was starting to ache, my back especially this forced me to find comfort kneeling on the ground, but my arms were shaking, I couldn't hide it, the whole rod was shaking. I gained 10 meters of line, he took it back, and vice versa, it was a very amicable tic for tack battle, during which I learnt to control the reel clutch by winding it down very light and use my hand to control the clutch, and was now able to use the minimum amount of pressure to pull back with out bulling the fish. This worked for about 30 minutes until I had the fish very close in, and he knew it! but I'd been expecting this! he run! and run he did! across to the island past my swim past my neighbours swim, hitting all his lines with a chorus a bite alarms, and then continued to the adjacent corner of the lake before stopping. I was back to the start but with a lot more line to recover! and this fish hadn't even surfaced yet! but now I knew he was big, very big, bigger than anything I had ever played before. I returned to the tic for tack fight tactics, I think the run knackered the fish, I was gaining line a lot more easier now and at about 30m out he finally surfaced. It was a big catfish! "F**k me!!! ohhh shit!" was Sarah's very out of character response to the gigantic fish! It was only the tail that showed and I still wasn't really aware of how big this fish might be.




It took another 10 minutes to get the fish ready for landing, Sarah had stopped filming and had swapped our 42" landing net for a larger 50" net which our neighbours kindly bought us, and then the fish's head came out the water, a big 12" wide mouth appearing to smile at me, I was now standing about 5 meters away from the edge of the bank so if he decided to run I would have enough line to stretch with it. Sarah attempted to land the fish, but was stopped moments from doing so, "Don't use the net! Its too big, I'll grab him!" shouted one of the bailiffs as he leaped off his four wheeled buggy. I was kind of relieved, I didn't know what to do!, I was in delirious state of ecstatic shock, Sarah hasn't the experience in landing big fish, or any fish to think about it, and the other people there seemed content with just watching. I wasn't even sure the borrowed net was even big enough! the fish's head came up again and the bailiff whilst laying on his stomach grabbed the line with his right hand and with his left reached out towards the open mouth and bang!! the hook pinged out!!! It took a moment for it to sink in, a deathly silence for a moment whilst the fish slowly sunk backwards into the depths and out of reach. The silence then continued until the bailiff slowly turned round holding the flailing rig "That's my fault." he said.

A very despondent angler :(

The fish had gone, my personal best lost, the excitement had turned to utter disbelief and a gutted feeling that churned my stomach for the rest of the day. It was just an accident, one of those things. I said to the bailiff "that would of been my personal best! it was about 40lb?" he replied shaking his head, "Mate, I don't know if I want to tell you this, that fish was over 60lb" I guess it didn't matter now. I really wasn't too sure weather to include this trip on this blog, but hey, Its fishing, I've lost more big fish that I've landed, blanked more times than I care to remember, its unpredictable and full of shocks and surprises, it's frustrating, and a sheer joy, where one fish can make a world of difference, I love fishing for all of this! and to be honest, fishing wouldn't be fishing without the old aged traditional tales of  "The one that got away."

Bass Fishing, Hastings Beach, Hastings

England v Germany

Hastings Beach, Rock-a-Noir Parade, Hasting, East Sussex. TN34, UK

Typical English bank holiday weather!

Easter bank holiday, my partners German brother and girlfriend were staying over for a week, a hotel booked in Hastings, what could go wrong????? That's right! The weather! OMG! now I know that its a given that bank holiday equals bad weather, but even this was extreme, We arrived at 8am on Sunday to torrential rain mixed with marble sized hail stones and gales force winds with gust of 50mph, As I parked the van, I looked at the sea and knew there was no way of fishing, The surf was too big, the wind was way too strong, and to top if off the hail stones bloody hurt, So we spent the day darting in and out of various restaurants, museums and arcades, and systematically on the hour, every hour checking the forecast for a break in the weather, hoping for the best. Our planned night fishing fell on its face as well, the weather stayed the same through out the night, and combined with the big spring tide the surf was actually hitting the road, which made fishing from my hotel window now possible, but I couldn't as I needed both hands to hold the window because the wind would of ripped it off its hinges, so I just watched the storm with ore, and dreamt of fish.

The morning after

I woke up far too early, went straight to the window and opened the curtains to check the weather, I do it every time I go fishing. Its the excitement, "fishing fever" as Sarah calls it. And what a change! the sun was beaming through the curtains, I looked out to whispering clouds dotting a bright blue sky, with the low tide and big surf! I thought bass! I'd heard rumours that they had started showing, and I knew the fishing should be better after a big blow, but was the blow too big? there was only one way to find out. I woke the other camp in the room next door and before we knew it, we were all drinking coffee and eating bacon rolls with our rods in the water.

Great surf for a bass

Myself and Emil had Shakespeare 11'6" Salt extreme bass rods, with Shakespeare Salt Surf reels loaded with 15lb Ultima Power Braid each, whilst Sarah opted for Spinning with A Shakespeare 9" Ugly Stik Lite rod with a Shakespeare 035 front drag Mach 3 reel, A small,  but very strong, light and extremely well made reel, which was loaded with 10lb fox soft steel mono. The rigs were standard 2 clip down, size 2 hooks, 6 oz breakaway leads. and we had plenty of fresh lug and squid, with a few mackerel.

Fresh lug worm, Top all round bait!

Ive not used braid sea fishing before and was keen to see if it made a big difference to my casting, my first cast and I spooled out!!!! What the hell! that's about 180m of line in the sea and none left on the reel. Then the penny dropped! I didn't see the lead hit the sea but then I realised that it was the gigantic bow in the line caused by the strong wind which had taken all the line, later casts were at best in the windy conditions reaching maybe 60m being cast hard and low with some heavy feathering to keep the line as straight as possible , but this wasn't the time to test fishing lines although my first impression was good, it reeled in a lot smoother than mono and flew silently of the spool.

Aka "the match rig"

Low tide was very quite bite wise, but then 2 hours into the flooding tide they started coming thick and fast, Mainly Whiting and Rockling, I really hate Rockling, the little buggers have got such a tough jaw and usually swallow the hook into their tiny mouths making unhooking them a absolute nightmare and eventually leaving you with a bent and twisted Aberdeen hook that needs replacing! Then my German counterpart hit his first bite and landed a small Dogfish,  whilst my unhooking nightmare just continued, as I landed an Eel. Emile realised that because I was casting further than him I was getting more bites. I then watched as he launched a lead with all his might, 20 degrees straight up at the sky, I panicked for a second as I gauged where the lead would land in the strong wind, thankfully I was about right, it hit the sea about 30m in front of us, he looked at me as if to say that was a big cast, and believe me it was!. I stuck my thumbs up and smiled at him, although I didn't think he had a clue where he actually cast, I knew he had casted just behind the first breaker into bass territory. I was happy for him to leave it there because I was aching to try close in for bass, but the bites were coming further out, and fishing with one rod didn't give me the option to do both. He then asked me to look after his rod saying "If I fish over there with Sarah, I will get a bite!" he took the spare spinning rod and joined his sister in spinning for bass with Dexter wedges and spoons off the groin. It was nice to see them chatting and spending time together, as they don't get to see each other very often.

Here Bassy Bass

 He had only been gone 5 minutes then I watched his rod tip slam down violently! I hadn't seen a bite like this beach casting since the summer, it went again so violently that the rod lifted up into the air and pivoted on the tripod. I grabbed the rod butt just before it came crashing down on the stones. I didn't need to strike, and the braid fishing line meant I could feel a fish fighting straight away, It felt a lot bigger than the other fish, I shouted and screamed relentlessly at Emil and Sarah to get their attention, but the wind made my screams fall silent, I watched them obliviously fishing no more than 15m away as I played the fish. By now it was close in and I concentrated my efforts to beach the fish in the very rough surf, rather than shouting. It was a lot smaller than I thought for the fight and violent bite, but it was a bass and the best fish I've really caught beach fishing so far this year. Me and Emil shook hands and agreed that it was an joint English/German catch, I was just happy to see a Bass!.

I'm a Dab hand!! lol

I managed to catch even more annoying Rocklings, a few Dabs, and even a plate sized Flounder before the bites dried out just before high tide. To be honest, even though it was fairly sunny it was very cold and the wind made it even colder and I was ready to leave. It had been a good session and I hoped that Emil would remember his English fishing trip with a smile, and why wouldn't he? between us we had landed about 25 fish, 7 species and 4 keepers for dinner, which was more than enough to make the previous day and night wash out a distant memory. I've usually had good fishing at Hastings, and this was perhaphs one of the best, but god am I looking forward to some warm weather, please hurry up summer!