Oakwood Evening Fix…….

Hard at the day job and in need of some fishing I decided a trip down to Oakwood for the evening was on the cards. I finished my work early and arrived at the lake just after 5pm, could have been there for 4.30 but I had fish & chips for tea on the way. So now fed and looking forward to an evenings angling I quickly made up the rods using standard semi fixed leads with a lead clip system. I have been soaking some hook baits in a solution for nearly a year and happened to have the soakers with me so put one on and cast out. I was still using Tuna Spice but balanced and glugged so nothing special but a little different to my usual approach.

I hadn’t even got the second rod out and I was away on the glugged bait, a decent fight ensued and resulted in me landing one of the oddest looking fish I have ever caught – A common as deep as it was long but at 19lb it was welcomed. I concentrated on getting the second rod out onto the same plateau area the first was cast to, soon followed by the re-baited rod I had just caught on. I knew the fish were in the swim and each bite was when rather than if. The owner sat chatting with me whilst my bobbin kept lifting and dropping with liners until I received a one toner. I struggled to slow the initial run down but stopped it before it reached the sanctuary of the reeds. It then kited and ran to the left, then right with the line flicking across the fish giving those worry moments when you lose tension and think the fish has done you. The hook hold was perfect and I eventually netted a decent looking common which surprised us all by tipping the scales to 28lb 8oz, giving me a new personal best for the venue.

I recast and then caught what I was really after, a mirror, unfortunately one of the lakes smaller ones but still an immaculate fish weighing just shy of 18lbs. My evening fix was going very well and was rounded off with a twenty pound mirror just on dark. I should have stayed and made the most of the opportunity as the fish were definitely in the swim but my original plan was for an evenings fishing and finishing now on a high was the way to go especially as I didn’t have a head torch. In actual fact any torch for that matter.

My mate Gid then had the perfect opportunity to surprise me with the aerator; I knew there was a new one installed replacing the rather old and cumbersome floating rafts, little did I know that when it sprang into life it also sprang into light and I had to get a pic. Imagine waking to this in your swim in the middle of the night.