HomeFishing ArticlesOn The BankBaggin' at Border Fisheries - Saturday, 4th May 2024

Baggin’ at Border Fisheries – Saturday, 4th May 2024

Baggin’ at Border Fisheries – Saturday, 4th May 2024

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Thornhills defeated us again last weekend and it wasn’t a good feeling. It sat with us both all week, so we were determined to have a better experience during this week’s session. With a long bank holiday weekend ahead of us, we decided to head to the Specimen Lake at Border Fisheries on Saturday to try and put things right and put a few fish in the net.

If you missed our previous On the Bank blog from the Specimen Lake at Border Fisheries and would like some details about the water, you can read the Specimen Lake overview. The overview includes details of the depths you can expect to find, the lake’s features and the type of fish to target.

The last time we fished the “Speci” was in early April during gale-force winds. With the forecast looking much better for this trip, we were certain we’d have a better day. Thankfully, that proved to be true.

How the Day Went

We set off for Border Fisheries at around 7:30 am with the sky looking grey and overcast. The forecast had looked amazing earlier in the week. Bright sunshine and temperatures of around 20 degrees were promised, but as always seems to be the way, the conditions started to look slightly less impressive with each passing day. It was going to be relatively warm at around 15 degrees, but we still had to pack the umbrellas just in case.

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We made it to Border at just after 8:30 am, full from our Mcdonald’s breakfast (no they don’t sponsor us), and ready for the day ahead. As we pulled into the car park, we noticed that the Speci pool was busier than it had been for a while. The bank closest to the car park where we intended to fish was full of anglers spaced down the lake. The complex has plenty of other waters we could go to, but after a quick chat, we decided to fish on the opposite bank where no one was currently fishing.

As we were getting ready, Brian gave me one of the best laughs I’ve had in a long time. We’d unpacked all the gear from the car and were putting on our waterproofs and boots when he fell over and started rolling around the car park like a WWE wrestler. I thought he might have had a heart attack from the way he fell in slow motion. Somehow he’d managed to get his foot stuck between the tyre and wheel arch of the car, lost balance and hit the deck.

After walking around the bank whilst struggling to breathe through laughter, I set up on peg 22. Brian dusted himself off and fished to my left on peg 23. Both pegs had a similar chuck of about 30m over to the island using a feeder, and we both had plenty of space down our edges if the carp moved.

Plenty of fish were showing around us, but I wasn’t sure what the best approach would be. I was going to start on a hybrid feeder towards the island during the morning but I wasn’t sure if I’d use the pole or a pellet waggler later in the day.

The bait choice was quite simple. I had my Sonubaits wafters, 2mm soft pellets, and Teddy Fisher Exicte crushed expanders for the feeder. I also had some 6mm and 8mm pellets that I could use with the pole and pellet waggler, along with some corn and prawns I had stolen from Brian for down the edge.

Brian opted for a standard cage feeder over to the island and planned to use his waggler short in search of the resident big perch. His bait choice was also quite simple. A combination of hookable pellets and corn on the feeder with a mix of Teddy Fisher Big Carp and Feeder groundbaits for his feeder. For the waggler, he had the same bait for the hook with the addition of prawns.

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A Slow Start

Brian was quicker than me to get everything set up and was fishing by 9:30 am. He started long on his feeder using double corn and casting up tight towards the island. I followed around 15 minutes later, on the hybrid feeder around 5 metres off the island. We were both quite active to start, casting regularly to try and put some bait in the area. At around 10:15 am, we’d both seen some activity on the tip, but nothing that resulted in a proper take.

Brian switched to his waggler after seeing lots of swirls to his left, while I remained on the hybrid feeder out long. The only change I made was dropping from an 8mm to a 6mm wafter. At 10:20 am, the first fish of the day was caught. A small perch took Brian’s big piece of prawn. He followed it up with another small perch five minutes later.

The Carp Get Their Heads Down

At 10:36 am, I had my first bite of the day. I’d switched to the smaller wafter thinking that the touches I saw earlier were probably some of the smaller skimmers in the lake. As I lifted into the fish, I knew it wasn’t anything big, but it was putting up a better fight than a skimmer would. After a short battle, the first carp of the day was safely in the net. A small but welcome common of around 3lb. That was followed around 15 minutes later with a small mirror that weighed about 2lb.

At just past 11 am, Brian had his first carp of the day on the bank. After seeing multiple swirls under his rod tip, he dropped the float in with a big piece of prawn and waited. It didn’t take long for his float to disappear and his rod to be doubled over. Using light tackle, the fish took quite a bit of line as it swam out into the open water. Eventually, after a short fight, he landed a mirror carp weighing exactly 7lb.

By this point, we started to notice a pattern of how the bigger carp were feeding. They’d come in around five minutes after putting in a bit of loose feed, clear it out quickly and then vanish again. They weren’t feeding as confidently as they do in the height of summer, but they were awake and looking for something to eat.

At 11:30 am, Brian hooked into another fish under his rod tip, but this one was bigger and angrier. He was still on light tackle and the fish took him across my peg and about halfway down the lake. It was a slow powerful fish that stayed on the bottom of the lake and refused to be turned around. It took four or five minutes to get it pointing in the right direction and up towards the surface to be netted. It was a beauty of a fish weighing 11lb 1oz.

After not seeing much action on the feeder out long, I decided to try putting the feeder down the edge to my right. I’d been feeding a few pieces of corn and pellet down there all morning and had seen lots of activity. I was hoping one of the big carp might be lurking down there, but when I did get a bite after five minutes, it resulted in a skimmer of around 12oz.

The Calm Before the Storm

The activity around Brian had slowed down, probably due to the commotion of the second carp he was playing. Just before midday, he had our final bites of the morning, a couple of small perch in quick succession. I stayed down the edge for a while, but by 12:30 pm without any more bites, I decided to go back towards the island while we had some lunch and a drink. As we tucked into some of Brian’s finest ham and egg butties, the sun was out and there was a warm breeze. For the first time in months, we sat on the bank without shivering and without any wind or rain to battle through.

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At 1 pm we’d not seen any indications for a while, and I’d made my mind up to come down the edges with the pole. It didn’t take long after picking up the pole to get my first bite. but they weren’t near the stamp of fish that Brian had caught earlier. Two small mirror carp came in the space of 10 minutes. The first weighing approx. 3.5lb and the second smaller still at around 1.5lb.

In the heat of the mid-afternoon, things went quiet around the lake, the odd smaller fish was being caught, but a few people were beginning to pack up. It took nearly two hours of patiently waiting for our next fish to arrive. We had some missed bites and there was still plenty of fish showing, but we couldn’t hook into anything.

Double Hook-Up

The next fish came shortly after 3 pm from Brian after he’d switched to the feeder again. He hooked into something that felt huge. Like PB huge. It took him all over the lake and was bashing around the island. For around five minutes, all he could do was sit and hold on as it moved around the lake at its leisure. Eventually, he got it under control and as it came toward the net, we couldn’t believe it. It was a nice fish, but nowhere near being a double. It was foul-hooked and only weighed around 5.5lb.

The next fish came around 30 minutes later when I finally hooked into one of the bigger carp we’d seen regularly down the edge. I was determined not to make the same mistake as last week, so I had plenty of sections behind me to control any runs, and I was using quite heavy tackle with a 16s elastic and 0.20mm diameter Accupower line.

It was nice to play something decent on the pole again after such a long time, and the result was greatly appreciated. A stunning 11lb 5oz mirror that was almost scaleless except for any area around its tale.

It was another wait of an hour before our next fish was landed. Brian was unlucky to lose a couple of fish at the net, and then he had a massive line tangle on his reel that meant he had to put it away and pick up my rod with the hybrid feeder for a while.

Quick Bites

At just before 5 pm, Brian and I got a double hook-up. He was fishing towards the island using the hybrid feeder and a wafter. I was still fishing down my edge using a piece of corn on the hook. Neither fish felt massive, but it was the first time that we’d both managed to land a carp at the same time.

We’ve had opportunities in the past, but whenever it happened, one always seemed to come off. This time we both landed our fish. Two carp that were very similar in size. We didn’t weigh them but they were probably around 4lb a piece.

As Brian cast his feeder back out, I stood behind his as we tucked into a pork pie each and had a well-deserved can of Pepsi. We were discussing what a great day it had been. The weather has been terrible in the UK for around six months, so it was nice to sit in the sun with the fish finally waking up.

As we chatted, Brian’s tip went around mid-bite of his pork pie. He lifted into it and passed me the rod. It was another quick battle and another small mirror of around 3lb in the net. He cast back out again and was into another fish within a few minutes. It was another small mirror weighing 3.5lb to 4lb. Three fish in three casts on my rod.

I sat back on my box and went down the edge with the pole. I knew the script now, so I potted in a small offering of pellets, corn and ground bait and waited for the fish to come. As I was filling the pot, I spilt a few pellets in the water at my feet Within five minutes four fish were feeding less than a foot away off the ledge that runs around the edge of the lake.

The temptation was too much to resist, so I quietly brought my pole in and dropped my hook with a piece of corn in front of their noses. It only took a second and the elastic was zooming out of the end of the top kit while I quickly started to put extra sections on. Murphy’s law, it was probably the smallest of the carp I’d seen that took the bait, but I was still thankful for another mirror that weighed in at 6lb 6oz.

The next fish took a bit longer, but only because there were so many fish in the area that it was becoming almost impossible to keep the float stable enough to see everything. If truth be told, I’d probably put too much bait in and attracted too much competition. I left it for 10 minutes to settle down and then went in again.

At 6:30 pm, the float went under again and I was into another hard-fighting fish that didn’t want to surrender. As I shipped back to my top kit, the fish made another run that had me adding more sections to keep it under control. After a couple of minutes, I had another nice mirror carp in the net that was 8lb exactly.

The last fish of the day came around 30 minutes later. As soon as I started playing the fish, I knew it was decent. It took a few minutes to get the first run under control, and then it sat there solid. I was in no rush either, so I kept the pressure on until it decided to make another move. Another quick run had the elastic stretching.

After a few more minutes, the fish turned around and I managed to bring it towards the bank. As I placed it in my landing net and began to bring it towards me, there was a crunch and the net fell off. “That’s a new landing net then”. Luckily, Brian was close by and managed to save the net before it sunk while I continued to play the fish. We eventually got it on the bank. Our first big common from the Speci weighing 11lb 11oz. What a beauty.

What a great day! We had lots of laughs, great weather and some stunning fish on the bank. The best thing is knowing that the fishing hasn’t properly switched on yet. Give it a few more weeks of good weather, and the Speci will be even better.

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Baiting The Swim Dave
Baiting The Swim Davehttps://baitingtheswim.co.uk
Just an average angler who loves to write and talk about match and course fishing.
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