Diary of an average angler

For a change of venue I decided to pop over to my local commercial at Fields End. With a fresh NE wind forecast it was always a risk as this Fenland lake is exposed. I had hoped to fish the NE corner, which provides some relief from the wind. But unfortunately other anglers had the same idea and all the swims were taken. Not a great start. I set up on the east bank, near the NE corner, and sure enough the wind was already making its presence felt.

I was in a swim that I had fished a couple of times before, on both occasions in winter. On the first of these I caught a few roach while on the next occasion I blanked. It's not a swim that I've seen fished a lot although speaking with a chap much later in the day, he said he had taken seven carp from it the day before.

I had bought half a pint of maggots in the site shop as I guessed that maggot would be the most productive bait if things were difficult. I had pre-baited by the reeds to the right when I arrived but once I started to float fish I quickly realised that the wind would be very troublesome. It wasn't long before I swapped over to leger but despite a couple of half-lifts of the bobbin there wasn't much doing.

I reverted to the float and started to fish by the reeds on the left where there was a bit of more protected water close in, the reeds shielding the wind. Unfortunately not long after the wind veered more to the east, into my face, and the small area of previously calmer water was affected.

Despite this I managed a couple of nice looking rudd on maggot. There followed a relatively productive period when I caught a few roach. Nothing big but at least I was getting some sport.

A change to a small piece of bread flake then produced a bite that resulted in a very heavy feeling fish running out into open water. I had changed down to a fine wire 16 hook in view of the roach activity, something that I immediately regretted as the fish powered off. I had no control over it and after less than a minute the hook pulled out. Inspection revealed that it had opened slightly, allowing the fish to shed it.

Now knowing that carp were patrolling the margin I went back on the leger with bread flake but there were no takers. I then changed to maggots, still on the leger, exploring the close-in reed edge. But even the roach bites and associated 'maggot sucking' stopped.

The wind was now much stronger and the sun had disappeared behind light clouds, making it much colder and not too pleasant. I had planned to pack in at 3pm but in the circumstances called it a day just after 2pm. It was a challenging few hours and has made me question whether it's worth returning to Fields End given the number of anglers staying on the caravan site, who have first pickings of swims even before the water is open to day ticket holders. A pity, as I really like the lake.