Another day off from work when I have no other plans can only mean 1 thing, I can finally get out on the bank again. As usual, Bradshaw lake 2 is the venue, the weather forecast shows that today would probably be the best day of the week, the wind today changes from being an easterly to being a south westerly and on the days leading up to today there was heavy rain, but today shows that the rain should hold off.
When I arrived at the venue there didn't seem to be many people there, at least from the look of lake 4 anyway, however when I got to lake 2 there was a few people already there and in the usual places as well, typical. I had a quick look round but there didn't seem, to be much in the way of fish showing apart from the guy landing a fish on peg 23 (1 of the hot pegs), so I decided to setup on peg 3 again, there was 1 guy to my right on peg 4 who had arrived just before me so I made sure he didn't mind me setting up next to him, he didn't and we had a chat during the session.
By 10:30am I was setup and ready to cast out, today I fancied a bit of a change and left the Cell boilies at home and went with 20mm Dynamite Baits Frenzied Monster Tiger Nut Boilies. I decided that to start off the right hand rod would be setup with 16mm Sticky Baits Krill Dumbells on my usual D-Rig cast out about 1/3 of the way across to the other bank. The left hand rod would be setup with PVA bags again starting with 12mm Marine Halibut Pellet on the hair, my usual pellet mix in the bag and Baitworks Hot Fish Oil for the first time, I've heard good things about this oil so I was looking forward to seeing the results, this rod was also cast out about 1/3 way across the lake and about 4 rod lengths away from my other rod.
By about 11:10am the heavens opened up, so much for the no rain forecast. I thought that the rain may get the fish moving round and showing a bit more but there was nothing, no bites, no liners, no fish showing. I wasn't the only one noticing how quiet it was either, the guy on peg 4 was also surprised that there was no fish showing. I decided I would change the right hand rod over to the 20mm Tiger Nut Boilies and move out to 2/3 across the lake, from speaking to the bailiff on previous trips I knew that Tiger Nut boilies usually produce results so fingers crossed this would at least get some interest.
At 12:30 the rain started to die off the sun started to come out, by this time the wind had dropped off all together. I decided to switch the rods round, the right hand rod was now my PVA rod and was brought back to the margins about half a rod length out, the guy on peg 4 said that last week a few of the regulars had about 8 carp out from there so I thought id give it a try. I also changed the mix in the PVA, the Krill Dumbell stayed the same but I added Baitworks Atlantic Heat Stick Mix to the bottom of the PVA bag before adding pellets and more Hot Fish Oil. I also changed the rig itself slightly, instead of using an in line lead with Dark Matter Tubing I removed the insert from the in line lead and used a Korda Safezone leader with ring swivel, this would act as a running rig on the take.
The D-rig rod was now straight out, slightly to the left, but still at around 2/3 across the lake. Shortly after recasting both rods there was a nice oil slick from the PVA bag, this should hopefully pull in the fish and get them active.
After about an hour of nothing I decided to change my left hand rod from Tiger Nut boilies to Cell Dumbells that had been soaked in bloodworm. I also decided to recast the PVA rod again but this time with the last bit of Almond Goo, as this usually gets bites.
The rest of the day carried on uneventful, no bites, no fish showing, no liners. During the course of the day I tried pretty much every bait and every part of my swim, including the far bank near a small inlet, I even switched rigs over to my old favourite Combi Rig but nothing. My only consolation was that no one else caught all day, well until someone with no regard for fish care on peg 6 had a small carp out, but lets not go into that as I hate people who don't handle fish with care.
By 6pm I decided enough was enough and packed up, as usual I'm not going to dismiss the baits/rigs that I tried today until I've gave them a decent try. I'm sure this was just one of those days where the fish just weren't interested, which is a shame as I sharpened all my hooks the day before with my new JAG sharpening kit, well worth a look if anyone is interested in hook sharpness.
