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Four Seasons Fishery Lodge Lake - March 2011


It was late march and the end of the savage winter on 2010/11 and id planned a quick overnighter on Lodge Lake. I was buzzing for this session as the week previous id bagged the lakes largest stockie mirror at just over 14lbs. Lodge being a hard lake at the best of times, little results like this help you keep confidence and sanity for future sessions. Anyway I turned up at the lake around 4pm, to find my mate Kalan and his carp dog set up in the corner swim, Kal had done the night, and said he'd seen a few really tight to the bank in the bay, just cruising under the surface, he stuck the kettle on and made me a brew and we sat and chatted for 20 minutes or so before I set off for a look around the lake, to hopefully find a few fish. The lake was flat calm which made things a nightmare as I had nothing to go, I didn't see anything so decided to drop in peg 2, which gave me access to the opening of a narrow channel of 3ft of water of rock hard gravel, which opened out into 5ft of water and a siltier lakebed. I soon had 2 rigs consisting of 6inch hooklinks with fang twisters, long hairs and PVA foam.

The first bait was positioned on the gravel and the other on the edge of the silt. I then scattered 30 14mm baits over the area where both rigs lied. Slackened off, brolly up and kettle on, I was set for the night ahead, I looked at the time: 7.15pm, darkness was falling fast and I could feel the air cooling quickly too. I sat watching and drinking tea and 7.35 the rod on the gravel pulled up tight, the tip bounced and it all held up, I lifted into the fish, and felt nothing, then the fish rose and pulled over the shallow water between me and the spot, before dropping into the deeper water and proceeded to shoot around the front of the swim before I pulled it over the cord.


Four Seasons Fishery - 12lb Stockie
Four Seasons Fishery - 'Spaz Common' - 19lb 5oz

I was shaking as I always do on there, and gave Kal a ring, before securing the net and putting the kettle on, no more that 5 minutes later he and his carp dog came trundling into the swim, the dog dropping a stone on my foot wanting to play fetch as he always does. I picked the fish out and realised it was another stockie, ahh well. It's a carp. We estimated around 12lbs and Kalan got some quick pictures before slipping her back and getting the rod back on the spot. I was all chilled out by now and after tucking into fish and chips that Kalan brought from the chippy across the road, I got into the bag and dozed off around 10pm. 12.03am, the rod in the silt let off a complete 1 toner, I scrambled out as you do, missed the shoes and lifted into the fish. What happened next was a first for me, the fish took around 30 yards on its first run, then for the next 15-20 mins it dragged me around the swim before I slipped it in the net, a sigh of relief.

By this stage I had assumed it was a big catfish, I was certain. Kalan, having heard the commotion came walking into the swim, dog trundling behind him, asking what I'd caught, I replied 'big cat mate' he then lifted the net a little and said "that's not a cat you clown, it's a common". I was like what, it can't be a carp, they just aren't that strong. But he was right, and we recognised it as "the spastic common" and weighed it at 19lb 5oz, again, not a 20, which is rare for the lake, but 2 fish in a night on there is a rare occurrence, so I was well happy. Before nodding back off I noticed the mist, when I lied on the bedchair I couldn't see my alarms, which were only 10ft away! It was also very chilly by now, so I got my head down for the night, the next morning, I was awoken to Kalan in my swim at 5am with his dog, saying "you not getting up mate?" I was soon out of the bag and making brews for us both, as we chatted over the nights occurrences, he was coming to the end of another blank, and I knew how he felt, as everyone's had their fair share of blanks on there.

9am I packed up, a happy angler once again.


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