Success at Pallington Lakes

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:31:15 GMT

I decided to fish my favourite local venue, Pallington Lakes, which is situated in the Dorset countryside. Fish go up to 40lb in the lakes, but just the chance of some surface action was good enough for me. I arrived at the lake around midday as the weather would be approaching its warmest stages, hopefully giving the carp time to rise up in the water layers. To my disbelief I found only 2 other anglers on the complex so I had almost 3 lakes to myself.

After a lap of the usual hot spots it was clear the carp weren’t playing ball as not one dog biscuit was taken. Maybe today was to be harder than I first thought.
As I began the second lap I noticed the reeds twitch on one of the islands, in a relatively sheltered area of the lake. That was the only sign of a fish I had seen so far so I decided to hang around a bit longer. Using the catapult I fired 3 pouches of dog biscuits along the reedline. Almost as soon as they landed the unmistakable slurp from a carp was heard. The heart rate was soon racing. I then sprinted to the car to retrieve my floater set up and the essential net and mat.

I attempted free lining at first but they were just out of reach so I threaded on my secret weapon, a drilled out stick, which I have been testing for almost a year now with excellent results. It looks natural, has good weight for casting and with no brightly coloured tip or reflective coating the carp have nothing to be nervous about.
As for bait I had two options the first being the imitation dog biscuits and the second being a chopped down Pallatrax ‘Jungle’ bloater, which I started with. These were simply nicked onto the hook as I don’t like using hair rigs when surface fishing.

Once the rod was set up I continued to feed the carp, with a constant rain of dog biscuits. After 10 minutes I had a number of carp competing for the dog biscuits which is the ideal moment to make a cast. The cast landed bang on the money as within 30 seconds a greedy common of around 12lb had snaffled my hookbait. A short but spirited fight later it was face to face with the spreader block and was safely netted. It was the first of the day. Result!

The very next cast I hooked into what was clearly a better fish and as it charged out into open water I could do nothing to stop it. Five nervous minutes later I had the fish in the margins, although it managed to resist the net for a while longer, before the signs of defeat could be seen in the shape of gulps of air. I then guided the fish toward the net and scooped it up first time, to a sigh of relief. I carried the fish to the mat and parted the mesh to reveal my prize which was a 23lb 3oz Common in pristine condition.

In all honesty I would have been satisfied with what I had already caught but I went on to catch a further 8 carp that day in 6 hours making it 10 in total. All my fish being tempted on the Jungle Bloaters and inline ‘stick controller.’

I had to do a few days work after that however 3 days later I had the chance to do it all over again, with the weather still playing by the rules.
After the awesome result on the Monday I headed straight for the same reedline to find a few fish still amongst the reeds. I repeated the baiting tactic and my bait was soon in position, although I couldn’t seem to get a pick up today, so I switched to my second choice of bait, the imitation dog biscuit. These require more thought in setting up, however once done correctly they offer the ultimate in surface fishing presentation, as the hook remains free from the water and more importantly the carps vision.

After this small adjustment the carp began to come in thick and fast. Showing that in fishing it’s the small things that can make the big difference.

That day was the most productive day surface fishing I have ever had and with another twenty later on it was the perfect way to cap off a great session. The twenty weighed 21lb 8oz and was a very old looking mirror probably the winner of many battles in the past. I actually landed 18 fish that day from 9am until 6am as well as losing a few fish so ended up with well over 200lb of carp in 9 hours, a figure that anyone would be happy with.

What can clearly be seen from these two sessions is the fact that opportunities like this are available to everyone if you look, so make the most of them and get out stalking rather than sitting behind your rods. You may just land that extra bonus fish or two, or possibly even something quite special.
Incidentally my personal best fish was caught on the surface last year when most people were sat behind their motionless rods. That fish spun the needle round to 34lb 4oz and is my fishing highlight so far, it just shows that big fish don’t only get caught on the bottom.

Good Luck, and get out there,

Lewis Swift.

Lewis Swift's Big Fish

Success at Pallington Lakes