Yesterday was forecast to be overcast at best and thunderstorms likely.
I headed up to the big lake and set up on one of the smaller arms which is still over 20 hectares but is not used for abstraction so remains full all year. I've found a swim that is rarely fished by others and has cracking potential. It drops away to about 3 metres at 20 metres out and shelves up to around 1 metre to my right where there is a large sand bar. This makes a corner larder where there is the best roach fishing I've found out here so far and also holds carp to over 20lb and is an ambush point for predators. It is also about the only place in the Charente where I don't get bothered by bream. This swim has it all and I try to keep its location quiet from other anglers.
Normally the wind blows from the westerly direction and that pushes the float towards the sand bar. I fish it just on the bottom at the full depth then let the float drift and anchor itself so I'm effectively laying on with three No. 4 shot 8cm apart from the hook and the bulk of the shot 20cm above the top No. 4. Bait is always sweetcorn flavoured with vanilla sugar and once the float is anchored I bombard it with four or five balls of groundbait made up from scalded chopped maize and wheat, chicken pellets and bulked up with white breadcrumb groundbait. I fish it with a fifteen foot float rod, Mitchell Match reel and loaded zoomer float. The float stop is left on the reel in the right position so I only have to thread the rod, slide on a float connector, attach a hook length and add the shot. No need to plumb the depth as its already set up
I also put out two other rods; a 2lb tc barbel rod with a stack of three maize grains fished free running and a 3.5lb tc carp rod with a small roach livebait fished sunken float, line clipped rather than on a baitrunner and both rods alarmed and set just to one side of the sand bar.
The weather actually turned out to be hot and sunny but with thunder rumbling out to the north. For some reason the predators were hyper-active in the middle of the lake and every couple of minutes I heard and saw shoals of fry being scattered.
I got a run on the catfish rod. A hesitant couple of bleeps then a solid steady run. I struck into thin air though. Just as I got the bare hook back I had an identical run on the carp rod next to it. Again I struck thin air
Next cast on the waggler the float didn't settle so I struck and briefly was attached to something very big before the hook pulled out. On reflection I reckon a big catfish had cruised through the swim.
I ended up with a good bag of roach and packed up just as the heavens opened so the gear got wet through as I was putting it away.
This afternoon we had a similar forecast so I just went up to the farm pond about five minutes walk from the house to use up the bait I had left over. I had a few small stuff; fingerling roach and carp to around 4oz before the larger residents came into the swim. For an hour it was a fish a chuck with carp to around 4lb. Great fun on an old Chapmans 500 cane rod and Trudex centrepin reel. Then the heavens opened again and the dog, tackle and I got wet through walking home.