The Forgotten Lake – Part 1

“What a place,” I thought to myself.

It had been a while since I had last been to this lake and couldn’t remember ever being this impressed with the place before. Maybe it was the fact that I am now older and as such more able to appreciate my environment? Or maybe it’s the rumour I’ve heard? I didn’t know what it was. What I did know then was that I just had to get a ticket.

That was around April time. Thinking about it now it’s probably a collection of a lot of small factors which combine to make this the magical place it is, to me at least anyway. The lake is hidden away at the end of a ‘track’ type road; as such it’s extremely quiet and peaceful. The lake borders a nature reserve and actually has a bird hide overlooking it so obviously it’s going to be a place of beauty.

Then there’s the fact that my Dad used to fish there. I can never actually remember him fishing there but I do remember him talking about it and I fished an adjacent lake with him as a child. It pleases me to know that my Dad is proud that I fish such places (not that he says so but it’s just one of those things that you know) and not the dreaded commercials. It pleases him in just the same way that I like listening to Led Zeppelin (though he’s not too keen on my Audioslave!). I suppose, though I don’t know, it’s because he can see a bit of himself in me?

Something else that has to be factored into the magic equation has to be the rumour already mentioned.

A month or so earlier I had met Chris Berry who was posting on the FM forum at the time. I had introduced him to a local tench water and he had mentioned that somebody had told him about this lake and he had heard a rumour of a 30lb pike! A very tenuous rumour once it reached me, but nevertheless one I felt had to be explored as these opportunities don’t come along every day!

I think it’s best that I drift a some way from the story here just to provide you with a little background. Before last Christmas I think I could have easily counted the number of pike I had caught on one hand. They were, if you like, my bogey species. Whenever I had tried to catch them I had failed miserably and got either wet or cold, usually both.

It was U2 who sang, ‘Nothing Changes on New Year’s day’.

Well for me, on this particular one, New Year’s day 2005, something did change. I went on a short lure fishing trip with the few lures and plugs I had and actually managed to catch a small jack pike of about a pound. Miracles will never cease! After this success another session was hastily arranged with my brother who had a lot more experience of pike than me. More success followed, another fish of around 5lbs that day and two to my brother on deadbaits and I was hooked, and I haven’t looked back, landing numerous pike this year up to 18lbs!

With my new found love for fish with teeth, the rumoured monster and the fact that lake is very rarely fished these days, what with pike thriving on neglect I was being drawn to the place like paper clips to a magnet! So I made the necessary phone call and was pleased to find out there were places available on the syndicate and I could join – my cheque was in the post!

Fast forward five or so months and despite having my ticket I still had not fished the lake, I had walked round it a couple of times but had not seen much to report. I had found out that a lot of the pegs were overgrown and were unfishable. Also many of the ones which were fishable were going to be difficult to fish due to the trees and bushes round the bank making casting very difficult. These could not be cut back either because the lake is on a Site of Special Scientific Interest. This was going to be a challenge indeed! But one I felt I must take up as this could well be the last year I get to fish the lake as it is being handed over to the nature reserve next door! Bloody twitchers!

One afternoon around the beginning of October I found myself with nothing much to do. After little deliberation I set up a marker rod and threw it into the boot and I was off to the Forgotten Lake to do a bit of plumbing in preparation for fishing. Whilst there I noted down the relevant features and such like in the back of my head in the large bit of grey matter I set aside for fishing knowledge, much to the detriment of work, relationships and other such trivial things! Whilst stood on the end of one of the fishing platforms counting my marker float up I suddenly became aware of a long shape moving very slowly but purposefully through the water. There, no more than a foot from the end of the platform was a pike. Not huge but a good fish, certainly a double, maybe pushing fifteen pounds, its always difficult to tell in the water isn’t it.

I stood there as still as I could and observed the fish moving through the water. It was moving so slowly it almost wasn’t moving at all, but then I would realise that it was about three feet to the left of where it had been and had turned 90 degrees. After a short while it disappeared into the reeds, stalking a roach or maybe a perch for its tea. That was enough for me, the spark that fired my imagination. I was buzzing, why oh why hadn’t I brought some actual fishing gear! I knew deep down though that even if I had I would probably have been set up on the other side of the lake and would not have seen the fish anyway so for the sake of the winter my time was far better spent finishing off the task I had set out to do.

I suppose 20 minutes later and a bit further round the lake I had almost a repeat occurrence. There I was stood on the end of the platform when I saw two shapes in the water, they couldn’t be pike though as they were both too long, one being at least eight feet and the other, well 4 feet at least. Then, the smaller piece of debris was drifting towards me maybe ten feet out parallel with the bank in about three feet of water with a bit of a ripple on it. I remember thinking to myself, no it can’t be, but as it got closer, yes it certainly was a pike, and it was HUGE!

Now the 18lbs fish I had caught earlier in the year hadn’t been huge but it had been heavy, a very fat fish at the back end of February. I would say at summer weight that fish would have been nearer 14lbs. This, excuse the puns, was a different kettle of fish! A much bigger pike and by that I mean a much bigger frame, certainly a lot longer.

I watched it slide out of view, totally unaware of my presence. This fish was over 20lbs in any month of the year. Now I was really fired up. The only thing going through my mind for the next four or five hours was, ‘how soon can I get a deadbait in the water?’

No matter how many times I asked myself this question the answer still came out the same, it was going to be at least a week as it was now Friday and I was busy till Sunday when I was due to fly to Ireland to see my parents until the following Thursday.

It was around this point that I (stupidly) started to think to myself, this is going to be easy! The place is stuffed with pike! But of course they would disappear as soon as I turned up with the deadbaits!

After returning from Ireland I couldn’t wait to get back to the lake and at the first opportunity the car was loaded and I was on my way. I can honestly say I haven’t felt the way I did during that car journey since I was at school, when at a weekend the excitement during the journey to wherever it was that I was to be fishing that weekend would be overwhelmingly intense. It’s a good job the lake is only 15 minutes from my house! I had already planned where I would fish that day; it had to be the peg where I had seen the monster from the deep! The twenty plusser! Jaws!

I dumped my tackle in the walkway behind the peg and ever so quietly walked out onto the staging jutting out through the thick reed bed and just stood there a while with my polaroids on. Just to see what I could see, you know how it is. I didn’t have to wait long! It wasn’t a pike this time though. Well it wouldn’t be would it, what with me having my pike gear with me. No it was a shoal of roach, but what roach! Equally as impressive as the leviathan. There were maybe a dozen fish gliding along through the crystal clear water, and to my estimation, not one of them was under 2lbs. Now I have never caught a roach anywhere near that magical figure before so I’m no expert but I knew what I was seeing and it was only adding to the magical mystery of the place. After a minute or two I went back to my gear and started sorting myself out but I was unable to get those roach out of my head. I crept back out with the bank sticks and indicators to get them sorted before I started with the rods. Unbelievably, there again was yet another shoal of roach, more this time, maybe twenty fish, slightly smaller as well but they still all looked to be over a pound in weight. Just what had I stumbled across with this lake?

It was around then that I remember thinking what a shame it was that this would be that last year I would be able to fish here. Then I remembered that the last newsletter had said that under an agreement with the nature reserve five anglers will be allowed to fish the lake for the next five years and anybody interested in taking up these limited places should ring up and put their names down. You can rest assured this has now been done and everything is crossed, fingers, toes, legs, arms, the lot. I’ve even taken to wearing my hair in a stupid style messing it all up to cross as many hairs as possible!

For the next four hours not a lot happened, no interest was shown on either rod, just mug after mug of tea drunk. A mate and fishing companion came down to have a look round the lake I had been raving about. When he got within talking distance the first thing he blurted out was,

“Have you seen them fish down in the corner?”

“What, them roach? They were up here earlier.”

“No, they’re not roach mate, bream I reckon”

This had to be investigated a bit further. I brought the rods in and went down to have a look. With my polaroids on I could clearly see they were bream. About fifty of them, nothing massive, up to about 5, maybe 6 lbs. It was amazing; there they were grazing around on the bottom in less than two feet of gin clear water! I have never seen anything like that and it was a joy just to watch them for 10 minutes, just doing what bream do!

My mate finished his cuppa and said his goodbyes. I was staying till dusk. The magnetism of the place was becoming stronger and stronger by the hour. I decided a move round to the northern, windward end of the lake was in order, maybe there would be a few pike down there? I lugged the gear round and got settled in the only (barely) fishable swim on that bank. The first rod, an almost free lined roach, was flicked up into the reed-fringed bay which the wind was blowing into. After a bit of casting about I located the ledge I was looking for and the second legered skimmer was placed at the bottom of the ledge.

For the next couple of hours nothing happened, not so much as a bleep.

Then, just as I was answering a call of nature against a tree, yes, there it was, the unmistakeable deep, dulcet tone of the Delkim.

Typical!

After speedily, but carefully, sorting myself out I got to the rod and I could see the line was being pulled out of the elastic band on the butt. It really is hard to describe the excitement building in my body at that point, with nervous, shaking hands I picked up the rod…….

Watch out for Part 2