John Bailey – The Kingfisher Diaries
July 9th 2010
Getting the Best out of our Lakes
I'm not being smug here or clever-clever or better than anybody else but it's just that I spend a lot of time on our waters and I do see certain things that a lot of visitors are doing that are, perhaps, not quite right. A few days ago, I wrote a piece about coping with weed and it's possibly a good idea at the start of the school holidays, just to look at some of the other issues that can be forgotten. And remember that whatever I say about Kingfishers, can generally be taken as applicable to other lakes around the country.
I've said it frequently: too many anglers fish with not enough bait. The fish stocks in Lily and Lobster lakes particularly are very high and if you only put in just a few cupfuls of bait then you just won't hold the fish. This is why we are starting to introduce bags of rolled wheat for sale. We feed rolled wheat in big quantities so the fish know it's an attractive food source and we'll be selling it pretty cheaply. Simply mix it up wet, compress it into hard balls and throw it in. the tench and the carp absolutely love it and the bream are getting switched on as well. You can often use a fairly dry piece of the mix as a hook beat, too.
I can't stress enough that it pays to walk round whatever lake you're thinking of fishing before actually putting down your gear. A lot of anglers simply come to the first available swim and think that will do. In actually fact, fish do move around lakes a huge amount according to weather conditions and food build-ups. My advice always is to move slowly round the lakes waiting till you see fish on the top, see fish bubbling or see clouds of silted water. There's no point really throwing in a lot of bait into areas where there are very few fish. Location, location, location - obvious, I know, but it always bears repeating.
If you can pre-bait, then do pre-bait. This works particularly well here at Kingfishers on the Willow Lake. If I were to really target the tench there, I'd probably put bait in morning and evening for a couple of days before fishing seriously. This applies to any water, anywhere in the contra, especially for tench and carp. If you can put bait in before hand to attract the fish and build up their confidence, you have to be increasing your chances. Especially if you're putting it in the right place!
As the summer advances, do not fish too light. If you are not getting bites, it is often tempting to scale down line strength, for example, but this won't generally help much. It's probably you'd be better off looking at a new bait or rig. There's absolutely no point scaling right down, hooking fish and just losing them. I spoke to a lad in Lobster the other day who said with pride he'd lost six carp. What's the point in that?
We've had one or two comments from anglers that our swims are wild. Can we stress that we are NOT a commercial fishery in the usual sense of the word. Apart from a very few places on the Kingfisher Lake, we do not want raised platforms or concreted swims. We are very much a conservation area and we want to keep the natural serenity of the place intact. So if there are a few twigs around your swim, can we plead with you just to realise that you are fishing in natural surroundings.
There's some good news on the shop front. Kelly, the wife of Matt, who probably welcomed you to your apartment, is now opening the shop on a regular basis from ten to eleven in the morning. Hopefully, that means that you can plan your sessions knowing that if you need to restock with bait you will be able to. My erratic visits haven't helped anybody, I know, and this system looks as though it will help you a lot more. Whenever possible, I'll try and get down on Saturday morning so that if you've booked in and you have problems, I will be around.
If you have problems getting your gear to a distant part of our waters, then it might be worth having a word with Matt if you see him around. If he's got the time in his crowded schedule, he might let you hop on his golfing trolley and give you a lift, for a small fee, naturally. You can also try to fix up with him a time for your return so you're not left stranded!