Fishing - Warren then back to Badshot Lea

So for final day of my four day marathon I decided I ought to check Warren and Tarn as they were the last two open waters I hadn’t seen. I didn’t hold much hope as there were only 8 swims, 4 of which were available for night fishing. Turned up just gone 8am and sure enough there was the usual bivvy village but seemed a nice enough bunch, a very different feel to Stillwater. Turns out chatting to one of the guys that he’d had a load of good bream (to his annoyance!), overnight and one carp. The place wasn’t advertised as having bream so was a pleasant surprise and I decided to give it a go despite the slightly cramped swims with low overhead branches. I chucked a method 2/3 the way across and noticed the line wouldn’t sink. I then set up the float and plumbed, only to find there was no more than 2 feet of water anywhere! I then got pretty much pushed out the swim by a whinging carp bloke I half said I’d give it to so moved down closer the carpers in a muddy swim not holding much hope. Float was useless with so little water so just fished a method. However when a swan turned up and nonchalantly started eating my feed off the bottom as it was only a few inches down I decided it was a lost cause and packed up.

I’ve no idea how he caught the bream as looking more closely I could see the bottom all over the lake. I shan’t be going back there in a hurry for sure, however Tarn next door looks better with  some proper depth on a brief inspection. Shall give it a go when it opens.

So I headed back to Badshot lea big and set up exactly where I was before on the same tactics. This time the float was much more lively and I was very pleased with a trio of bigger perch running to just over pound and one small bream / skimmer. It got hard though and having scaled up to size 12 with meat to hopefully catch a bigger perch it went quiet. I then found the only way I could get bites was to go back to a size 18 with single caster but then despite being confident were very hard to hit. I hooked a couple but never saw what they were before they came off, frustrating. Meanwhile the method produced a couple of fish but unfortunately just carp. The first was a horrible fat dumpy thing of about 5lbs then a better fish of 8.5 lbs which took me a while to land on lighter tackle, both mirrors. Couldn’t raise the tench or bream though unfortunately.

I think Badshot Lea needs further investigation for its perch, I think it would be hard to properly target tench and bream for all the small carp kicking about. The small pit will probably be worth a look as well.

And there ends the marathon! Was very annoying my new quiver rod didn’t arrive in time and I need to find some more flat bed elasticated method feeders, preferably the new Guru safety ones. I think some early mornings are in order a la Wilson for the bream and tench quest as well....