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Lake Bolsena 3rd - 9th September 2012

It didn’t take too long to get to the other venue, it’s not busy but being mid week it was what I was expecting although the French do have a lot of bank holidays in May and I can never work out when they are, it can get busy when there is an extended one.

The new lake isn’t too dissimilar to the last one, most of the lakes around here are dammed up rivers in the valleys and tend to be deep sided and deep which makes for interesting fishing.

I have a cracking little spot just to the left of my swim, a little point comes out from the rocks and looks perfect for a little wafted tiger nut rig, luckily I have across the prodder and can work out the edges of the area and can really pin point where the bait needs to be dropped. Too far and it will drop in the abyss of some 60ft of water but on the little point it’s in a perfect 10ft.

I thinking along the lines of where I caught from the previous lake and given the ever increasing daytime temperatures the fish should be slowly moving up in the water and so have the other rods in various depths at 10, 18 and 25ft, not far out as its getting on for 120ft out in the middle which isn’t very far out.

In the afternoon I somehow get a roach foul hook itself on one of the rods and so its prefect to go into the cray trap to ascertain the amount of crays about, plus it would be nice to have them back on the menu tomorrow lunchtime. Although its sunny, the wind is picking up all the time and its only by using the Viper as a wind break that I can do some sunbathing, still looks good again for tonight, although I keep saying that. Result a fish at 5am on the little point rod, a real ripper which had me scrambling for the boots but gave up and ran out to the rods in my socks. Fish on but then I thought I had lost it as the line went completely slack, then I was in contact with it again must have gone around a rock o something and then pinged off. A real scrapper this one which depends to mine it’s not going to be one of the big, fat girls but it still looks a cracking mirror around 30 which is not a bad start. In the half light of dawn, bless her, I re do the rod and am hopefully of another take in the next few hours.

Just finish typing this and will weigh and photograph the fish, back to remote shooting again, which isn’t always the easiest but once you have a system worked out is pretty straightforward. I prefer a bulb release under the foot rather than those remote things you have to hold and juggle the fish at the same time. Problem nowadays is that with the new digital SLRs none of them have a screw fitting shutter release button so you have to use a cradle set up, which aren’t easy to get hold of. Could be a good idea for Nash a photographers self take kit tripod, bulb, cable and cradle a quick guide to help all the carp anglers out there in a similar position. I digress the fish weighed 30.04 a cracking looking mirror. Mid morning now and it’s clouded up a bit not the hot sunny day it looked like a few hours ago.

It was a cold, clear night and I didn’t hear anything of note moving out in the lake, with the warming up of temperatures I was expecting the carp to switch on but it is almost the opposite happening. Looking forward to getting on the river now in a few days or so, there so big old kippers in the stretch and by holding off a week for it to fine down it should be in perfect condition.

Today’s on the bank tackle test – Nash Food Cool Bag

This is my star piece of equipment for the trip, i haven’t tended to take a cool box with me on my longer trips mainly because of the space limit in my car, i would rather take more bait and secondly moving about the lakes i fish in a boat also means you are limited. However on this trip i had some frozen bait some of which i had air dried and some i thought i would take frozen in the Food cool bag. What i liked about the bag was that it was about the same size as a bucket and therefore didn’t take up much room, it easily accommodated 2 large bags of bait plus the large side pocket is ideal for dips and pop ups.

What i really liked about the bag though once the frozen bait had been used was that i was then able to use it for perishable food items from the supermarket. Generally speaking on my trips these will last only a couple of days if im lucky and then im onto more boring tinned stuff etc for awhile as i cant be off leaving my gear unattended to keep going to the shop when it might be 10/20 miles away. With the food bag though i could buy the pates and cheeses i love plus ham, sausages and other meat and milk and have them for the best part of a week when kept in the bag, a real, real bonus and luxury. If you don’t already have them the bag comes with a plate, cup and tools and like i mentioned earlier is just the right size if space is an issue.