The Holy Grail
What a lake , I loved it , one of only a few lakes where I felt I could settle . There was a bit of a problem , having a family , a wife that loves fishing as much as me , a football club that's up and down like a yo-yo then the problem is TIME ! . To get a syndicate membership would be hard , the hours people racked up without a fish ment you had to be a syndicate member to give it max effort . To get in the syndicate it helped if you had a mate in it who could recommend you , I did ! , it was Rob Maylin . To be honest I may as we'll had leporacy , to most people he was an acquired taste , well those who run the lake anyway . In fact he , and few others got banned from the lake for a minor transgression really , but his reputation went before him . So it had to be the day ticket membership . This gave you a restricted time on the water before it got dark , also a lot smaller amount of bank to go at ! . But saying all that , fish did come out during the day , it's just hard getting sorted only to have to pack up and walk miles back to the car , only to do it all the next day , but who dares wins !.
Tiger Bay
I fished a few sessions with my mate Stu , trying to suss out how we could wangle one out . We fished around tiger bay ( north bay ) a bit ,made famous by Robs book . I was hoping they would drift in , or hang around the nice margins all around the area , but it really did seem a night area !. I caught a few quality tench , but see no signs of carp . What we did find was that by turning up Friday night and having a good skirt round we would get an idea of where to head early as poss according to the rules on the Saturday . There was only 3 areas for us to look at , Cottage bay , but this was often full with syndicate members . Alcatraz / north bay , and the Canal bank . We did this one weekend , I fished the Brambles swim , and gave it my best shot . Found the bars , fished as best I could , but another blank . As we packed up for the 9pm finish ( it was something like 6 or 8am until 9 I think ) a fish crashed off to my left , I walked next door in a tiny gap and it jumped again . We returned the next Friday night , shot up the far end to the same swim and it looked nice agin . We spent the night in the Horse and Barge pub , and slept in our cars with people crashing around us .
Up early we sneaked up the canal bank so we could cast out at the start of our time , not wasting a min . I got it right , one over the middle bar , one over the far bar , pulled along the silt just until the first sign of gravel so it sat right at the base . The bait was double boillie , flavoured with " sickly butter " in one , and the other "rum and raisin " , a great combo that caught when used together , caught a lot of fish on them . I managed to get a good splattering of bait around the rods , putting out the baits with the Black Widow , falling each side of the bars . Fished all morning , then in the early afternoon a few bleeps see my indicator sliding down the needle . After a very hard long fight that had me crapping myself in the tight swim we slipped the net under a fantastic leathery Savay carp of just under 20lb .What a result I was really chuffed , and a few of the syndicate lads dropped in to see me . Roger Smith said "what a civilised time to catch one ", Kerry Barringer just said " can I move in when your finished "!!!, but I gave him the chance strait away , and he didn't need asking twice ! . Rob Maylin told me " mark , one day you will realise what a capture that was !" , how true he was .
My swim on the canal bank , brolly wrap to beat the match men , and Kerry's rods squeezed into the tight swim , the top boys never missed a chance to get on fish .
A week later we returned to try the same trick . The conditions were even better , and we rushed to get in around the same area . As we chipped up the canal bank we came into a swim with Dave Whibley hanging onto a well bent rod . We stopped to watch , I got the camera out as it not often you can get action shots ! , and I rattled a few off . The fish went into the net , and it was obviously a
goodun , 30+ for sure, and a PB for him . We managed to get the action and fish photos of his PB to Dave later , he loved them a rare event !.After weighing and doing the photos Dave asked me to go back to the carpark and wake Roger up from sleeping in his campervan , as fish were obviously feeding . I was not happy as I wanted to fish , but ran back a fair way . When I got to his van the curtains were shut , all quiet . I banged on the windows but got no reply , so gave it a good few more , and a lot louder . Roger face appeared , " fuck off ". I banged again , his face appeared again , I told him of Dave,s catch , and off the fish feeding in his swim .... " fuck off " , ah well you can but try !.
What happened later that day put a stop to my fishing there really . Due to the matches being held on there most Saturdays we played a bit of a cat and mouse game . We had been getting into a swim and putting up a brolly with a wrapround bivvi attached , pretending we were syndicate members as they pegged around them , not waking them . I felt that as things were so hard , things were against you , a little stroke like that would not be that bad , and when the match men turned up I just shut my eyes pretending to be asleep !.The match sec thought otherwise , and chucked me off , despite my swim being crap for matches , and there being miles of us-fished banks . When it happened a week later enough was enough , and other than one other day on Alcatraz point I never went back . Those words of Rob still with me decades later , but I do now know what that fish ment ,not the biggest , but it's the best fish I've ever caught .
Hatter
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