A very long time ago , compared to some who read this blog ! I trod the banks of a bonkers lake , Stanborough Lake . Much has been written about this fishery , but unless you have fished it , the you can't understand how mad , awefull , crap , threatening , fantastic , beautiful , frustrating , rewarding lake it could be , AND all in one day !. Some of the top anglers of the time were fishing it , so much so that people travelled some distances to try their luck . Not that it held big fish , as on a national scale they were very average , although at that time a day ticket water with lots of doubles was well sort after , and the chance of 20lb fish were hard to find in the late 70's onwards. As it was only half an hour from my works ( Vauxhalls in Luton ) , it ment an afternoon / eve session was always on the cards . At that time a few of my mates were doing the same , Dan , Doris , Maylin , all to go on to catch big fish over the years , but cut their teeth on the Cracker Factory as was known . There were a few things on the lake that made the fishing entertaining , no night fishing , one rod only through the summer , a baliff that could be eccentric at times , every swim packed out , arguments over who's water you cast into , sailing boats , a mental speedboat now and then, and worse still the windsurfers that were learning , mainly learning to not drown , and smash your rods !. All this , the start of the hair rig ,and long range fishing will cement the lake in carp fishing history . There was a standard way of fishing , other than the first two swims that were opposite each other where both of them fished into a no fishing area , you just crashed it out towards the middle with a stringer attached , and " black widowed " some baits around it . Occasionally you moved around when you see fish showing , but normally it was so full that fish location came second on the day , you just took your chance . I caught my share of fish over the years , some good days were equalled out with poor ones , but always eventful .
My favorite swim under the tree over on the left .
One day after many years doing the same old thing I thought I would try out the way I was fishing on another lake with tigers , much to the micky taking of my mates , and in the end it's the only way I fished there . At catapult range of around 30yds I put out some nuts with a rod over the top . Nothing really spectacular happened that day , but I did have a couple of fish whilst all the rest struggled , and I filled this for my fishing there once I found an area where I could take advantage of nuts to see if would work consistently . After a bit of luck when I picked a swim on the police bank Where I found a band of gravel at this distance next to a tree where I could tuck myself away , and pult out a few tigers on the quiet . I got into a bit of a roll , no big fish , but out catching most on the lake with 8. , 10 , 14 , and my best 17 fish in a day . The baliff was on my case a bit , but I was hiding my tigers , and hiding my second rod in my rod bag well !. You see I was having one rod on the buzzer for all to see , but fishing a second rod by casting it out , breaking it in two putting it into a rod holdall all set up next to the edge of the water , so a take would see the top section moving forward , and all you needed to do was grab both bits putting them together ,then play the fish as normal , but when it was too busy it was down to the one rod !. It was really good fishing , but with a silly tiger ban it was a matter of time before it come to an end !
A good spell on the police bank !
Because I had caught a fair few fish over the years I thought I would never catch a 20lb fish from it , I was just hoping one would slip up . Catching a fair few fish I decided to take my dad with me for some action on his rod . Back in my swim all was going well for us , we caught a few that day , and with a few hours of good fishing ahead I was hoping for some more . As I spied John the baliff out the corner of my eye in the swim next door collecting the ticket money , when my rod blasted off !, he strolled into the swim giving him the opportunity to study what I was doing ( the day before as I caught one he ran up the bank into my swim to suss me out , but I bluffed him with a second rod with a boillie leaning against the brolly ) , and I'm sure he knew that I was using nuts . I played the fish as my dad chatted to him unaware that I wanted him to move on !. I bundled a upper double into the net , leaving the fish in the net as I unhooked it , and tipped it back all in one motion . Unfortunately the size 6 hook pulled into my thumb !, with blood flowing I could not show them as a tiger nut was attached for all to see . I just knelt down waiting for them to stop chatting so I could see the damage , but they were getting on well , and they chatted for ages !. Eventually he did wandered off , and I could show my dad the problem . It was a strait choice ,off to hospital to have it treated with the loss of the chance to carry on in a going swim , or the stanly knife treatment ! , to the horror of my dad I gave the skin a small slice enough to release the hook !!. Silly really , but I was a lot younger , and some electrical tape stopped the blood !. We had a great day , but the next was to be one of my last there . On a very quiet lake with few anglers for a change I got back into the groove , caught a couple of fish , then a twenty pound leathery carp lay on the mat !, I was so chuffed . After catching another fish I was standing on the edge of the swim trying to reach the spot with the catapult in the strong headwind when I was caught bang to rights with a couple of bailiffs standing behind me ! , time to move on !.
Now you can night fish , spod , generally modern day carp fish the lake , but do you know what ?, I bloody loved the cracker factory how it was , and I'm glad I fished it when I did !.
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