Pads Lake Produces

Written by Chris Thornton Friday, 27 July 2012 07:35

We arrived at the lake for 8am and had a good look round before doing a draw for pegs. It was my lucky day as I got first choice. Once in my chosen swim I had a lead around hoping to find a few clear spots, as the lake is very weedy. Happy with the spots I’d found I began putting out some bait. About a kilo of freezer bait on the main spot in the weed at about 40yards with the other 2 marginal spots getting about 40 to 50 baits each with pellet and L.Zero30.

With the lake being so weedy I decided to fish a snowman set up so my hook baits would be presented well on the bottom. I was also wanting to try out DNA's new 10mm pop ups as well as a new pop up on test. This all tied in nicely with the margin rods have MaltX red and 10mm pink peril pops and the main baited area getting MaltX red with a red berry 10mm pop up. Rigs out and it was time to sit down and take in the view. About an hour in and my right hand rod was away. After a rather hairy fight with the weed I managed to land a 32lb4oz mirror.

I had no more action until the next day when I started to get a few liners and fish fizzing around on the rod at 40 yards. It wasn’t long before my rig was picked up. This time the fight was a little more sedate as the fish seemed to just come in steady through the weed. Fish netted and I had a 27lb8oz on the bank. I topped up the baited spot with 100 or so more freebies and got the rod back out. I ended up having 5 carp off this spot using the same tactics and topping up with 100 baits after each take. A great start for me using the new Red Berry pop ups. In total I managed 8 carp including 3 fish over 30lb to 33lb 8oz with the rest being 20lb+ up to 27lb8oz. One more coming off the margin spot and the other a nice common which I managed to sneak off the top after seeing a few carp cruising to my left.

A cracking weekend with the lads, on my first visit to the Yateley complex. Can’t wait to get back down there now in 5 weeks time with the lads from DNA.

Chris Thornton
July 2012

www.dnabaits.com