Trip #134 – Revels – Canal Lake

When opportunities present themselves. Sometimes you just have to take them. Today was not an exception to that rule. I’d spent most of the morning faffing around, collecting shopping, tidying, boring weekend jobs, when just before lunch my youngest son said “Dad, can we go fishing?”. Abso-bloody-lutely! And with it being the youngest son, I knew I didn’t have a long window. So I decided on another trip to Revels but this time we would fish the canal lake. (Because there was a match on main lake). I swung by TackleUK on the way to grab some maggots and we were off. 

Arriving at Revels, this was the busiest I had seen the car park, as a result, I had to park up near the chickens. Fortunately I had my trolley so I loaded the gear on and off we went. I’d never fished canal lake, and I’d anticipated a long walk to the very end. We did fish the end peg but in this case it was the first one Tim arrived at because ”my legs are very achy…”. To be fair, it looked like he picked a reasonable peg with a bit of structure to the right, though, I am always dubious of pegs closest to the car park as they tend to be hammered. 

Not sure of what awaited us after our last trip to Revels Main lake, I still chose to use the pole but also had a backup feeder rod which I would sling out in the hope of catching a stray big fish. My setup would be as follows. 

• 1 x Top 5 on to a 4lb rig line with a .3g float, down to a 3lb pre-tied 6 inch hooklink on a size 16.
• 1 x 11ft feeder rod, 8lb mainline, guru hybrid feeder and a 4 inch 6lb pre-tied banded hook link.

I set my rod and rod rest up quickly and with a gentle underarm flick lobbed the feeder loaded with pellets across to the opposite margin. Then I set up the roach rig and handed it to my 4-year-old and told him his sole job was to “Watch that float”. It wasn’t long before the float slipped away and we were into our first fish of the day, a skimmer of around a couple of ounces. A bird had clearly been at this one as there was a wound towards its tail. I unhooked the fish and asked Tim if he fancied holding it, to which he said, “yep” and before I knew it he was putting the fish back in the lake. 

Looking up the lake, it seemed to be a quiet day, although the occasional fish was moving, I didn’t see a single fish come to any of the anglers fishing alongside me on. So when we caught our second third and fourth skimmers I was quite relieved. They weren’t coming thick and fast, but at least we were into some fish. I was fishing about 3 to 4 in over depth. We then caught a little roach and a rudd before I noticed a carp cruising around on the surface in front of us. I asked him for the pole and shipped in switching the rig to an on the drop pattern. Triple maggot on the hook and shipped out, adding a few more sections. The float slipped under and although not the carp I wanted, I was into another skimmer.

I released the fish and shipped back out, before the floated even settled I was into a fish and this time it wasn’t a skimmer. “Tim, I’ve got a big one!” I said. Tim immediately went for the net which I thought was really awesome. Though I’m not sure he would have been able to land it on his own, I played the fish to the bank and helped ease the fish into the net. A very proud dad and son moment indeed. Tim was keen to get the fish back in the lake so I helped him take the fish of about 5 lb over to the water and dropped the net into the margin, the fish swam off and we sat back down. Really pleased that we’d managed such a lovely fish on such a quiet day. 

People around us at this point had started to leave as the lake wasn’t producing, we stuck it out and carried on and managed a few more of those skimmers taking the maggots on the drop. Time was ticking on and honestly I was getting hungry so I mentioned to Tim that this would be the last fish. Little did I realise that my feeder rod was about to rip round. I’d hooked into another carp. “You’ve caught another one!” Tim shouted. “Yep!” I replied. “Quick get the net!” I told him. There’s something quite comical about watching a 4-year-old pick up a landing net handle that is over 10 ft long. But with the better guidance and manoeuvring Tim was stood beside me, net in the water. Awaiting the next fish. This was another common slightly bigger at around 6 lb. I pulled him up over the lip of the net and that was that. I placed the fish on the unhooking mat, and asked him if he would like a hold, at which point the carp went berserk and I think Tim got a bit scared. We took the net back over to the water and released the fish. A slightly older gentleman had walked behind us at this point and I’d said “atleast someone is catching, I’ve had bugger all!”. “Beginners luck” I said pointing at Tim, and began to pack up. 

Before long we were in the car heading back home, after the obligatory trip to see the horses, turkey, ducks and chickens… not a bad session for a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon, I still don’t feel I could rate it properly as I was trying to get Tim to cooperate a lot of the time. That said I can’t complain as now I am a YSAA member it is free fishing. I know the YSAA takes some school children to the lake once a week, it’s a really lovely idea to introduce children into angling I hope it’s something that the club continues.

While I can’t rate the fishing entirely it would be difficult to get a wheelchair next to the lake without assistance as the paths are quite uneven. I will almost certainly return and try and fish the lake properly to give it a more accurate review.