Trip #140 – Sherborne Lake – Double Header

I’m yet to catch a big bream in Sherborne Lake, but this was the weekend I was confident of doing it. I’d called into Otter angling in Exeter to grab my maggots and groundbait after work. Honestly, a good few of them were dead, was odd for Otter, as they normally have really good quality bait.

Anyway, my confidence was still high, so high I had set my alarm for 5:20 which gave me enough time to get dressed, grab the bait, get my obligatory McDonald’s and get to the gate for 6am. I was in fact early, and pulled up behind 2 other vehicles, and it wasn’t long before 2 more were behind me. The early bird catches the bream – I hoped.

6am rolled around and I was in. I loaded my trolley and made my way to peg 24. Hilariously a carp angler asked a few of us what pegs we’d be fishing. Someone replied, “from 28 down….”. That seemed vague I thought, especially when you’re headed to peg 40. Anyway, I had set up on 24 and although not as muddy as peg 12, I was still glad I had my wellies on. I would be fishing a single rod; I had also packed a waggler as I knew the silverfish were really starting to wake up.

My setups would be;

• 1 x 15lb J-Braid, 12lb Shock Leader. Down to a 6lb fluorocarbon boom, down to a 4lb fluorocarbon hook link, with a size 18 Matrix feeder finesse on the business end.
• 1 x 4lb Maxima mainline, 5bb stick waggler down to a 3lb hooklink to a size 18 feeder finesse hook.

I made my first cast by 7am and it wasn’t long before the tap of the rod and I was into my first Roach of the day. I was optimistic this would be a promising day, and I was quickly into a Rudd. The water was alive with fish activity, so I set up and started fishing a waggler set up, in the process I switched to a much larger bait on the hook of the feeder rod hoping for a Bream. I was into a small Rudd almost instantly.

Suddenly buzz, buzz, buzz from the side tray. On answering I realised who it was, work! The dreaded standby call. I needed to call the trip short, immediately. I was absolutely devastated. And I threw in maggots and groundbait and set off back towards the car. A few more anglers had turned up in the 2 hours I had been there, but before long I was at home. Laptop on, dialling in to a call. However, all was not lost…

This weekend my mother-in-law was staying, as my wife was working away. After a few hours and an explanation as to why I was home so soon, the magic happened… “Oh that’s a shame, why don’t you go fishing Sunday instead?”. Yes, yes and thrice yes. So, I nipped to TackleUK, grabbed a few red wrigglers and re-packed the car.

The next morning, I avoided the consecutive McDonald’s breakfast and arrived at the lake at 6:10 to find Terry unpacking his car. After a quick chat about Boss boxes and attachment. (They don’t make them anymore, so getting side tray attachments is nigh-on impossible. He had decided to fish Peg 41, I was going try a slightly further down the bank and a different peg from my previous day and set up on peg 39. Knowing the depth of the lake was still down by 70cm (from using the river levels website) meant I would be back down on the mud. Fortunately, this was less silty than pegs 10 and 24 and I was set up and setting my bait up line in no time.

I’d be using the exact same set up as the day before. I didn’t intend using a bait up rod today, so the distance sticks stayed in the bag. First chuck out on double red maggots. Tap, tap. A Roach, then another. I switched to a wafter, again Roach after roach. These smaller fish are entertaining, but can become tiresome, so after roughly an hour of silver fish bashing, I switched to an 8mm pellet. Again, the rod pulled round, and I was into a larger stamp of Roach. These guys were hungry! I swapped to a 12mm wafter, and finally the rod went quiet.

The sun was really starting to come out and I could see the fish rising in front of me. I took the opportunity to re-rig my waggler set up and cast out. At 18 meters (23 turns) it was over 8ft deep. Again, cycling through the bait maggots were attacked immediately, and I had to change the shoting pattern to get close to the bottom as soon as possible. Triple maggots pulled a reasonable stamp of fish, and switching to corn I managed my fish Sherborne Lake skimmer!

This was followed by a string of lovely Roach and Rudd, all falling to corn. Trying my luck on double corn I watched the float slip away, on striking I hit into something much more sizable and felt the thump of a tail. And then nothing! I turned the air blue with my frustration and recast a refreshed bait hoping to attract what I just lost. Sadly, I didn’t manage anything sizable, but the stream of Roach and Rudd was constant. I switched to back to pellet on the feeder and again I was into a very hungry roach.

As this was the second day of fishing, and the wind was really starting to pick up, blowing straight into the bank, I called it a day shortly after 1 PM. It was clear by then that the bream weren’t biting (and I was starting to burn!). Annoying!

Still, it was great to be out on the lake again. The scenery, the wildlife… maybe I’m just getting old, but it truly is a wonderful piece of countryside. I can’t wait to try the lake as the year goes on, still searching for those elusive slabs. And I also know there’s a healthy head of pike at the venue too – another challenge for another day!

As before, you can see my full rating of Sherborne Lake here.