Pleasure Days Meadowlands October 17th & 25th

The beauty of working continental shift patterns means we get a fair bit of time off during the week, when everyone else is working. Although the days may change, there is plenty of time for fishing.
Vic and I had planned a day over at Meadowlands, however, with a difference. We would be leaving the rods at home and just taking the pole, leaving the temptation to pick a rod up behind. I had fished the pole on Warren Pool but with the vastness of Lambsdown to look forward to, was another thing.
The carp, and they run big, have plenty of room to run into.
17th October
I arranged to meet up with Vic at 0600 on a bright frosty morning at Jack's Cafe outside Towcester. Thirty five minutes later we were waiting for the lake to open.A good friend of ours,Bryan, was going to meet us later in the day. Now retired he does not get up early.
Paying our day ticket and purchasing a couple of bags of 8 mm fishery pellets we loaded up the barrows, and set off for the early pegs between 20 and 16.
Vic settled into 17, with myself opting for 16 giving me a right hand edge, which suits me more than than the left. I did not expect to fish this line as it was cold and although not clear was quite shallow close in.
We both had a similar plan, five to 6 metres out, strong elastic and strong rigs. I had set up a couple of .4 MW Diamonds to .19 hook lengths and size 16 KKMB hooks in 5ft of water. I set up another to fish in front of the next platform (15) but as explained earlier did not expect to fish it.
Bryan had now arrived and settled into peg 19, he wanted to fish for the large head of silvers and started setting up accordingly.
Starting off with a large toss pot I placed around 8 fishery pellets in the pot and shipped out to 2 plus a half extension and a top kit and gently lowered in a banded 8 mm fishery pellet in amongst the feed.
Vic fishing top kit plus 3 proper sections. was doing similar, easing our way into the session. After around 10 minutes Vic was into his first fish and around 8lb was a scale perfect common. Going back out he was in again, red hydro streaming out of his pole, as the fish made its way out of the peg, never to come back.
I had my first fish after around 20 minutes, a low double figure carp, followed by another shortly afterwards. Vic was now catching well, good size fish between 8lb and 12lb with the odd better fish thrown in.

I was steadily putting a few fish in the landing net and we both commented on the fact the fish were larger on the pole line than on the bomb or waggler. I did have a spell where I lost around 5 fish on the trot, forcing me to go to .22 hook lengths. This also coincided with the light breeze getting up and forcing the rig through the water. Adding 3 inches to the rig slowed it down a little but I suspected some of the lost fish were foul hooked because of this. Eventually, I changed rigs to a .6 version of the same float, making the presentation a lot better. Bites were all positive dips on the float and although we both had to wait for bites, they were regular.
Bryan was catching well fishing corn over some 6mm fishery pellets, switching to expanders occasionally.
I tried to up the feed but potting in a larger amount of feed, approximately 50 pellets and just sitting over it. It did not make any difference to the catch rate, still I would get a bite after 5 minutes.

Bryan, ending up with around 35lb of silvers throughout the day, whilst both Vic and I had an excellent days fishing, catching fish from 6lb through to what we estimated were fish around the 15lb mark. A few lost rigs, a couple of snapped elastics but still an enjoyable day.
25th October
Our next trip out was again to Meadowlands, the weather was still cold and the first hard frost had occurred overnight. There was rain planned for late morning and a lot of it, by all accounts. Mick was coming with us today, and we settled on a 0630 start at Jacks Cafe, meeting up with Vic again. A good steady journey soon had us pulling into Meadowlands car park where more fishery pellets and a day ticket was purchased in anticipation of a good day.
We decided to move a little further to our right on this session, going for 13,14 and 15. Still in the deeper water and not too far from the previous week's fishing. I opted for 13, Vic on 14 and Mick into 15.
Again I set up a couple of .4 MW Diamonds to fish the 5ft depth, .19 line through to a size 14 KKMB hook. I also set up another .6 MW Diamond, just in case the wind and planned rain got up. No margin rig this time. I had replaced the red hydro's in the top kit's and also tried a blue KND elastic.
Again starting off the feeding by introducing around 8 pellets each put in via a toss pot, seemed to work after around 20 minutes, a cracking mirror around 10lb, a couple more followed, like peas in a pod and after an hour I had 4 fish 3 at 10lb and a smaller 6lber. Vic had a similar catch with one of his fish going 16lb 2oz on a set of scales. Mick was plugging away and a couple of fish had fallen to his waggler tactics at short range.
As the morning progressed, the fishing improved, some we would get out, others not. BUT, it was enjoyable all the same. A run of skimmers to just over the pound kept things interesting and you suspected a lot of the bites were from them. It was just getting a hook and pellet into there mouth's.
A couple of smashed up top kits did not dampen my spirits, The blue KND had coped well before snapping at the dacron connector.
It was hard to believe that it was the end of October, the fishing was really good, plenty of bites and elastic stretching fish. I had a beautiful common carp weighing 15lb 13oz and Mick blitzed that with one of 19lb 2oz. All of us had over 100lb of fish easily, we needed to work at it in some horrible wet and windswept conditions, but we all caught and caught well.
I am not sure when my next match will be, but i will keep the blog going with either a match or a pleasure day.