Nestled on the Oxfordshire/ Northants border is a small syndicate lake that was once one of the most popular day ticket waters in the area. Famed for the amount of 20 pound commons it used to contain and fished by many of the top anglers in the area, the lake was very pressured in the late 90s but it still produced some big hits of 20 to 30 pound carp.
Joining the commons syndicate came about purely through circumstance. My family home in Buckinghamshire had been compulsory purchased by HS2 (Feel free to boo here) and in December 2019, we moved into our new house in North Oxfordshire.
On the frequent journey’s to and from the new place I passed the lake and could see from the road it had a full otter fence around it. Like many, I’d heard rumours that the place had been decimated over the years and that there was only a handful of fish left. However, being 5 minutes from home I thought It would be a convenient venue so made some enquiries and got myself on the waiting list, fully expecting to be fishing for just a handful of survivors.
I was luckily offered a place at the start of March 2020 and after collecting my ticket I had a walk round most days after work but due to it being so early and it being so cold, I saw nothing. However, a week or so later the weather really warmed up and on one of my walks I found a group of about 15 fish milling about a couple of feet from the bank in really shallow water. I literally ran to the car and headed home to collect some basics all the while being paranoid that someone else would turn up and ruin what was a really good opportunity to open my account. I arrived back about 20 minutes later relieved to find the lake still empty and the carp in the margins where I’d left them.
Armed with just a single rod I lowered the rig in a little bit up the bank with a whittled down snowberry bottom bait and a handful of broken baits around it, slackened the line right off, laid the rod on the floor and sat on my mat to await what I hoped to be the inevitable. A little while passed and I got twitchy (I’m sure you know how it is), and couldn’t resist a little peek to see what was going on. I crept up to my baited spot to see a number of chunky commons all feeding on the bait so I sat back on the mat and a short while later the water erupted as carp shot in all directions and the spool went into meltdown. After a brief tussle, a good common went over the net cord and at 25.12 was a nice way to get the first one under my belt.
I went back a few days later for an overnighter and after doing a couple of laps found a load of fish down one end of the lake under some overhanging trees and after chatting to a couple of guys that were fishing, it was apparent that they had been down there for a few days but were just happy sunning themselves and wouldn’t feed on the bottom or top. I set up there thinking that I’d got the location right anyway and spent a couple of hours just watching them. It did seem like they weren’t interested until I flicked a few grains of corn out. First one drifted in and dropped down sending plumes of silt up, then another joined it then another. It definitely seemed like corn was the catalyst here, so I placed my rigs, with yellow Aniseed dream pop ups, a handful of chopped snowberry and a good helping of corn and sat back and waited. Two 20lb commons fell to that tactic that night and I was sure over the next few weeks I’d bag a fair few more…………..The next day the country was on lockdown.
Lockdown was hard for everyone and I was really chomping at the bit to go, I felt that I had been robbed of the best weeks of the angling calendar but putting it into perspective – it was only fishing. That said, when fishing was given the green light, I was determined to make the most of it and made a deal with my wife that I’d get two overnighters a week. Now these overnighters would be just that, put the little one to bed, go to the lake for the night and then back to work from home in the morning.
When the lake first re opened it was (like most places) on a rota to allow all members chance to fish. It was 24hrs on, then off for a week. I arrived at the lake and was blown away by how spring had really taken hold. It was the 17th of May and everything was lush and green and there were carp everywhere. I’m not a guy that sits behind buzzers if I can help it much preferring to fish with a single rod and creep around. So after walking to the first little bay and finding a group of carp, I could do little more than quickly grab some kit and a few minutes later landed a 26 pounder. I returned the fish and continued my walk finding another few fish tucked away and nicked a low 20 from under the rod tip. This was really my kind of fishing. I set up for the night and landed two more 20 pound commons.
It became clear to me that this would be my main route to success. Arrive at the lake, look for stalking opportunities in the edge, then set up for the night in the area where I’d seen most fish and try and bag a couple of bonus fish before I’d start fishing ‘properly’.
It was apparent that the lake held an incredible stock of fish in the 20-30lb bracket and was exactly the opposite to what I expected, a few fish were taken for sure and lots bare the scars of close encounters, but the fish had healed nicely and were thriving in the now safe environment.
As a few weeks passed by I had been catching well using the Snowberry and was happy with my results, they obviously liked it as I was catching a couple every night, but just had a niggling feeling that given the stock there was more in the locker and wanted something to really take it up a notch. I messaged Gavin to pick his brains and duly ordered some HNV Pro following his recommendation.
My first overnighter on the HNV I had 6, 4 x 20 pound commons and 2 of the rare mirrors that the lake held, one being a mega zip linear. Ok, now this bait had now got my attention.
Over the next few sessions I was almost broken, the HNV was seriously attractive, not just to the carp, but the bream and the hoards of dirty crayfish that the lake is riddled with. I couldn’t take anymore. I messaged Gav again and said I needed something else. His words were ‘Attractive to Crays, attractive to Carp’. What could I say to that?
I ordered some Milky Nut Pro 12 millers anyway, just to bulk it out with a nutty based bait, and a load more HNV, I just needed to get my head around cray proofing the hook baits as they were driving me to distraction.
The only logical thing to do was to go with the plastic. I am sure that by fishing plastic baits I am sacrificing bites, and still cant quite get my head around casting a bit of plastic into a lake and hoping a carp picks it up (it’s a confidence thing), but that first session l spodded a bits type mix, consisting of chopped and whole HNV, 12mm Milky Nut pro, corn, pellet, hemp and chickpeas to try and outfox the crays and landed 8 fish including 6 20s to 29.8. I was obviously happy with this, but with the number of crays in there, it really messed my mind thinking that they could be happily munching all the free offerings every night and I’m just left with a little bit of plastic out in the pond come morning bite time. Maybe I was over thinking it but wanted the best of both worlds, so after that session I opted for shrink wrapped wafters tipped with a bit of plastic corn and fished spinner rig style with heavy mono through the baits which i knotted and blobbed down onto the plastic and to be honest i haven’t looked back since. This is my go-to tactic for 90% of my fishing (unless the crays aren’t too active, then I’ll fish a straight Wafter from the pot). It seems if I am getting crayed the carp aren’t present in numbers so I’ll just move and if I can get away with it just boilie fish. A couple of areas of the lake are totally cray free (the more Choddy/silty areas), but the stars really have to align for fish to be in there in numbers and when they do turn up, it’s pretty straightforward fishing. Helicopter rigs with the bead slid up with a slow sinking Power lifter and the HNV/Milky nut combo as free offerings. This tactic really started to pay off and by staying on my toes and applying the bait combo regularly I managed to get the fish feeding really hard throughout the summer.
With any great story there needs to be a dramatic or romantic ending, boy meets girl, girl plays hard to get but, in the end they live happily ever after. In “carpy” terms: Angler sets his sights on a target fish and though effort, perseverance and sheer determination gets the ultimate prize…Unfortunately this story has not really ended yet as it is just a continuous tale of lots of 20 pound commons and at the time of writing (17 sept ) I have landed an obscene 103 x 20s and 3 x 30s since the lake re opened after lockdown which is crazy considering I thought I was fishing for just a few old otter dodgers.
Since going over to the HNV/milky nut combo my catch rate has absolutely gone through the roof, from catching a nice steady couple each night, to an average of 5 or 6, to even 10 in an overnighter, is just beyond belief.
As autumn is now fast approaching, I think my plans will remain the same and I’ll just carry on until my ticket expires in March and see what happens as I am confident of it being a good winter water plus the crayfish will be less active and there is one fish that has so far eluded me of around the 30lb mark, so it would be nice to get a shot of her over the colder months. Watch this space and keep your eyes on the social media pages as I know she is only a few casts away!!
