Happy with second place – Kingsland Silver

 Kingsland Silver, peg 5 (not permanently pegged).

On to Kingsland Silver Lake, which used to be called Silver Fish Lake, but it appears the silver fish nearly all died. It was a minor tragedy because it was very popular and gave tremendous sport for several years  – crucians, bream, tench, chub – they all appeared to be thriving. But fish die, and it was probably a hot summer that did it – you need only  a freak meterological incident to hasten the event. That’s why so many fishery owners stick with carp.

 

Overcast to start with. With the water low the reeds are no longer a problem.

Anyway just eight of us turned up, the weather was cloudy at the start, but the sun came out, and there was just a little Northerly wind (from our left).  I was halfway along the roadside bank. The water level was down several feet, as the water  has been used for irrigation on the farm; but the platforms have been moved down and it gave us no problems. Trevor was red-hot favorite as he has surface fishing off to a fine art.

Starting on The Method

I started on the Method, intending to stick with it for a while to give me confidence (feedering is not something I am good at), and I soon had a couple of carp for about 5 lb in the net on banded 8mm Red Robin pellet. But splashing from the next swim (Trevor) tempted me to have a go on the surface. I caught about three and lost five in the next hour or so, on floating 6mm expander, but it was frustrating. So I tried bottom fishing, as I could clearly see big carp coming into the side and swirling in just 10 inches of water several feet from the bank.

 

Peter had lots of small carp in his
net, but he had a good day's sport.

The better carp wouldn’t look at a bottom bait, but the small ones – 2 oz apiece – hit every bait almost as soon as it dropped into the water. So after two hours, with about 15 lb in the net, I walked up to Trevor...who said he had 80 lb on his clicker! To be honest I wasn’t surprised, so went back determined to enjoy myself. The next three hours I spent surface fishing on just a top two, and gradually got into the zone using expanders and then bread – which worked for me better than the pellets.

Finding fish on the surface

I found the fish took the floating stuff better if they were almost in the reeds, so hooked a lot there, but never lost one in the reeds. It was good fun, and I experimented with the methods of playing the fish, eventually getting them in in what I thought was a reasonable time. The best was about 6 lb and I lost just one more when I was really a bit heavy-handed.

Ending on the bottom

The winner, Trevor, with 263 lb and seven nets.

With an hour to go I fancied the fish would drop down, so decided to try cat meat. At the same time I put in a third net. In that hour, fishing no morer than 10 inches deep still on a top two, I managed to land 55 lb. Unfortunately they all went into the same net (!) which I estimated at 39 lb...

                                                    I'm overweight again!

Peter Harrison prepares to
weigh in. The platforms are
moved up and down as the
water level alters. At normal
level Peter would be underwater!

So not for the first time I lost weight – 5 lb in that net, almost 2 lb in another, and weighed in 147 lb 12 oz for second. As we all expected Trevor won – he had seven nets and totalled 263 lb 7 oz, which is not even his best weight at Kingsland! I was second, which for me was almost like winning, as I know the others are capable of good weights. And I thoroughly enjoyed myself, which is the main aim.

The result.