Good Evening.

The weekend has passed by and the lake really has seemed rather lifeless. Today though, I have witnessed a couple of carp crash out and there have been several more this evening. It is a good sign but I am not going to count my chickens quite yet. The weather for the area is still very mild and although it should be fantastic weather for carp fishing, the water temperature is about 9 degrees and when one considers, about six weeks ago it was 27, that is quite a sharp drop.

You will notice the temperature tonight is rather high and perhaps this might trigger the carp to feed a little or hopefully a lot! I have been writing steadily since Saturday evening and trying to get my story finished but, it is hard to do when you are also trying to catch a carp! I dedicated about four hours to the fishing this afternoon, and reeled in the rods, put on new rigs and baits and then went out in my boat to look for some new areas. I don’t have a great deal of time at Blue Water Lakes and as time is of the essence I am searching out all the opportunities I have. I have dropped one rod on top of a shallow bar in 6ft of water that comes up a couple of feet off the bottom.Two rods have been placed in the middle of the lake, one on a 11ft plateau type feature and one at the bottom of this at 16ft. The final rod has been placed about two rod lengths out from the margin in a quiet corner of the lake where the wind was blowing into. It gradually slopes up from 16ft to 11ft and then it rises steeply to the edges. They all seem great areas and I would normally be very confident of a take on any lake fishing to these kinds of features or areas and I guess it just depends on the carp and if they are moving much and feeding well. They are at least jumping this evening so they are certainly moving so that is half the battle won!

Tap tap tap!!

The owner Jim Clavin pops down every day with his wife, Jan, to do maintenance work etc…Even he was surprised today, by the lack of fish showing down the shallow end of the lake that he was working on and he thinks this is very unusual. He does think the carp have been feeding on naturals more and the lake has had a weed issue this year. This has probably offered the carp a more varied than normal diet and when there are easy pickings to be had with less risks it is not surprising they prefer to eat snails and water shrimp for example. If I was a carp I know for one I would just eat mussels and crayfish, but then I’ve always loved shellfish!!

Dinner is served...

At the end of the day I am not making any excuses for the lack of carp and I have total faith that one will turn up soon. You can only do what you know and I have kept working hard, but, with an article to write at the same time I know I haven’t been giving it 100%. Thankfully tonight that should be finished! I am however enjoying myself and my additional creature comforts and that is ultimately why I am here (okay I wouldn’t mind the big one which should be around 60lb at the moment)!! At commercial waters it can be very easy to fall into the trap of comparing results from the last week’s anglers. I am not thinking about what was caught last week as every week is different. I am fishing and as usual I will do it my way!

An electric kettle to make my coffee!!!

Back tomorrow.

Jake and the dogs.