gaz
When I started in Reading last spring, it was purely as somewhere local to work and a better option than a long commute every day. I told myself I wouldn’t get too ‘into’ it, and that work had to remain the focus, which it did, but the angler in me just couldn’t settle for only giving it a half-hearted effort, so I ended up walking, looking and angling as hard as I could. If it took me two hours to find them, and another hour to get them out at 34 wraps over bait, then so be it.
They seemed to spend a lot of time out at range in the relatively safe middle zones, so it ended up being a range game, trying to nick bites during the hours I was there. The lake itself was an odd one – being painfully daytime orientated it made trying to get night bites a difficult prospect, and it took me a few weeks to work it all out.
Being predominantly silty, shallow and with vast areas of low-lying silk weed in the late spring and summer meant that heli’s and long hinges were often first choice, not wanting to spend too long leading around as I was often setting up on fish. Heli Safes on a few feet of leadcore with 4-5oz leads for the range were the mainstay, ensuring I could drop the leads and not have too many dramas with the weed.
This mirror was one I’d seen a shot of and earmarked as the ‘most wanted’, even though I didn’t want to start thinking about targets, I couldn’t help thinking this would be a mega one to add to the album. By far the best looking of the big uns.
I’d seen a few shows out at range as I was packing up the previous morning and noted it for that night, arriving back around 5.45 after work. Thankfully the area was free, no one else had pre-empted the fresh NW wind and I got them all out sweet, finding a lovely firm spot amongst the silt and weed right in the area they’d shown – without doubt an area they’d freshly harvested.
It all came together perfectly. A rare one from the pit, and one I didn’t expect to be crossing paths with – ‘Blackspot’ at 43.’