"THE DINGLE"

This was one of my favourite local venues a place where I used to visit many years ago! a place where the matches were mostly dominated by carp.

It certainly looks as though times have changed since those days, and the clubs restocking program has with out doubt improved the fishing.

With the introduction of some quality fish such as Tench, ide, chub, and Perch you never know what you are going to catch!

On two or three recent visits my friend and I have had mixed nets of fish, as you will see from the photo, each time we have fished it we have had similar weights just into double figures. Considering the prolonged cold weather
we have had I don't think we have done too badly!

All methods and baits can work well on here, for instance I fished on the waggler float on one occasion, and caught carp, tench, skimmer bream, chub, ide, and roach, fishing with casters on the hook.

The only draw back was that with not having fished on a waggler for many years, I lost most of them fishing towards an island. Never the less one of the clubs officials has kindly promised to retrieve them for me! having said that I have taken the precaution of making some more for next time.

I have been told that the club have also introduced barbel into Peggy's pool, which is the smaller of the two lakes.

This catch was taken on a ten mtr pole with maggots casters and the odd piece of corn on the hook, over a bed of hemp seed and casters although I am told that sweet corn is the bait to use, I didn't get many bites when I tried it. Perhaps it will work better during the summer months if we get one!!

There are plenty of crucian carp to be caught and I do know they love sweet corn, it might be a little early in the year for them to show up yet though.

One thing I have learned on this lake, is that if your swim does happen to go quiet, you can almost guarantee a predator has moved in, or even a shoal of Carp.

This seems to be a common occurrence on a lot of waters, I have fished, and to some extent it largely depends on how you feed it, how the fish respond.

This can also be the signal to try a bigger bait or change it to something else, this has worked for me each time I have been there. A good yard stick is to keep ringing the changes, and try not to be complacent you may be surprised at the results as I was!

Another scenario is that, the fish may have risen up in the water to intercept your loose offerings. This tends to happen if you start to introduce loose feed on a very regular basis, and of course when the fish are very hungry!! mostly during the warmer Months.

So as always it would make sense to have a rig set up in order to fish shallow, just in case this appears to be what has happened.

I am certainly looking forward to the new season, and my friend and I will be getting in as much practice as possible for the forth coming matches.

Hopefully we will get amongst the fish and improve our catches! "although pleasure fishing is a completely different concept to matches".
I am looking forward to getting to know more about the lake.

Will keep you posted on the results if any? tight lines.