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JOCK’S
DINTON DIARIES
Part
Two
Thursday 8
June
Down
at Dinton for the mandatory close season work party,
I had a chance to see the lake for the first time
since my end of season success.
Fish were in all the usual spots they inhabit on the
shallows, down in the car park end and patrolling up
and down the margins in various corners and
bays. Not much weed to speak of but
with the long cold winter we had, everything seems
about a month behind.
Such
was the success of the French trip, I am full of
confidence that the Dinton carp will quickly accept
the bait once the season began on June 16, if I could
get on the fish. Having
caught the 40 on my last session before the close
season, and having done well in France, a picture was
beginning to emerge of how to successfully fish the
particle/groundbait approach.
Large quantities of cloudy, milky sludge, mixed with
liquid foods such as corn steep liquor and tiger
slime, with tiny particles and pieces of food
drifting down through the water, seemed to set the
fish into a feeding frenzy.
Including plenty of different food items gives a
choice of hookbaits – small boilies, pop ups,
plastic baits, sweetcorn
etc. The variety of
different foods probably makes it less likely that
the fish will become wary of the bait, and will also
provide a better nutritional balance than just 1 type
of bait e.g. just boilies or just
particles.
Whether
you spod the mix out or throw it by hand depends on
how far out you want to fish, but either way I think
the best option is little and
often. At Millstone Pool, a
heavy initial baiting each day of about 7 kilos wet
weight was followed by regular top-ups after each
fish.
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Thursday 15 June
6pm in the anglers car park and Simon has his little
cloth bag ready for the draw. It’s
the only time we have a draw for swims, and since
there are about 20 anglers it makes
sense. Last year there were
35! 2 years ago I came out last of 20 anglers,
last year I came out about 20th of
35! Surely this year will be
better. Out with the first few tickets and Gary
Verrity, last years superstar comes out
2nd accompanied by groans from
everyone. I eventually come out about
16th and with virtually every carp in the
car park end, and all the best car park swims taken,
I am relegated to fishing down the bottom end.
A good swim normally (one of the best), but at the
moment there probably isn’t a carp within 300
yards of me. Despite all this I still feel
confident. The weather forecast shows increasing
temperatures, and with the angling pressure in the
car park end some fish will definitely get pushed
down this end of the
lake.
While in peg 5 I bait up heavily with Hinders
Nutz Sludge, to the following recipe
:
Half
of the mix goes on a hard spot about 40 yards out,
while half goes into a delightful margin spot,
visible from a small tree near the
swim. Harvey caught several big
fish from this spot about 3-4 years ago, but since
then it has hardly been fished.
I’ve seen big fish in this area on several
occasions in the past couple of years, and when the
fish move down from the car park end, I’m
confident they will feed under the tree.
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Friday 16
June
There’s
already been a 49 and 41 out down the bottom end, and
I’ve got itchy feet already. A long walk
round the lake and I find a big group of fish right
in the margins around the Beach area, with only 1
angler in sight for 100 yards. After an
unsuccessful afternoon stalking them in 2-3 swims, it
looks like the fish are here to
stay. I grab all the gear, stick it
on the Mk4S
Carpporter (with 3 wheels you only have to
push it along-fantastic!) and head for the
Beach.
With
both rods out on good margin spots, I am hopeful of a
take after dark or early morning. I
don’t bait heavily as the fish are still here
in the margins at dusk.
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Saturday
17 June
Nothing
visible close in where the fish were evident
yesterday. Temperatures
rising and carp are bow waving all over the middle of
the lake. They look as if they are starting to
spread out, moving in small groups out of the car
park end and heading down the far margin. Late
afternoon there are no fish in my area, but plenty
still in the car park end. A quick phone call
to my buddy Brian who’s fishing at the bottom
end, and he tells me that some fish have been
crashing over my bait in the bottom end. I
start packing up for another move, but just to make
sure, I leave the gear and trot down the bottom end
for a look up the spotting trees. A couple of
dozen fish are in evidence, and under the small tree
there are about ½ dozen fish ripping the
bottom up to get at the bait! One of the fish
looks like the Fat Common, while another looks like
Sid! The water is muddy and at times all I can
see is big tails waving around. Scramble down
the tree and try not to give too much away with my
body language. Just act casual and nobody will
notice my excitement! I stick the gear in one
of the platform swims.
Difficult cast to the spot under the tree, but with
the chest waders on I can just get to it. Only
one rod under the tree at the moment.
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Sunday 18
June
Nothing
happened overnight, but a quick check up the big
spotting tree reveals a number of fish in the area,
including the spot under the small tree. Down
the tree I chuck in another 5kg Sludge
mix on the marginal spot and recast.
Hookbaits are plastic sweetcorn on one rod, tiny
pop-up on the other.
1
hour later I get a belting run on plastic corn and a
powerful fish races along the margins and then turns
out towards the weedbeds 30 yards
out. After a short, powerful
scrap I net a stunning 31lb male
mirror. Its head and shoulders are
rough from spawning tubercles, but big golden scales
glow in the sunshine. It is a fish I was
discussing with the Solicitor just the previous
evening, and he is as delighted as me to see it on
the bank.
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Jock
with a stunning 31lb Mirror. The first of the
season from
Dinton
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One
hour later and the same rod is off again, and an
identical battle results in an almost identical fish-
30lb 12oz of male mirror, again with the very rough
sandpaper skin over its head and
shoulders. This fish is well
known as Two Tone, even though there are several two
tone fish in the lake
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2 or
3 hours later and I can scarcely believe I’ve
got another run! I have moved
the 2nd rod round towards the small tree,
onto another clear patch, and its this one
that’s gone off. This one weeds me up
several times, but when I get it in, it turns out to
be the charismatic Tuftie linear at
28½lb. This fish gets its name from the
pond next door where it was originally living, before
fishery manager Simon Bartlam decided its peaceful
existence needing livening up
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Jock
with the Tuftie Linear at 28 ½ lb
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By
now news of my 3 captures has gone round the lake,
and since few other fish are being caught in other
areas, anglers are slowly but surely appearing
nearby. The pressure will definitely drive the
fish away, but before it does, I manage one
more. A blinding run while I’m sitting
chatting to Harvey in the next door swim results in a
cracking 31½ common. It’s a short
compact fish of lovely appearance, and is a fitting
end too a marvellous session. There are now
loads of fish down in my corner, leaping, rolling and
fizzing all over the swim. The weed is coming
up and the lake looks fantastic. I
can’t wait to get back!
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Jock
with his final fish of the session a 31 ½ lb
Common
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