Haywood Pool PB Capture

I recently fished a 36hr session on a very beautiful and intimate lake called Hayward pool and managed a new PB. Needless to say I have booked my next session already! There were 3 of us fishing the lake so it was only fair that we picked a number from a hat to determine which swim we would fish from. Hayward pool is roughly 3 acres and you can only fish from one side of the lake, with the far margin being a good area to target. There are plenty of over hanging trees and reeds to fish to but I had my eye on one particular swim that the wind was due to push into. As always seems to be the case I pulled number 3 from the hat so that left me with last choice (typical). Luckily for me the other lads chose to fish the middle and top end which left me with what would of been my first choice. Maybe my luck is starting to change? I was in no rush to get the rods out because I had been informed by the owner of the lake that not that many had been out of late. This did not come as a surprise due to the low water temps and biting winds that we had been experiencing for a couple of weeks prior to my session. It seems that people had carried on with the usual scattering of boilies with 3 chods cast around the baited area, well I thought I would do something a little bit different to the norm and just set little traps.

I put the kettle on, made a "cuppa" and then walked  along the dam wall to see if I could spot any signs that carp were in the area. As I passed the middle of the wall I peered through the dead reeds and noticed a few bubbles in an area that looked a lot more coloured than anywhere else that I could find. On other trips to small waters like Hayward pool I have noticed more times than not the fish can be very "spooky" so decided to cast onto the wall and then in turn clip the rig on and drop the rig in by hand. So the lead was cast onto the bank and the rig  taken round and clipped on before being dropped only a few yards from the bank. I decided to use a fairly short 5inch Fox Cortex hooklink with a size 7 Fox ssbp hook fished blow back style.

Bait wise I only wanted to put in enough for a bite and not to feed the fish as such so opted for a 14mm Richworth Ultra-Plex bottom bait tipped with an 8mm Richworth top up soaked in Hinders Betalin.  A small bag of Richworth bag mix/Hinders Little Gemz 50/50 was hooked onto the rig before being lowered into position along with just 3 boilies around the area. I didn't have to wait long for a bite and as the bobbin pulled up I was on the rod in a flash! During the fight the owner of the lake had informed me that I had the "Little lin" on the end ...... I knew that this fish would smash my previous pb of 27lb 2oz so the fight was one I will not forget in a hurry. This was to be the only fish of the trip for me but I went home a very happy chap. And here is what dreams are made of. A new pb weighing 33lb 4oz.

Kris