After a three
hour drive down to Linear Fisheries, Oxford, we were
well happy, when we found there were swims available
on St Johns lake.
As we had squashed all our gear into one car we did
not have a trolley (bad move). we had to carry all
our gear to the other side of the lake!!! (Gas
bottle, sacks of hemp, beer, sacks of pellets and all
the rest of the gear)
As the swim was all set up we began to bait up the
water, spodding out to a gravel bar at 80 yards with
hemp, pellet and boilies with a few maggots thrown
in.
We were now ready to catch so we settled down
with a few beers and a cheeky T-bone for dinner!
Feeling confident as we had good swims and big fish
had been visiting the bank from our swims, I had the
first run that evening feeling rather exited on the
first run i struck into it and landed a 8-9 lb tench,
not what we were looking for but it was a confidence
boost, fish were feeding out there!!!!!
No more runs that night and no sign of any fish near
us. After a few more beers and more luxury fayre,
the next night came and went, no more fish ??
Marsbar with a pukka St John's Mirror
On the third day we decided we would have a walk up
to the shallow end of the lake, on our arrival we
found fish were topping and one guy landed a nice
mirror while we were there. We thought that a move
was on the cards and when one of the other anglers
told us that all the fish were at this end of the
lake we decided it was definitely time for a move.
The only trouble being we had to carry all that
bloody gear again, so off we went!!!!!!
On arrival in our new swims we got baited up and
started again, feeling a lot more confident with
fish topping all over the place.
After this move the rest is history, we had some
great fish between us all, starting with Bumpy if i
remember. I managed to catch 20lb m,13lb m,17lb
m,25lb 12 m and the fish of the week, the long
common at
37lb 4oz.
