Spodding Doesn't Work - A Session on Sandhurst
Lake - by Nathan "Bumpy" Highly
Bumpy with a 27lb 10oz Sandhurst Common
It was roughly 9 years ago that I last fished over at Sandhurst
lake in Yateley, It's a lovely pit of about 11 acres
or so. Average depth is around 4 foot going down to
about 9 foot at the deepest. When I last fished over
there 9 years ago it was nicely weeded in most
places giving the fish plenty of cover, I really
loved the place.
When Kishy decided he was going to hold his stag
weekend on there I just had to jump at the chance of
fishing it again. So I arranged to go down a couple
of days earlier on the Wednesday with Basil to try
and get a rough idea where I wanted to be on the
weekend.
I arranged to meet Basil at Yateley Angling Centre
on the Wednesday at around lunch time to get our
tickets and any last minute pieces of tackle. After
meeting up and getting everything sorted we set off
for the lake at around 2ish in the afternoon. On
arriving at Sandhurst we were gutted to see how many
cars were in the car park, it was rammed! We spent
the next couple of hours walking round the lake to
try and see if we could spot anything. On walking
round we could see only 5-6 pegs were free.
Another mint common at 25lb 8oz
We decided on pegs 13 and 14 with me going in 13 and
Basil in 14, these two swims had quite allot of
water in front of them compared to the rest of the
free swims, so was a obvious first choice. After
getting all the gear in the swim I got out the
marker and had a feel about. The first thing that
shocked me when having a feel through the swim was
the lack of weed, in fact I couldn't find anything
but gravel. Apparently they had treated the weed
about 2-3 years ago due to people complaining about
it. Anyway I continued to have a feel about to try
and find something. I finally found a small silt
patch at about 80 yards out that I could just fit 3
rods onto. Now going from past experience on here
they love their bait, I used to catch on maize over
hemp and groats. So I'd prepared 15 kilos of hemp
and 7 kilos of groats ready for the session. I mixed
up roughly 4 kilos of hemp, 1 kilo of groats, a tin
of sweetcorn and put in about a quarter of a bottle
of hemp oil. For the next half an hour I spodded
that lot out and proceeded to cover myself and bivvy
in a nice creamy juice...
Rig wise I kept it very simple, 1 metre of leadcore,
lead-clip, 10 inches of ESP Stripteaze, Kamazan carp
maxx size 7 and a small piece of silicone to create
a blow-back effect and to keep the bait in place. On
the hair I put on two yellow bastards(fake corn)
soaked in a special dip, 1 bottom and 1 pop-up to
create a wafting bait.
A clonking 31lb 4oz common to Bumpy
I got all the rods out onto the spot by about 9ish
that night, it was then time for pizza and a couple
of beers. Me and Basil both hit the sack at about
12ish and set the alarm clock early as we knew a lot
of people were going, so if we had no action through
the night could move if we wanted to. I woke up at
about 5ish and took Basil round the usual cup of
tea. At about 7 that morning I had an absolute one
toner and on lifting into it I couldn't believe how
hard it was fighting, it was heading towards the
island so I had to put some pressure on to try and
turn it, as soon as I did the hook pulled, I was
proper gutted. I put the kettle back on and rolled
up a smoke to calm down a bit. I got the rod back
out at about 9ish as I thought recasting it straight
away may disturb the area if the fish were there. I
received another screamer at about 10am, this one
did the same as the last and I had to put a lot of
pressure on it to try and turn it again. Fortunately
it turned and I had it coming in, the fight was a
real good one with it going on long runs as the
water is so shallow. After about 15 minutes I
finally got it into the net, up on the scales it
went 27lb 10oz (first photo), a real nice common and a great way to
start the session. I received another 2 takes on
that Thursday resulting in a scaly 17+ and another
one lost.
25lb 12oz Sandhurst Common Carp
I brought the rods in for a couple of hours that
evening to go and have some dinner and a couple of
beers with Basil as he had moved swims. I got back
to my swim at about 5ish and put another 5 kilos of
spod mix out. By 7pm that night I had all the rods
back out onto the spot and settled down with a smoke
and a beer. A chap came in next door to set up for
the night. I went round for a chat as you do, just
being polite and he preceded to tell me I'd "ruined
everyone's chances of catching as I'd been spodding".
I laughed it off and went back to my swim to settle
down for the night. Well throughout the night the
chap next door turned out to be my photographer!
By 5am I'd had another four fish and lost three, he
apologised for being a bit rude the evening before
and wanted to know what I was using etc, (they do
make you laugh). The highlight of the four fish was a
stunning 30lb+ common at 4 that morning, as you can
imagine I really was on a high now.
Everybody was due down to fish the stag weekend at
about 15:00 and we were drawing for swims at 4pm.
I obviously knew where I wanted to be, so hopefully
lady luck would be on my side and I was hoping for a
good draw. The draw couldn't of gone better and I
came out 3rd, so obviously opted to go back into peg
13.
On getting back to the swim I put out about 5 kilos
of spod mix again and got the rods out by 6pm. AJB
was set up next door in peg 12 so I went round his
swim to nick his beer and get him to cook some
dinner as you do, I hit the sack at about 1am that
morning.
View a video featuring Bumpy's captures from
Sandhurst Lake
I was woken up at 4am to a Nev
screaming out, after hooking into the fish it went
on a long run. I was shouting to Andy to say it was
going to take out his rods but I got no reply, I
kept the pressure on but the fish was down the
margins and knew that it would take out one of
Andy's rods soon. About 30 seconds later I heard
Andy's alarm going and knew I had crossed him, He
didn't wake straight away and his alarm must of gone
for about 10 seconds before he got up (That lad
could sleep through anything lol), anyway after
shouting to him that it was me he dipped his rods
and about a minute later the fish freed itself from
his lines. I had it plodding up and down the margins
for another 5 minutes before going into the net. On
looking down into the mesh I could see it was
another good fish. On the scales it went 33+, a real
fat common and one of the known ones, I was really
buzzing now.
I had another one that morning, a stunning 25+
common and also had another one in the afternoon, a
24+ mirror and that turned out to be my last one of
a fantastic session. I celebrated with Andy that
night as you would do and packed up the next day a
very happy angler.
