Drayton Reservoir
Drayton Reservoir is considered by many to be one of the finest Carp lakes in the UK and often features heavily in many articles and reports in the angling papers and magazines. The Look Fishy website gives this description of the place "To many people, this could be described as
the Wembley of places to go fishing (not in a facilities kind of way),
walking round the boards on the way to your peg must feel like emerging
from the tunnel ready for an FA Cup final or England international
match. The reservoir is packed with fish, not just any kind of fish, it
is packed with lumps! There aren't many places where you could get bored
of catching double figure carp, but this is potentially one of them!"......Did Damian Smith write this ?
The day started very early with a 04.00 wake up to make up my flask of coffee and cheese & pickle rolls, pack my gear into the van and get the general chores done that are part and parcel of a fishing trip. I left the house at 05.15 because the Sat Nav was telling me it was just under an hours drive to the lake and they opened at 06.30, and you needed to get there early to guarantee a parking space along the dam wall.
Damian and myself were to only two from the PIDS Fishing Club who could make it, Luke's car needs repairing and Richard's young son was ill on the day, so a mixture of financial restraints and sickness decimated our ranks. Damian was, as usual, like an excited schoolboy, even calling me at 05.15 to make sure I was on my way. I made my way onto the motorway and headed off down the M6 southwards towards the M1. After an uneventful journey along an almost deserted motorway, I arrived at my destination a few minutes late, but nothing major. Of course Damian had been there extremely early and had already set up his gear on the dam wall and had put his chair on the next peg to save it for me. I got myself ready with my gear and was going to use my new purchase from the day before, a loaded pellet waggler, on 10lb main line with a hair rig of a Size 14 hook on 8lb line and a pellet band on the hair. This was connected to the main line on a snap swivel and the waggler was held firm on the main line with two float stops preventing the snap swivel it was attached to from sliding around. I'd never fished with a pellet waggler before so wasn't sure what to expect, but I had some idea about the workings of this new style of fishing.
The deepest water in the lake goes to around 30ft along the dam
wall, but then it levels out to around 3ft deep at the far end, with
around 7ft being an average depth around the sides. Damian had researched the venue and the majority of comments suggested that the dam wall was the place to fish from, so we were fishing from there. The set up at Drayton is impressive and there is a wooden walkway around the majority of the lake with jetty style pegs to fish from. The dam wall also has these platforms but with no walkway between them so access was over the wall through gaps in the barriers. With everything in place it was time to fish and I was trying a new bait this week that I had been told was irresistible to Carp, the fruity flavoured Starburst sweets (formerly known as Opal Fruits). A bloke at the hotel I stayed in the week before had told me that he would squash them around his hook and catch all day long. It being a day of firsts, first time with a pellet waggler, first time specifically targeting bigger Carp and the first time on a seriously big venue, I had nothing to lose.
Damian had told me that I was sure to catch big here, that every cast would produce a fish of a decent size and I would smash my personal best for a Common and Mirror without a doubt. Well I sat there with the pellet waggler out about 30 yards, for about an hour with no activity on or around my hook, rain lashing down, wind blowing a gale across the lake and holding onto my umbrella for dear life. The wind had already got underneath it and lifted it clean out of the hole in the decking, sending it shooting through the air onto Damian's peg, so I was fishing with a distinct handicap now. My left hand holding onto the umbrella, the right hand free for the rod.
After three or four hours of no activity on the hook I decided to switch to my float rod for a while and see what I could catch around the margin and platform because there was no way I was going to blank at this so called legendary venue. The rain and wind had subsided a little so I set up the reliable float rod with a waggler float, 5 x Preston Innovations No. 8 Stotz weights, snap swivel and a Size 14 hook on a 6" nylon line. Straight away I was into a nice Perch fro right beneath the platform so at least I wasn't going home with no fish to my name and three more followed in quick succession. While this was going on Damian was into a Carp and he provided a real comedy moment when his umbrella was lifted from it's anchor while he was trying to land his fish. He shouted across for me to give him a hand but I just sat there watching him struggle, remembering the laughter that had come from him when my brolly had decided to go on a fly-about. He managed to sort himself out and landed a pretty decent Carp but it wasn't close to beating his PB of 16lbs.
The next fish he got into came shortly after and we both knew that it was a big lump straight away. His reel was almost smoking as the line raced from it and it was game on as he played the fish back towards his platform and the safety of his landing net. It was a full 5 minutes before the fish was ready to give up the fight and at one point it had nearly pulled him from the wooden decking when it had put on one final burst. I made my way across to help land the beast and when we saw it surface we both agreed this was a huge lump that was at least 20lbs. After successfully landing it and weighing it Damian's face was a picture when he read the scales and said it was 27lbs 8oz, beating his previous PB by 11lbs. He was like a little kid at Christmas and the wind and the rain all seemed worth it, for him at least.
While all of this had been going on I had reeled my line in but had unknowingly left my hook and bait in the water and it was Smudge who noticed that I had something on and it was about to pull my rod into the water. I rushed across the little ledge between the pegs and managed to grab the rod before it went into the drink and landed the fish which beat my own PB for a Roach.
Little did I know that my fishing was finished at that point, with no activity around my hooks gain for the rest of the day. The Carp pellets had failed, the Starburst had failed, I was soaked, cold and beginning to long for my sofa at home. Smudge made me up a rig with a boillie and pop-up to see if I had any luck on the bottom, but nothing happened. I had been sat under my brolly, still holding onto it for dear life, when I decided to recast and let go of the brolly to use both hands on the rod. Suddenly I felt very exposed to the elements and all I could hear was laughter coming from the next peg. A quick glance to the right and I could see my brolly floating away in the wind but taking on water as it did. I jumped down onto the small ledge between the pegs with my landing net in the hope I could throw the net over the end of the pole but it was too short and I had to run along the ledge and fetch my long handled landing net, again it was too short but only by inches. All of the time I was running back and forth between peg and brolly it was getting lower and lower in the water, and Damian's laughter got more and more hysterical.
I grabbed Damian's landing net which was a lot longer than mine but it was all to no avail as the brolly slipped below the waves and slid down the sloping concrete wall into 30 feet of water. Now this brolly was my Dad's old one and all that I had left of his gear so I was rather upset at losing it, so Damian then spent the next 30 to 40 minutes trying to hook it and reel it up from its watery grave. He managed to hook it several times but the weight it had taken on was too much for his hair rigs and he lost three heavy weights in his attempts. I had had enough of the wind, rain and cold and decided that without the shelter of the brolly I was going to pack up and watch Smudge fish from the van. It was then that I noticed something different about Damian's set up and asked if he was going to loose feed on the surface, Damian said no and then we realised that he had lost his Spod Bomb. Now he hadn't used that rod when trying to rescue the brolly so it had either worked loose or one of the yachtsmen had snagged his line when they sailed close to his line. This is what I didn't like about Drayton, the sailing club have banned fishing from around its little corner but they just sail as close as they can right across where people are fishing. While I am sure the sailing club pay a dividend to the Canals & Rivers Trust to sail there, the CRT need to remember that it is angling that brings in a lot of money for them from their various fisheries and other schemes and anglers should be looked after to stop the Hooray Henry's from sailing across their lines.
With his weights and Spod at the bottom of the lake, along with my brolly, Damian decided to call it a day also so we both packed up and tried to get warm. It was here that my turn to laugh at his misfortune arrived when he realised that he had read his scales wrong and it was a marker hand he had read and not the actual needle that gave the weight. His new PB had gone from 27lbs 8oz to 18lbs in an instant, still a new PB but not as epic as he had first thought and it was my turn to laugh at his misfortune.....
All in all, despite the loss of my brolly it had been a great day with a great mate and it had lifted my spirits again and despite the initial despair I felt when the brolly went and along with it the last tangible connection to my Dad with fishing, I had managed to get over the loss pretty quickly and had moved on. In the past I would have allowed things to fester and get to me, but now that process is just momentary and I am able to dwell on them less which in turn lessens the amount of time I spend feeling sorry for myself. There is still a long way to go but at least I can now recognise that there is progress. However on my way home I received some devastating news which I have been dreading for a while. I'm not going to go into it now, it is too painful and I have to respect another person's right to privacy.
It was a day of mixed fortunes, a day of mixed emotions, but a day that I enjoyed for the most part....
See you on the bankside.....
Damian had told me that I was sure to catch big here, that every cast would produce a fish of a decent size and I would smash my personal best for a Common and Mirror without a doubt. Well I sat there with the pellet waggler out about 30 yards, for about an hour with no activity on or around my hook, rain lashing down, wind blowing a gale across the lake and holding onto my umbrella for dear life. The wind had already got underneath it and lifted it clean out of the hole in the decking, sending it shooting through the air onto Damian's peg, so I was fishing with a distinct handicap now. My left hand holding onto the umbrella, the right hand free for the rod.
After three or four hours of no activity on the hook I decided to switch to my float rod for a while and see what I could catch around the margin and platform because there was no way I was going to blank at this so called legendary venue. The rain and wind had subsided a little so I set up the reliable float rod with a waggler float, 5 x Preston Innovations No. 8 Stotz weights, snap swivel and a Size 14 hook on a 6" nylon line. Straight away I was into a nice Perch fro right beneath the platform so at least I wasn't going home with no fish to my name and three more followed in quick succession. While this was going on Damian was into a Carp and he provided a real comedy moment when his umbrella was lifted from it's anchor while he was trying to land his fish. He shouted across for me to give him a hand but I just sat there watching him struggle, remembering the laughter that had come from him when my brolly had decided to go on a fly-about. He managed to sort himself out and landed a pretty decent Carp but it wasn't close to beating his PB of 16lbs.
The next fish he got into came shortly after and we both knew that it was a big lump straight away. His reel was almost smoking as the line raced from it and it was game on as he played the fish back towards his platform and the safety of his landing net. It was a full 5 minutes before the fish was ready to give up the fight and at one point it had nearly pulled him from the wooden decking when it had put on one final burst. I made my way across to help land the beast and when we saw it surface we both agreed this was a huge lump that was at least 20lbs. After successfully landing it and weighing it Damian's face was a picture when he read the scales and said it was 27lbs 8oz, beating his previous PB by 11lbs. He was like a little kid at Christmas and the wind and the rain all seemed worth it, for him at least.
 |
| Damian's new PB Carp |
While all of this had been going on I had reeled my line in but had unknowingly left my hook and bait in the water and it was Smudge who noticed that I had something on and it was about to pull my rod into the water. I rushed across the little ledge between the pegs and managed to grab the rod before it went into the drink and landed the fish which beat my own PB for a Roach.
 |
| Roach PB (sorry about leaving it on the wooden decking. It has been pointed out to me already by numerous people) |
Little did I know that my fishing was finished at that point, with no activity around my hooks gain for the rest of the day. The Carp pellets had failed, the Starburst had failed, I was soaked, cold and beginning to long for my sofa at home. Smudge made me up a rig with a boillie and pop-up to see if I had any luck on the bottom, but nothing happened. I had been sat under my brolly, still holding onto it for dear life, when I decided to recast and let go of the brolly to use both hands on the rod. Suddenly I felt very exposed to the elements and all I could hear was laughter coming from the next peg. A quick glance to the right and I could see my brolly floating away in the wind but taking on water as it did. I jumped down onto the small ledge between the pegs with my landing net in the hope I could throw the net over the end of the pole but it was too short and I had to run along the ledge and fetch my long handled landing net, again it was too short but only by inches. All of the time I was running back and forth between peg and brolly it was getting lower and lower in the water, and Damian's laughter got more and more hysterical.
I grabbed Damian's landing net which was a lot longer than mine but it was all to no avail as the brolly slipped below the waves and slid down the sloping concrete wall into 30 feet of water. Now this brolly was my Dad's old one and all that I had left of his gear so I was rather upset at losing it, so Damian then spent the next 30 to 40 minutes trying to hook it and reel it up from its watery grave. He managed to hook it several times but the weight it had taken on was too much for his hair rigs and he lost three heavy weights in his attempts. I had had enough of the wind, rain and cold and decided that without the shelter of the brolly I was going to pack up and watch Smudge fish from the van. It was then that I noticed something different about Damian's set up and asked if he was going to loose feed on the surface, Damian said no and then we realised that he had lost his Spod Bomb. Now he hadn't used that rod when trying to rescue the brolly so it had either worked loose or one of the yachtsmen had snagged his line when they sailed close to his line. This is what I didn't like about Drayton, the sailing club have banned fishing from around its little corner but they just sail as close as they can right across where people are fishing. While I am sure the sailing club pay a dividend to the Canals & Rivers Trust to sail there, the CRT need to remember that it is angling that brings in a lot of money for them from their various fisheries and other schemes and anglers should be looked after to stop the Hooray Henry's from sailing across their lines.
With his weights and Spod at the bottom of the lake, along with my brolly, Damian decided to call it a day also so we both packed up and tried to get warm. It was here that my turn to laugh at his misfortune arrived when he realised that he had read his scales wrong and it was a marker hand he had read and not the actual needle that gave the weight. His new PB had gone from 27lbs 8oz to 18lbs in an instant, still a new PB but not as epic as he had first thought and it was my turn to laugh at his misfortune.....
All in all, despite the loss of my brolly it had been a great day with a great mate and it had lifted my spirits again and despite the initial despair I felt when the brolly went and along with it the last tangible connection to my Dad with fishing, I had managed to get over the loss pretty quickly and had moved on. In the past I would have allowed things to fester and get to me, but now that process is just momentary and I am able to dwell on them less which in turn lessens the amount of time I spend feeling sorry for myself. There is still a long way to go but at least I can now recognise that there is progress. However on my way home I received some devastating news which I have been dreading for a while. I'm not going to go into it now, it is too painful and I have to respect another person's right to privacy.
It was a day of mixed fortunes, a day of mixed emotions, but a day that I enjoyed for the most part....
See you on the bankside.....
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