My first trip to any silver water, I opted for Chigborough as it's fairly accessible for me, in addition to the fact that I've been struggling to catch Carp recently, and it's well documented that this venue holds a good head of fish....
Chigborough - Maiden Voyage | Angling Diary
Morning
I arrived at around 5.30am to an empty car park and a bit of confusion with regards to which way I should be headed. Carrying half of my gear (I travel light; Rods / Brolly / Net in quiver, Seat / Sticks / Sling in Mat, Tackle / Provisions and other odds and ends in a ruckbag, plus a couple of obligatory Carp angler buckets)
I set off on the track that that leads south and to the "Arms" (as I later learned) area of the lake. There were fish showing and just as I made my way out of the main point swim I saw a fish crash out around 30 yards from the bank.
I continued my walk around the lake and eventually returned to where I'd seen the fish crash. There were signs of fish all around the lake but I thought that the point swim offered me some really good options and also permitted me to watch a great deal of the water.
I had the rods out in no time, one with a Monster Squid boilie with a matching stick mix with pellets, the other a Cell dumbell over some bloodworm infused particle sticks. Both were positioned close the islands, around 35 to 45 yards out.
The rods were immediately receiving liners and I felt confident that I wouldn't have to wait long for a take, As it turned out, although the liners continued, no bites were fothcoming, and by mid-morning I'd seen a great deal more action from the local and extremely friendly duck population than I had from the fish.
Casting the rods to different areas in front of me didn't seem to make a great deal of difference. I began thinking that it could well be the breeze that was coming in from the NE that may be pushing them elsewhere for a bit of cover, for despite it being July I was beginning to wonder if wearing shorts was the best choice. Worth noting that it rained most of the day too and was altogether pretty miserable. I did eventually land a fish, although a 2lb Roach, as beautiful as it was, wasn't my intended target, so I slipped him back without a picture, and wondering where my day was going.
