Tag Archives: pop-up

There are some things that as anglers we just can’t resist.  Such as an invitation to try out a neglected old farm lake “to see what’s in it”. The chances are it could be a real duffer; a puddle devoid of everything but sticklebacks and dragonfly nymphs, but there’s always that chance. That pesky chance. So upon receiving one of these extremely rare opportunities, I couldn’t refuse.  A farmer was investigating the possibility of selling the fishing rights to a couple of acre lake on his property, which had been neglected and unfished (bar the odd poacher) for years.  A quick recce was all I could fit in initially, but I spotted a few carp up to high doubles, maybe even a twenty, plus a half-decent tench hanging in the shade of a fallen tree.  I’d also spotted a lightning fast tail swirl in the margins that really shouted “pike” to me, so I made a mental note to visit properly the following spring. It was difficult to know what tackle to take with me because I wanted to get an accurate cross-section of the species present in the water, but I also hoped to catch the lakes largest residents – whatever …

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