Craig Manktelow

Field Tester

1

It was Friday 10^th may and i set out nice and early for a few days down to linear fisheries as I knew it would be busy as they had an event on. As we pulled in I could not believe my eyes it was the busiest i have ever seen it and after a couple of hours looking at all the lakes we had to come back home as there was no pegs available and we could not think of anywhere else to go. My wife then suggested a place called Bishops Bowl as I have never fished there before I had a quick look at their web site and after a quick chat on the phone with the owner we headed over there.

After arriving I went and had a chat with the owner to get a bit of info about the place. After his advice I decided to fish mitre pool what was known as the runs water. After watching the water for about an hour I decided on peg 12 as this side of the lake was empty and was the shallowest part of the lake as you can see from the pic.

After finding the spot I was told to fish on this peg I baited with my particle mix and put a few loose Lobworm boilies over the top and fished with them on the hook. As the first day and night went past with nothing I changed my rigs to pop ups as it was coming in covered in silk weed and I feel I was not getting a good presentation. As the afternoon went I was sat wondering as not even this rig was presenting its self100%. After having a chat with a local chap he said the only way to fish this lake is with a chod over loose boilies so I had to improvise and try and make my own chod as I have never used them and I didn’t have any readymade.

I was fishing with hi viz pink pop ups and baited with another kilo of lobworm boilies at about midnight I was woken by my left hand rod as the bobbin went to the top and back down twice so I sat and watched my rod for a bit then the bobbin went to the top and stayed there for about a minute and screamed off. After a bit of a scrap I managed to get the net under a 13lb mirror only small but the best looking mirror I have ever caught. As I was trying to sort the fish out for a pic I saw my right had rod pull up tight so I lifted into it and it resulted in a very nice 15lb ghost common it was like a bar of gold.

I baited the spot back up and put the rods back out but the rest of the session ended with no more fish but that was ok as only three other people had caught all weekend and the owner said it was fishing very hard and to top it all it was on a rig I had no confidence with and never used before.

By: Craig Manktelow