Chesh Goes South - Pads Lake at Yateley

Seems quite odd that every time I look to fish a water with a good chance of a landing a lunker, I blank. Rumour has it that No-Carp Bay follows me about like a lost sheep, thing is that rumour is now starting to become true!

My season at the moment on Capesthorne Top Pool is a tough one, a good head of fish, lily pads, shallow areas, weed, all the stuff you want in a carp lake. A group of lads all fishing the same baits, same areas, tactics, rigs and for some reason it’s just not happening, for me that is. Watching a succession of carp banked by the regulars is great, but not catching yourself and thinking to yourself “Why?” well that’s another question.

Things didn’t get any easier on the Pads Lake at Yateley for the Stoney and Friends annual charity event held at the prestigious venue, some might argue the cream of English Carp fishing; home to such carp as Heather the Leather, Single Scale, Chunky, Copse Lake Scaley, and numerous other big English Carp, it surely is the carp anglers Mecca.

The Pads Lake was the lake I wanted to fish, and sure enough my wish came true. The lake doesn’t respond well to lots of lines in at one go but the chance of a Yateley lump was too much to resist. After the 5 hour drive through the night, consuming a morning rat burger and wandering around the Match Lake, we settled in the car park for the draw of swims. Pole Position, The Point, Waiting Mans, The Pads all known swims in the carp world, but what would I get? What number would I pull out in the draw? Only time would tell. After making a walk round the lake, I didn’t actually fancy the popular swims, the one that took my eye was the Reeds swim in the corner, there was no bank stick holes or flattened area’s from bivvies, leading me to believe it wasn’t fished that much - I wanted this swim. I drew number 3 in the draw and after much too-ing and frow-ing, the Reeds was mine.

I set up the bivvy away from the edge, knowing that this would be a margin swim; I had to make sure I was quiet. I set about baiting the traps. 3ft deep out in front of me with the main set of reed to the right of my swim that sort of curved out, pukka I thought. Just in front of me was a very small set of pads, probably about 10 in all (yes that small) so an obvious spot would be between the pads and the reeds, intercept and fish moving in and out of the features. The other rod would be put out on the edge of the reeds just to the left. After opening my tub of boilies I was left in utter disbelief • I had left my Essential Baits B5 in the freezer and brought Mainline Active8 by mistake!! Gutted to say the least. I then got thinking though about articles I had read in the past and how Mainline baits have been put into the lake in great quantity over the season so my spirits soon lifted.

A kilo of hemp and pellet was deposited between both spots and 30 A8 boilies soon followed. I intended to leave the swim for an hour or so and take in the social atmosphere. I wandered back over to the Match Lake as that’s where my brother was fishing, he too was taking in the atmosphere whilst setting up I could tell this by the 24pack that was already open, I soon joined in.

After 5 minutes of being there I was in the water landing net in hand; Niblet (my brother’s new nickname) was into a fish. He had one rod tight to the island opposite where a fish had crashed whilst he was setting up, and sure enough this same rod went off. After a very spirited fight in the small set of pads in front of him, his first Yateley Match Lake fish was in his net, a gorgeous looking common, that on first look, was very close on 20lb. Weigh sling soaked, and onto the scales, just short of 20lb; 18lb 5oz, what a superb start to the weekend. A few slides were taken, and comments about what size bag did you smuggle the fish down in were banded around, and back she went for another day. The celebratory handshakes were done and I was off back to the Pads Lake to dry off.

By now literally every swim was taken, Joe in the main Pads swim, a pukka swim that receives a lot of attention, Pole Position, The Point, Grebes Head Bay, The ToeNails, End of Pads, all were taken up. The weekend was going to be difficult. The baits were soon placed in their positions with my lines slack so as to try and hide myself away from them crafty fish, and I was soon fishing.

As if by clockwork the social side of things soon kicked in, and another crate was soon being tapped into with lots of fishy stories being told, experiences re-lived, and generally getting into the spirit of session carp fishing. My buddy for the weekend was Sean Gibson, aka ‘Funky’ who is the bailiff of another Yateley water, Sandhurst, the day ticket venue. I always enjoy the stories he tells me about the lake he fishes and about Sandy, having fished it a couple of times (and yes I blanked) it’s interesting knowing about the fish growths, history etc…

Friday afternoon soon turned into evening, with the rods motionless, it was going to be harder than I thought. Sean got the mini BBQ out and we dined on Burgers (not road-kill I may add) and steak sandwiches, washed down with a complimentary ale. By now a few others had joined us and a full-on social was now in flow, whilst trying hard not to make much noise because of my margin rods, I was confident we were far enough back as to not disturb my swims.

Within an instant Friday night soon disappeared and not a touch on my rods, no signs of any carpy activity in my swim at all during the first day in fact, no fish cruising, bubbling nothing. Disappointed? Yes, I was. With the temperature like it was I felt sure the fish would move up into the margins during the night and have a feed, this wasn’t the case and I was left wondering why?

With the rigs in the butt rings, I went for a walk round the lakes trying to think of alternative ways to try and get a fish, I had to leave the margin rod between the pads and reeds, the other question would have been the left hand rod, and what to do with that. After getting back to my swim and tinkering about with my hook rigs, I opted for a small Nutrabaits Pineapple pop-up in a bag of trouties, and dropped it out a bit further than the marginal reeds.

The infamous “Chesh” Breakfast was about to take place, and armed with Sausages, beans, eggs, mushrooms, fried bread and endless cups of tea I set to work on the masterpiece, and after about half an hour it was done, and two very porked anglers had finished the lot off. But still no action to the rods. Reports of a lost fish and a tench was filing through, but as of yet no carp banked on the Pads. On the Copse Lake though the story was different and a fish of 28lb was banked along with 4 others.

I had a float rod made up as usual for some fun with the small stuff, but even this was proving difficult with no maggots; all I had were worms, bread, and a tin of corn. It took me all day to muster up 3 small roach on corn - Was I having a bad weekend or what? And worse was yet to come!

With no action in the morning it was time to have a big wander round, and back on the Match Lake I partook in a small amount of drinking, and generally soaking up the whole place. The Match Lake is a gorgeous looking lake, long in shape with two big islands, plenty of marginal features, a silty bottom with areas of gravel, home to big old English originals, such as the Holiday fish, Heart-tail, the two Scaleys (Match and Copse) and loads of big catfish!

Back on the Pads it was early afternoon and I knew tonight’s social was going to be big, Sean had gone to the Copse lake with the other bailiffs off Sandhurst, Joe was patiently biding his time, and I just wanted to sleep. I put the rods back out, this time with a Maple8 boilie in between the small set of pads and the reeds, with a couple of pouchfuls of hemp. The left rod with the washed out Pineapple pop up bagged up with trouties and fished on its own, and no freebies. I was awoken at about half 4, by my friend Dean, who was also on the Match Lake, apparently there was a social on the Horseshoe lake, which he was going round to, I didn’t need much convincing, so armed with some cans I made my way round. To cut a very long story short, a 10lb bream was caught, Dean fell in, I ended up leathered after going back to my swim for my bottle of red, we discussed the finer requirements of Cavegirl and her mum (ahem that was me talking about her mum) and the disadvantages of consuming ‘PatFat’ (trust me you don’t want to know), we retired to bed at around 11pm.

I got my rods in a mess (which Sean helped me out with) and ended up with another group of lads round my swim, Joe in the meantime had his patience rewarded with a pukka looking 25lb mirror carp taken on the B5. Just reward for his efforts. Joe soon came round to my swim though armed with more beer and another social was in full swing! From what I remember about that night I ended up mumbling allsorts, I think I fell asleep, then again I really don’t know.

Sunday morning and I awoke to a pile of Pringles on the floor (??), empty cans, my tin of sweetcorn knocked over, and the mother of all hangovers! (When will I ever learn?) not a touch on the rods again, gutted!! Even though it was a social weekend, I knew my time was rapidly being chewed up on the Pads Lake. Good news though in that Singy on Pole Position had nailed a stunning mirror carp of 23lb 12oz • two fish for the weekend when only one fish had been caught the whole week previous. Result.

With the bacon sandwiches on the go, people where packing up in the morning and generally taking up the whole Yateley scene. By 11am I was packed away, another blank session! Both Joe and I decided to go for a walk round the Split Lake and the Car Park Lake just to see one of those elusive big mirrors, Joe had already seen Chunky in the Car Park Lake nestling away in the snags, an awesome sight! We saw a couple of carp on the Split Lake, and a beautiful dark mirror head and shoulder, but alas those Car Park lake carp were hiding away.

Singy on the other hand was into another fish on the Pads, and after going in to get it out the pads, he was rewarded with another fish of exactly 23lb 12oz. Better news was to follow, Dean (who incidentally didn’t get back to his swim on the match lake until gone midnight) had ‘pub chucked’ his way to the Match lake Scaley, a true history fish and a new PB weight for Dean 34lb 10oz. The pictures are stunning and it was Dean’s 2nd 30lb carp in the space of two weeks.

After congregating in the car park for the raffle (which after about 500 prizes, I didn’t win anything) it was time to depart. After a weekend of zero fish, it wasn’t spoilt at all, the social took care of that. The whole event raised just over £15k for charity, and will be an event I will attend for years to come.

For information on upcoming events please do click the link www.stoneyandfriends.co.uk and read upon the articles. I am back on the Pads Lake in January for the inaugural RMC Angling North V South match, which should be even more fun. So until then, keep it real!

Rich Gillet, Aka, Chesh