Today I have fished what has to be my favourite lake, Bonsai
Lake. I have in the past already done quite a few write ups on this particular
lake and most of them follow a similar theme, for example the methods and
baits. Today I had to continually modify these to ensure I kept catching.
At the draw my dipping hand dragged peg 6 out of the draw bag, a peg I
was certainly not disappointed with, as the island is within easy pole reach at
13 meters. This gives you one of the shortest reaches with a pole to an island
on the full lake! The island is almost completely surrounded by a reed
bed, apart from a nicely cut section right in front of me. This gave me chance
to fish tight up to the mud bank. My plan was to set up 2 lines for the island.
Line #1
The first line was for just in front of the reeds to the left of the cut
out, this gave me 2 ½ feet of water.
Line #2
The second line was for the cut out in the shallower water, this was
approximately 20 inches deep. My plan was to start on the deeper rig in front
of the reeds, so the fish had somewhere to back off too.
Margins
In the margins I really only had one way to go and that was to my left;
this was due to a tree and bush to my right, which restricted the right margin.
The left margin had a reed bed which cut in towards the bank about a top 4
length away. I had to do a little light pruning of the reeds so that my view of
the float was not restricted. Once this was done I plumbed up the swim, which
gave me around 3 feet of water.
Rigs:
Deep Island Rig
Deep Island Rig
- Pole - Browning Z12
- Elastic - Browning Cenex
Pink
- Main line - 0.12 Browning
Hybrid power line
- Hook length - 0.12 Browning
Hybrid power line
- Hook - size 18 Kamasan B911
F1
- Float - Dino Sedge 0.2g
- Shotting - bulk
no10 stotz just above the hook length
Shallower Island Rig
- Pole - Browning Z12
- Elastic - Browning Cenex
Pink
- Main line - 0.12 Browning
Hybrid power line
- Hook length - 0.12 Browning
Hybrid power line
- Hook - size 18 Kamasan B911 F1
- Float - Shep special 0.2g (www.carlshepherdsonstittletackle.com)
- Shotting - bulk no10 Stotz
just above hook length
Margin Rig
- Pole - Browning Z12
- Elastic - Browning Cenex
Green
- Main line - 0.14 Browning
Hybrid power line
- Hook length - 0.14 Browning
Hybrid power line
- Hook - size 16 Kamasan B911
- Float - Dino Sedge 0.2g
- Shotting - bulk no10 Stotz just above hook length
Bait
- 1 bag fishery micros
- 4mm expander pellets
- 6mm cubes luncheon meat
- 8mm cubes luncheon meat

A Key Observation!
I change back to the deeper rig and fed as before, but what I did notice
was, when I tapped the micros in the float was moving about and the float was
going under but I could not hit the bites. So this is where the change of tactics
came into effect. I took the shallower rig and made it even shallower, around
10” deep. My plan was to tap the micros in the lower the rig over the top. It
worked a treat as I was now catching at a decent rate. Every so often I would
try the same rig in the cut out, resulting in bigger fish, but they soon
moved out after catching a couple.
With around 2 hours gone the bites eased right back, which gave me the
time to feed the margin swim with a half pot of micros and meat. I stayed on
the long line for a further 20 minutes before trying the margin rig. The first
put in on the margin line resulted in a nice Tench, followed by another and
another before bites again slowed.
I tried the deeper island rig which resulted
in 2 quick fish before the shallow rig was again required. The shallow rig gave
me another good run of fish, mainly small F1s.
During this time I had been feeding the 6mm cubes of meat by hand on the
margin line. After 30 mins I noticed swirls down the margin so I used the
island shallow rig down the margin.... it worked a treat, I was now catching
bigger F1s at a rate of knots! After I hooked the fish I would feed 10 cubes of
meat straight away, this kept the fish in the swim and ready for the next put
in. On most drops in the rig would only be in the swim 10 seconds before it
buried; every so often I would try the island rig to rest the margin line, but
the fish were much smaller than the margin fish.
At the end of the match I knew I had over a 100lb, when the scales
arrived and after a few weighs I finished with 124lb 15oz. There were rumours
that Carl Shep on peg 70 had caught really well too; fortunately for me his
total was 110lb, which gave me the match win.
Yet again
Lindholme has produced a fantastic days fishing, A great deal of credit needs
to go to Neil Bev and Aaron Grantham for producing and maintaining a wonderful
fishery.