Lake John, Waltham Abbey, 9th October 2011

Mark's Swim
As Mark had come down to London for the weekend, I decided that we should give Lake John, Waltham Abbey a go as it would be easy for him to head back to Cambridge.  I'd called Colin, the owner/baliff to check availability.

The larger lake was booked for an open match, so we has to fish the smaller lake.

A quick walk around the small lake which is a snake lake, we decided to fish the far bank away from the car park.  The weather was a little overcast with some rain.  Neither of us had an end peg advantage.  Mark's far bank had a large cut out.  Both of us had far bank reeds that were alive with fish... it looked like a promising day!

We decided to fish a 6 hour match again and use the clicker to record an approximate weight of fish to determine the winner.

We headed to the on-site cafe for a cup of tea and bacon buttie.

The Setup
My swim
Without a doubt it was a pole venue, although I also tackled up my 8 foot carp wand with a small method feeder.

Choice of swims would be margin on my right as there was an spare peg, a channel swim and the far bank.  Plumbing up both Mark and I discovered that the water level in this lake was obviously low, maximum depth was about one and a half feet, this maybe a bad omen.

There were plenty of fish rising and those reeds on the far bank were full of activity.  Bait selection for the day was micro pellets, soaked as Andy May had shown me on Friday, banded hard pellet, soft hookers (6mm and 4mm), worms, corn and dead red.  Basically what was left over from Gold Valley the previous day.

My best fish of the day
The Session
I started in the channel, feeding via the kinder pot a ball of micro's.  The first bite came soon after and a stockie carp soon came to the net.  Shipping back out, the next fish was a skimmer, maybe the low depth of the swim wasn't going to have an affect... well, I struggled to get any more takes in the channel despite trying worm and corn.

I decided to concentrate on far bank to see what I might get over there.  Bites where few and far between and even more frustrating watching those reeds moving all the time.  I tried to coax the fish out by flicking in 2 to 3 4mm hard pellets.

In the meantime, Mark had hooked a decent fish which took him into the reeds on his left margin, the hook pull and the look on Mark's face said it all.

Colin, the baliff came round and told us that we had selected the wrong bank, it was deeper on the car park side.  We wondered if a move would help, but decided to stick it out.

Mark's best fish of the day
Eventually I managed to pull out about 7 carp from the far margin and also a "flying skimmer".  Mark had caught a couple of fish but he was behind on the clicker.  The day was turning out as expected.

The weather brighten up, we both tried the feeder tight across and I managed to catch another couple of carp, this time of a better stamp.

The Result
After 6 hours, I had double the amount of fish than Mark, but it was only about 15lb of fish.  So I managed to take another point off Mark, taking me 4 points up on the mini competition.

Conclusion
The low water level didn't help the day and we really wanted to fish the larger lake.  Lake John, a quiet part of Waltham Abbey.  The large lake looks very inviting, the facilities are very good and the staff are very friendly.  Next visit will be to the big lake!

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