Trip #86 - Mangerton Misfire

This weekend my Dad was visiting and I was a little concerned as at the venue (and time of year in general)  it had reported that the Carp had been breeding in earnest. Which often means an unproductive session. Still, I am always up for a challenge and with that in mind I opted for somewhere with plenty of carp but wouldn't be busy with competing anglers. The choice seemed an easy one and we opted for a few hours at Mangerton Lake. This venue is turning out to be new favourite of mine, with lots of options and lots of species to catch. Unfortunately for my Dad I wasn't in the conversating mood as I had an absolutely horrible cold.

Trip #83 - Mangerton Take 2 - The Proof is in the Paste

I was very keen today to get out and try some of the Skretting Pellet Paste I had made the previous evening. I was under no illusion that today was going to be aimed solely at Carp. Normally I start off on the silver fish and then work my way up to Carp unless my bait gets intercepted along the way. Normally it's purely from a "what species does this lake have in it?" perspective, but having visited Mangerton very recently, and knowing full well that the place was absolutely stuffed to the brim with Carp I decided on an all out Carp attack. I had made my rigs the previous evening and after arriving early (this time with the correct money for the honesty box) I made my way to a peg on the right hand bank, and before I had even stopped my trolley I could hear Carp slurping away on the surface.

I'd gone for a fairly hefty approach with only 2 topkits set up: 

• 14 and 16 Elastics - Pre-weighted Paste float on 6lb Middy Lo Viz Crystal to a Preston PR478 size 12 Hook. You could pretty much land a Whale on this gear.

Trip #81 – Mangerton Mill

I’ve slowly but surely been working my way through the very extensive list of fisheries in Somerset, and although I’ve still got a good chunk left to sample, the fisheries closest to my house have been visited on more than one occasion. Wanting to fish somewhere new I decided to travel down the a3066 and visit Mangerton Lake. I’ll be honest, looking at the website I didn’t hold out a great deal of hope, aside from the fact that I knew I’d be in a picturesque location. A quick phone call the night before to make sure I was going to the right place, and I was set. I arrived at the farm house (where you pay into an honesty box) picked up my ticket and made my way back down the track towards the fishing lake. It was a nice lake and bigger than I expected, and after a quick walk around I picked a peg which looked to have a huge margin swim. In the time it took me to set my gear up the wind really picked up, and was now blowing firmly into my face. I reassessed my position before setting any more equipment up and deciding on moving around to my right, so the wind would be off my back, making holding a pole a lot easier.