Rick Golder: My Fishing Year 2024 - Part Three

Come the start of September, I had begun researching and baiting an area that I thought would give me a decent chance of catching one of the lakes big two. They both had form for coming from this part of the lake in seasons past, and I had always felt the months of September, October and November would be my best bet. I had been planning and thinking about this since early May, and over my summer sessions had begun fine tuning a plan, leading up specific spots, and lining them up from different swims. However, come early September much of the lakes bottom was covered with dying weed, and as a consequence of that, the silty bottom smelt and seemed very unappealing. The lake had been green with algae for several weeks, killing off the weed as well as giving zero visibility from the boat. The weed was still there, just much of it was black, and unrooted, drifting around on the wind. I knew I had to clean up the three spots I was going to fish, so rather than go straight in there, I did two trips in another area close by, but one that I could easily take the boat over and begin some preparation. Every early morning, I did that in the other swim, including the days that I arrived and left, I would bait the spots in there, at first with a mix of Crustazia ground bait and particle, just to get everything in the lake polishing it up.

The first trip in the other swim I had a couple of small fish, which was encouraging as I was really only there to work on my future zone, and my fishing time was pretty limited with the prep I was doing in any case. The second week came, and as I boated all my gear down the lake, I stopped off and baited the three spots, before continuing on to the other swim. The weather was warm and still, and I put three rigs out on my favoured spots, baiting them with a couple of kilos of the pukka fish. Come first light I wound them in and shot off to do my covert baiting, before coming back and towing them back out. The next morning, I was due off home, and it dawned wet, with light misty rain soaking everything, and I decided to hang it out until the rain eased and I could pack up. That’s one negative about boat fishing, when you’re fully loaded with your gear on board there’s nowhere to hide from the elements! As I sat there, the right-hand rod pulled up tight, not a ripping take, just a slow rise and a few bleeps. This rod was about 80 yards out, but obviously over a substantial amount of weed, as although I could keep it moving, I felt only the weight of weed on the end. I was using the Noir braided mainline, and although I was on maximum pressure, with the lack of stretch it kept moving towards me, all be it slowly. Not once did anything feel like a fish on, and after a good ten minutes of pumping it back, finally I could see my leader, and below that a huge ball of weed the size of a car! There was no way I could net it all, so I had no option but to put the rod down, and frantically pull off huge bunches of weed, randomly throwing it out of the way, as I managed to uncover more and more of the leader. Once I felt I was down to a netful quantity, I eased it over the outstretched cord and bundled everything inside. 

This new swim had its disadvantages though, although it had been neglected by other anglers that season, it was on the busiest island of the three, and was easily seen from a number of other swims.  I knew any work I was doing in there could potentially be seen. Not ideal, but the most difficult hurdle was how far out the spots were. Whilst I was able to take each rod out with me in the boat and drop them onto the spots with precision, placing markers and rods in strong winds that far out was certainly difficult on some blustery days. The big winds also added problems with drifting weed, I had upped my lead sizes to 8 oz flat pears, and pushed my rods under water up to the spigots to keep the lines down. Luckily with the prep work I was ready for this, and many times my trusty weed rake on the extending pole saved me, as I was able to move big weed bergs before I’d be wiped out!

My first trip started well, in truth the weather was kind, and that session allowed me the opportunity to practice deploying in calm conditions. Physically it was hard too, taking 3 markers out, baiting and then coming back time and again to take out 3 rigs at long distances, in and out of the boat, kneeling down and twisting at awkward angles, by the time I’d done all three I was shattered! It was ideal, as up until then the bulk of my fish I had caught by casting from the bank, and I hated the disturbance the boat made, as I knew the fish were far from tolerant of it, but I had no choice with the sheer distances involved. The other draw back was a rule, that fairly states you’re not allowed out in the boat at night, for safety reasons. Any night bites meant that rod wasn’t able to be replaced, and that first session in there I had four bites, three of which were at night, meaning come dawn those rods were leaning against my bivvy! What pleased me most was that first trip gave me bites off all three spots, the particle and boilie baiting had worked its magic, and from then on, I phased out any particle and baited only with the pukka fish boilies. Unfortunately, I lost one of the bites after it became tangled in some old cut off braid that was out in the lake, but on the final morning I had an early morning daylight bite that resulted in an old gnarly looking 35 lb mirror. It had certainly been a good start, the plan seemed to be working!

The next trip continued the trend, another 4 bites, including a lovely 38 lb plus mirror, and I felt something good was soon to come. 

With a few weeks off, and now in to 2025 its time to start it all off again, target fish, new venues and old ones, and adventures along the way!

Rick Golder.