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TAKE YOUR LITTER HOME!!
If you’re planning to go fishing, make sure you’ve got a rod licence. If you don’t have a licence you could be fined up to £2500.
SOCIAL sessions are always great fun and when I had a call from my best mate, Lea Valley big fish old timer Bob Hornegold, reminding me we had not fished together for some time I was more than happy to agree to an outing.
Bob was excited that one of the members of the Osprey Specimen Group had recently bagged a big zander from South Lagoon at Wyboston and on a follow up visit members had connected with a smaller zander and a couple of pike. I’d not caught a really big zed since Mark Barrett put me on a 13 lb whacker a couple of years back so I was well up for the challenge.
The A1 is never my favourite drive and in a pea-souper of a fog at the beginning of rush hour it was less charming than usual! With the entrance to the Wyboston Lakes Complex directly off a roundabout junction of a couple of major roads it’s not the easiest if you have never been there and when I found myself driving past the entrance for the second time I cursed not having printed off the directions from Luton Angling Club’s website rather than trusting to memory and a sat nav which didn’t know the turning existed…
It was difficult to make out the lagoon when I finally pulled up as the fog was slow to lift but it appeared to my eye to be smaller than the 20 acres suggested and relatively open. The prime feature had to be where the River Ouse entered the lake and with a hard standing track all of the way around the fishable bank I wasted no time heading over there.
The river mouth was the only area that excited me, especially as it was in roughly the middle of the east bank commanding a large expanse of water in front of it. I have always found stillwater zeds prefer open water, well away from bays and any sort of junction swim is always worth a look as they are perfect ambush points for moving fish.
I stopped half way around to check out a few other swims and was devastated to see a headlamp come on in the prime swim! I thought I was first on the venue but I’d been beaten to it!
I drove round, didn’t recognise the van and sulked briefly before giving Bob a call to see what area he was going to head to. His phone was off so I put plan B into operation and headed for the swim exactly opposite. Again commanding the middle of the lake it was also close to the entrance so I could flag down Bob and the boys when they finally arrived.
After a winter of mostly long hikes across muddy fields it was a joy to be able to drive into my swim and fish out of the motor. Perhaps I’m getting old but the thought of setting up, and later packing away, in minutes was a real tonic. Coupled with the fact I’d have a fresh brew from the stove all day instead of stale flask coffee and my mood was one of optimism, despite the second choice of swim.
Although Wyboston is a great pike venue I really wanted a zander so set up my gear accordingly but paying polite notice to the fact that a big croc could happen along at any time.
Rods were soft 2.5 lb test Fox Predator XS coupled with Baitrunners loaded with 15 lb line. I’d not be fishing big baits so the light test would be perfect for distance chucking with the softness perfect for not popping fragile hook holds which, with zander, are often par for the course.