Open all hours …

Said Samuel Beckett, the Irish writer. And I think that is what I learnt about my first overnighter on the estate lake as Summer ended and Autumn began.

Fail again, fail better or to put it another (modern) way “go hard or go home”.

Go hard on time – this was my first overnighter and I arrived at 5pm with a cut off of 10am the following morning. In the car park I met two other like minded carpers and after a brief chat we set off for our swims. Amazingly none of us had the same idea: Neil went to the Beach (I had previously called it “Happy Campers“, Paddy to the left of Willows and myself opposite in Kingfisher.

From the last time in this swim I was hopeful that baiting up and setting up well before dawn would reap rewards.

Go hard on bait – I spombed out about a kilo of Royal Marine mixing in some sweetcorn on the left hand side of the area. Plus the boilies had been oiled as usual but then dusted with extra krill powder and some ground bait comprising of crushed hemp.

Rods and rigs as per usual but the left snowman was topped with buoyant fake corn as opposed to the Scent From Hell on the right. I was fishing by 7pm.

I bivvied up back from the water, tucked away amongst willow roots and fallen trees. I was using a new JRC Peaked Defender bivvy (bought this year at the Big One in Farnborough) and a JRC Stealth bed chair which is brilliant, super comfortable and super lightweight.

All the gear loaded easily onto the JRC barrow I got a couple of years ago. It was a case of go hard on the kit!

Everything was better; time, bait and equipment, now all I needed was a carp, better than before!

But the evening, night and morning brought only a series of liners and on no particular rod; 8pm, 11.30pm, 4.15am, 7am and so on.

They were in and around the swim but not picking up the hookbait – and my time by the lake ended with a blank, a fail.

A better fail as such, it was great to have that much time observing and listening to the water (although there were no visible shows), great to finally use the new bivvy (easier to pack down than put up!) and great to get away from modern life (4G is terrible by the lake!)

I think this swim is worth another visit before switching to the eastern bank for the winter afternoons.

The carp do like this side so perhaps third time lucky with the odd tweak to the presentation. I will think [go] hard on that next time.

Tightlines and hard times.