Four Seasons Fishery Lodge Lake Carp Fishing Review by Sam Finch - Carp Corner

Four Seasons Fishery Lodge Lake - January 2012

I have been struggling to get out with winter, with me mainly working, and I had only a day on the park lake and a few days on a water I fished a few years ago to show for myself. I have been visiting Lodge Lake a lot through the winter keeping in touch with the lake, and this winter, like most on there, has been very quiet. There had been one fish out all winter, a common of 25lb. On Saturday the 28th of January I had a chat with a friend and decided to do an 24hr session as this was the first few cold nights of the year and we thought that maybe the carp might get their heads down. I arrived at the lake around 1pm and the lake was flat calm with ice over the shallower margins.

Knowing that it was a main holding area for the fish throughout the year I decided to drop in to swim no.4 and drop two baits in open water on the softer lakebed. I have been testing some Redeye Baits recently and have been impressed with the quality of them so that was my chosen bait for the session. I tied up two sticks and threaded them on the supple hooklinks which were attached to 3oz pears on leadcore helicopter rigs. I used long hairs and sharpened hooks to finish the setup. By 3pm I had two traps bang on having felt them down on a soft-ish lakebed, dropped a handful of freebies over each and slackened off for the night. My mate came round and we sat under my brolly had a brew and watched nightfall. Around 10pm I hit the sack and it was a cold one.


Four Seasons Fishery - Traps Set on Peg 4	'Spot' - 21lb 3oz

6.30am the right hand rod let off a sharp series of bleeps, followed by another. Me, being all curled up in the bag struggled to wake up and as usual missed the shoes on approaching the rod. I stood there in my socks, on the frozen floor, playing an angry carp in -3 conditions as it kept plodding away in the clear depths. Just as the fish started to look beaten I went to pick the net up, only to find it frozen to the floor, and it took a good pull to get it off the floor. Anyway, it popped up and I scooped it up, on first thoughts I thought I´d landed single scale, but upon peering into the mesh I soon noticed it was a fish called ´Spot´ usually a low 20 mirror.

I got it out and unhooked it, noticing the hook buried in the centre of the bottom lip an inch back, really good for my confidence, I placed the fish back in the net and lowered it in the edge, securing it before walking round to get my mate Kalan. First light was only 20 mins away so we decided to do the pics then, and me, him and his carp dog sat and drank tea, watching the morning rise. On first light I cleared the ice off the mat before picking Spot out for some pictures and weighing. It went 21lb 3oz and after getting some shots I lowered her back into the water, watching her waddle away into the depths. After countless cups of tea and some bacon sarnies, I barrowed the gear home to defrost in a hot shower.