24 Hours at Thorney Weir.
After shooting a wedding on Saturday for a good friend of mine Mr John/Josh Hook, it was decided at some point during the after party that we would head down to Thorney Weir and do a quick 24 hour session. Not having fished the venue before I was keen to have a go as I'd heard lots of good things about the fish and the lake.
We met up early on Tuesday morning with John arriving with a care package of bacon rolls which was very well received after a short but very wet drive up the m25. We had rain forecast for the whole trip so the reserve brolly was removed from the motor before we headed off around the lake for a good look around. we managed to walk two swims past the car park before the first fish launched itself out of the water about 30 yards from the bank. The rain was hammering down and the wind was pushing hard into the carpark and as we reached a swim called 'pill box' a very good fish bolted from out of the margins, shortly followed by two fish crashing tight to the island. With the wind pushing down the bottom end of the lake and fish showing consistently we had a good idea where we wanted to be and after a short and wet walk up to the top of the lake we made the decision to stay down towards the carpark where the wind was pushing. I opted for the pill box swim and John went two swims up the bank just past the island to fish open water.
A quick break in the rain was timed perfectly as we managed to get all the gear barrowed to the swim and setup before the next wave moved in. I had a couple of casts with the 'deeper' to get an idea of the depth and the bottom and was soon flicking out two rods to the island and one down the my margin on the left. John didn't waste anytime either and had fired out all three rods on a variety of methods to showing fish.
I stuck the kettle on once the rods had been sorted and after the obligatory swim tidy had taken place I set about tying some fresh rigs and pre-tying some PVA bags. I had planned to leave the rods out for a few hours before having a recast if I'd had no action. A few minutes later those two hours had come and gone and the fish had all but disappeared, I was left scratching my head but wasted no time in reeling in and having a 'plan of action' chat with John a few swims up. He had still been seeing fish show out in open water but they were pushing further out to the far side so with that I went off for another lap of the lake. I spent a good hour walking around pausing in each swim to try and locate the main bulk of the fish but with the dark skies and heavy rain the fish had stopped showing altogether. I returned back to the swim wet and frustrated and set about re doing the rods.
The afternoon came and went without any action so I decided to introduce a few kilos of bait to try and entice any fish in the area to drop down for a nosey. This did not go un-noticed and the entire bird population in the south west of England descended on my baited spot, totally wiping me out and clearing all of the bait in the process. I waited for them to finish their dinner before finally getting the rods back out again just before dark. John had come down to my swim for an evening social and we spent a good few hours deliberating wether or not we should move in the dark and trek all the way around to the furthest swims on the other side of the lake. With the rain moving in again and shrouding the short glimse of the full moon we decided to stay put and hedge our bets for the night hoping that the fish we saw in the area that morning would again return in the hours of darkness.
We were sorely mistaken and as the phone alarm went off without so much as a single liner during the night, It was clear the fish had moved out for good. Being my first session at this venue I was a little gutted to not have one out on the first session but I shall take this one on the chin and use it as a learning curve. Looking back we should have really made the effort and braved the rain during the night to the other side where the fish had started to show in the afternoon but those are the choices we learn from. It most certainly wasn't my first blank this season and I'm sure it wont be the last! It happens to the best of us!
Until next time Thorney Weir...I'll be back!
