ANOTHER YEAR GOES BY ON BURGHFIELD!

With the Spring over on Burghfield things had started to fall into place around May time. I had around eight weeks to achieve the almost impossible as the kids summer holidays were fast approaching! I was going to owe the family my dedication to them because as the kids are getting older, I don't want to be the person that spent their childhood chasing a stinky old carp and not enjoying them growing up. So, I was on borrowed time. I started applying a lot of bait and Hybrid boilies were my main food source due to its track record on Burghfield. Now the crayfish in Burghfield are a bloody nightmare and I learnt a lot last season on how to keep the little buggers at bay by putting 10kg of boilies crumbed-up and mixing this with chopped Power+ Particles Tigers, sweetcorn and Activated Nut Mix Groundbait with a good helping of Hybrid Stick Mix Liquid.

Now full of anticipation I was a little surprised that no more action came until the Sunday, my third day of the session when I reeled in the margin rod to reposition it close to the 14 wrap spot. Around midday that left hand rod was away, and after a 10 minute battle I slipped the net under yet another low thirty common. After doing my thing with the pics and video footage the return cast saw another take just an hour later.

A mirror this time and on a different rig, as I'd decided to fish this rod with a Ronnie Rig armed with a white homemade Polaris Mix pop-up. I cast the rod back out with the same winning combo, and again baited with 10 more Spombs of The Link. The fish were clearly on the bait as only an hour later the same rod was away again with yet another low thirty-pound mirror on the end.

After this the action stopped, maybe from baiting again before dark and it wasn't until around 2am when the repostioned rod again was away. This fish turned out to be a recapture, but still a very good fish and a mid thirty - a fantastic old fish known as 'Heinz'. This promted me to change over the right hand rod to the white pop-up/Ronnie Rig combo, and early on Monday morning I had a bite on that rod aswell. 

This time it's a fish called 'The Sargent', a high thirty, and by now I am on cloud-nine and not sure what has been going on, as this turned into one hell of a session! To cap it off I had another mid twenty common as I packed away. Steady baiting with The Link had certainly paid off giving me a session I'll never forget!

Sadly my high was short lived when my spring trip to the UK ended in a blank, although it wasn't all bad, as I was also able to pick-up a load of Mainline goodies, liquids, pop-ups, wafters etc. and of course plenty of The Link Base Mix and Activator. So once back in Belgium I busily got back to rolling more bait and stocking up my freezer ready for the start of the season in June. 

With the complex reopend the water I'd fished before the close was pretty busy, so I decided to fish a few sessions on one of the easier lakes on the complex thinking I could do with a bend in the rod, which is exactly what happened before summer kicked in and it was time for another trip away. I can't say I really fish a lot in the summer, I just hate the heat, so 40 degrees on a lake in France was not ideal, although I did catch a few during the cooler nighttime periods. 

Then another trip to UK for a Gardner team Benelux social in August saw lady luck leave me again. But like I say, a trip to the UK is never a wasted journey, as again it meant I stocked up on Base Mix and liquids ready for my autumn campaign back in Belgium.