freeline-94 - Flipbook - Page 70
EXCLUSIVE
W hat lay before me wa s ,
w i thout exaggeration , t h e
m ost breathtaking l ake I ’d
e v er seen. Nestled deep in t h e
Ke nt countryside, Wing h a m
i s more than just water a n d
b a nks. It’s a world of its o w n
— where mist rises gently o f f
t h e surface in the early ho u r s ,
where you can hear the distant,
tough. I blanked more than
I c a r e t o a d m i t . Wi n g h a m
i s n ’t a l a k e t h a t g i v e s a w a y
i t s s e c r e ts e a s i l y. B u t I d u g
i n . I st a y e d c o n s i s t e n t w i t h
my approach, especially in
t h e s u m m e rs w h e n I a d o p t e d
a s e r i o u s b a i t i n g st r at e g y.
O v e r t i m e, I b e g a n t o u n l o c k
t h e l a k e. S l o w l y b u t s u r e l y,
s u rreal roar of lions fro m t h e
l o cal wildlife park, an d wh e r e
t h e silence is punctu ate d o n l y
b y the subtle sounds o f na t u r e
a n d the occasional crash o f
w ater from its large resid e n t s
Every time I turned o f f
t h e main road a nd w e n t
t h rough the old farm gate, t h e
b u tterflies would start. T h a t
m oment of arrival — ful l o f
a n ticipation, full of po ssib i l i ty
— never g ot old. The nerv o u s
e x citemen t,
just
thin k i n g
w hat might be caught t h a t
s e ssion, w as overwhel min g. I t
d i dn’t matter how many ti m e s
I ’d fished it; that feelin g wa s
a l ways there.
The first few spring s w e re
the pieces started to come
t o g e th e r — a n d w i t h t h e m ,
the fish.
One of the biggest learning
c u r v e s w a s u n d e r st a n d i n g t h e
l a k e b e d i t se l f. Wi n g h a m i s a
maze of underwater channels,
bars, gullies and plateaus —
the kind of topography that
r e wa r d s t i m e, e f f o r t , a n d
c a r e f u l o b s e r v a t i o n . Wo r k i n g
o u t t h e f i s h ’s h a b i t s , p a t r o l
r o u te s a n d f e e d i n g z o n e s
w a s a c h a l l e n g e, b u t o n e
that made every success
f e e l d e e p l y e a r n e d . Wh a t ’s
m o r e, Wi n g h am h a d a w a y o f
flipping conventional carp
f i s h i n g wi s d o m o n i t s h e a d .
Fo r g e t t h o s e t e x t b o o k l o w -
BigCarp 68
