The week started off as usual on sunday night with me scanning the weather forecasts and satellite imagery. Because of the distance I need to cast and to prevent tangles I spent half an hour or so tying stiffish combi rigs. Eight inches of korda 20lb IQ, Size 8 Ultra sharp Gripper from Specialist sharpened hooks with a 45 degree shrink tube crank tied to 20lb braid connected to the IQ with an Albright special knot, over-weighted so it pops up just off bottom.
They like to follow a wind on Cawcutts but the trouble is, it's been mostly south-westerlies all summer through autumn. Cawcutts runs for just over half a kilometer east to west and is split at the halfway point by a channel giving it two distinctly different areas, the east 'bay' and the west 'main lake'. The main lake is twice the area of the bay and has two large islands. So, when the wind blows from the east the bay is best and when the wind blows from any other direction its the main lake as usual.
The rota started at 10:00 AM Monday morning, I was the only person on the lake which didn't surprise me because it rained all day and was dank and dark. The promise of an east wind had me in the bay again but it didn't blow long enough or hard enough and I left shortly after dark. The next morning I returned and opted for the first swim on the main lake. The wind was coming from the north west and so I sent a couple of rods 80 yards towards the south bank with Retro baits Superfruit popups. The Superfruit popups are 12mm, multicolored, bright and smelly, really obvious and have worked well for me this year. I put a kilo of Retro baits 14mm Crazy nut dumbbells on it too with the flying bomb, in a nice line out from the margin.
A few hours later the left hand rod ripped off and I scrapped with a nice mid double mirror, a repeat of last week and just like last week on dusk the wind swung to the west and the odd fish was rolling at the other end of the lake.
Next morning I arrived to find the wind had dropped but I still headed for the far end of the lake, the eastern most corner. As I was setting up the wind began to pick up but it was a full three hours before it turned from the south to the west and started to blow hard. Seventy-five yards to the left of me up the south bank I had placed two traps each with a Superfruit popup and another kilo of Crazy nut dumbbells.
The rain came back so I hunkered down under the brolly and pulled over my hood, three hours went by, food - coffee, repeat. I caught two bleeps in the wind, I looked at the rod tips. The left hand rod tip was slowly bending to the left and I dashed for the rod. It pulled round hard and the fish took off to the right and out into the deep water, thirty seconds later I started to gain control, winding down walking it back, coaxing it between the second island and the corner of the lake I was in. Once there I did the usual "please dont fall off" in my head and then just kept a careful hold as it raced up and down the margin.
I wasn't sure how big it was until I looked in the net, another 27lb+ common, just like last week!