The Return to Burghfield Gold Lake

Early winter Burghfield social.

Myself and a few friends arrived at the padlocked gate of Burghfield Gold Lake mid-morning on Friday. After making our way through the crystal maze of gates we parked the cars up and started walking the lake. As always we found fish in the out of bounds area and some suspect shows in open water. We decided to plot ourselves up on one bank for a good social but we could also cover the whole lake between us from these swims. I decided to go for the deeper area down one end of the lake and quickly found some lovely clear areas in and amongst some low lying weed.

As the night closed in we ordered some nice food and sat around chatting all things carp into the late evening. The temperature dropped into the low singles that night so around midnight we decided to get our heads down with a plan of getting up at first light to watch the morning unfold. I woke up around 4.45am to a decent carp showing in front of me. Once up I thought I would go and check on the lads to see if anyone else was up. As I walked round the corner into my friends swim he had just landed one and was getting the rod back on the spot. A lovely mid twenty to start the weekend off.

When the light settled and the fog cleared we got the fish out and did some pictures and video footage and slipped her back. A celebratory egg and bacon sandwich swiftly followed the return of the fish. The lads had to shoot off Saturday lunchtime so I had another couple of friends coming down on Saturday afternoon for 24 hours. Another two members of the Wolf team. Once the boys left I decided a move was on the cards to the entrance of the out of bounds. We could see they were still in there in big numbers. The lads got settled in, found some spots and deployed their traps for the night ahead. We got to work for a few hours with some products doing some light filming for future content.

Once we had that wrapped up it was time to kick back with some food and again, the conversations were flowing and stories being told of previous campaigns and captures.

Walking back to the brolly with a full stomach it was almost time for some kip when my right hand rod flew into action. I quickly picked the rod up and started applying some pressure as the fish was pressing hard for the snags. I managed to turn its head and the battle was now going on in front of me. After putting up a great account for itself we eventually managed to bundle it into the net. It was around mid-twenty and a lovely Burghfield two-tone scaley mirror. Brilliant start to the second evening.

By the time we sorted the fish out, did pictures and slipped her back it was early hours of the morning. I had to get back in the waders and flick the rig back down the channel onto the same hard gravel spot. We decided after that to call it a day and get some sleep ready for the following morning. Around 5am the same road was away again and very similar to the first bite it was stripping me of line heading for the main snag down the end of the channel.

We managed to bundle this one into the net as well and decided to sling her up until first light a short while after. A lovely dark low twenty.

First light came around and we got the fish sorted and started to pack up. Reflecting on a great weekend had by all on a lovely lake with some very pretty and very big carp.