Drayton Reservoir

After a family holiday away in Spain, I was more than eager to be out on the bank. Again I would be venturing over to Drayton. After discovering the how effective zigs are there and receiving some success, I thought it would be rude not to give them a go again. This time however, I would spod over the top of them, just to see if it made a difference. With the daylight lasting longer, I decided to walk up to the venue, it’s a fair old walk but after 40 minutes I arrived at the gates, which were still locked! This was a good sign as it meant I could get a good peg on the dam wall. A few minutes later a friend opened up the gates and I quickly barrowed the gear to the desired peg.

The peg is one I often fish; it has depths to 21ft and throws up fish all the time. I hurried to unload the barrow and soon had both rods set up with zigs. The setup I used was simple, mainline was soft steel in 10lbs, down to a 3oz horizon inline lead, my hooklink was the Fox Zig + Floater Line in 9lbs, which was tied to a size 9 Arma Point SSC barbed hook and the bait was a piece of yellow, foam glugged in betalin and whipped tightly to the shank of the hook. The fish were going crazy at about 110 yards, crashing every couple of seconds with even the odd one or two cruising on the surface, at 6am in the morning, it was mental and I knew I was in for a good session!

I got both my zigs out to the spot at 110 yards one at 15ft and one at 17ft, the Inline Horizon leads making easy work of the chuck. I set the spod rod up, and made a lovely mix consisting of Hinders Nutz Sludge mix, some Little Gems pellets and some crushed Snails boilies. With the mix sloppy and seeping out of the spod, I began spodding over the zigs and was instantly rewarded with a lovely mirror of around 12lbs, a good first fish! Within minutes of putting the fish back I had another one at about 15lbs, the action soon slowed up when some light drizzle began to fall overhead. However, I continued to spod out the mix and as the weather perked up sure enough I received a take on the zig at 15ft, the other 2 fish had been on 17ft, so I recon the rain had pushed them down in the water. My thoughts were confirmed; as the good weather continued, the fish moved up in the water and the zig at 17ft was the next to rip off. The day wore on and I was now receiving far more action at 17ft than 15ft. I finished the day with countless carp, so feeling thoroughly knackered from all the spodding and reeling in fish I packed up and headed for home, knowing that I had another fantastic tactic in my armoury.