november-2026-free-line-part-2 - Flipbook - Page 141
FREE LINE / FIELD JOURNAL
CONNOR SMITH
FIELD NOTES
Hangman's pool, better known as the flash, is a proper headbanger of a lake
that perfectly fits in the urban carping category. It s a big park lake with
a low stock of fish, dog walkers who let their dogs run through your swim
taking out your lines and a few snobby residents who don't particularly like
you fishing 'their' lake. If that doesn't put you off then the bird life will.
Good luck baiting up in the daylight, as the birds and ducks don't miss a
thing; even the sight of a throwing stick gets them going mad.
Now, there is something that would make you look past all these downsides
to this lake it's name, the Big Lin, without a doubt the town's most sought
after fish, which makes an appearance once or twice a year. I've even met
people who have traveled from Cannock and Dudley to try and catch this
old, dark and scaled Leney. I originally wanted to save this campaign for a
good while until I felt like there was nothing left to do close to home, but
with two lakes very close suffering with KHV and rumours of these KHV
fish being moved into the Flash, I knew the time was now.
With a young daughter and a very demanding job in the bait industry, the
majority of my angling is night sessions once a week in between work, when
I can fit the time in. My first night, I decided to head into a swim where
I had seen two catch pictures in the past and decided this would probably
be my best bet whilst I try and work out the lake. I got there about 7pm
and had an hour to get everything set up before it got dark. The lake is
notoriously known for not being easy, so at around midnight, I decided to
get my head down and hope for the best during the early morning.
Around 3am, I was awoken by a screaming Nash Siren, and I was into a
fish. After a short fight, it was one of the smaller fish that resided in the
lake, so it was unhooked in the net and sent off back to its watery home. I
was confident as ever, now knowing that even though it was only a baby,
everything was working how I hoped.
I got back into bed and got my head down ready for an early pack down in
a few hours.
Over the next few sessions, not much changed.
FREE LINE
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