Over the last few years I have drifted around Hampshire fishing for Carp in many different lakes of all shapes and sizes hoping to bag a whacker but I have never really found a lake which I can really say I have mastered. I have caught a lot of carp along the way but have never been consistently amongst the bigger fish.
During these sessions I have fished 2 lakes in particular a number of times until this year when I decided enough was enough, I am going to crack this if it kills me.
The lake in question must remain nameless due to a no publicity rule but it is safe to say this is by no means a runs water. It has about 100 carp weighing up to 38lb and is around 6 or 7 acres in size, horseshoe shaped with plenty of islands, snags, overhangs and other features for the fish to hide away in. As I took a wonder around having just joined the club and deciding this would be my regular lake for the season, I noticed one particular swim that look so inviting with so many options in front of it. I sat and watched for 15-20 minutes to see if there was any fish activity. Just as I was getting up to walk back round the lake, a Carp head came up to the surface with a gaping mouth you could fit a football in and although I could not see it's body I knew it had to be well over 20lb. A few seconds later another set of shoulder's appeared a little further out towards a set of pads, shoulders that resembled those of an American footballer.Needless to say that was enough to convince me that my Bivvy would be occupying this swim for the weekend so with out further a do out went the marker rod and after a good half hour of investigating, a few spods, half a kg of boilies and then a rig either side with solid PVA bags of a mix of pellets and crushed/chopped boilies followed on to the chosen spot.
I was feeling rather confident for a change despite my lack of success previously on this water but there was just this feeling that my luck would change. A warm breeze was blowing, it wasn't too hot, or too sunny, it just felt right.
Later that evening after 7 hours of static bobbins, my good feeling was proved to be justified when my Delkim scared the life out of me, made me spill my tea and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end with just a single beep. I leapt out of my chair and crouched at the rod side waiting for another beep to let me know it was still there, and sure enough of it screamed. After what felt like 12 rounds with Mike Tyson I landed a 19lb scale perfect Common. This was caught on a KD rig on Korda Supernatural Braid with a Mainline Cell bottom bait trimmed down with a 8mm bright Pink monster squid pop up on top.
I very quickly changed my other rod to match this and got it back on to the spot. In true ironic fashion, no less than 10 minutes later just I had got into my big snooze and my head hit the pillow, the same rod went again, not with the same ferociousness as the last run but still a good run. The result was a 8lb Tench, not the 30 pounder I was after but a welcome visitor to my net none the less.
The night was to prove quiet and I managed a decent night sleep. I woke early but decided not to bait any more as I had put enough in the night before and I didn't want to disturb anything at first light.
Later in the day as I could see fish moving around on the surface, I began to trickle in the bait to try and draw some down to the bottom but the glorious weather had them all on the surface and more interested in sunbathing than feeding. I had set up a 3rd rod earlier that morning for this very reason and armed with Zig Rig I decided that would be worth a go. I used some black foam with a very small piece of yellow foam on top in the hope the Carp may mistake it for a bug of some kind but the lack of interest was apparent as they continuosly circled, swimming past with no real intent on taking it. As the afternoon passed I put the bottom baits back on and re-cast to the pre-baited spot which had been rested for a few hours.
Now, I have never been one for resting a swim in the past but this is something I will now be doing more often as almost instantly I had a take, which resulted in a beautiful 17lb Linear. (below)
Unfortunately that was to be the last action of the weekend but I felt like I had learnt a lot about the lake from this session and have a little more confidence going into my next session.
Thanks for reading, look out for the next blog coming soon.
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