Somethings are better Late rather than Never

The past 12 months have been a rather difficult time for me, with starting up my own business and writing articles for the Carp Angler magazine, I haven't been able to get out onto the bank as I wanted.

I was lucky to have a couple of nice scaleys last year as well as two recaptures including a mid 30 common. Towards the end of the year I also managed a new PB grass carp at 54lb 7oz.

Here are some of the highlights of the year and some scenery pictures as well.

Effort Equals Reward

There are so many various ways of catching carp that we often find ourselves confined to a few proven methods or tactics during our careers as carp anglers. All of which catch carp and have done so in the past. It is always a roll of the dice in an attempt to find out which tactic or method is the better one on any given day.

I decided to employ the little and often baiting up scheme by baiting up a handful or two of bait every day for a week. On Friday on my arrival at the lake I went out on the boat to look for any signs of fish. Being mid winter the water is now gin clear and in 6ft of water you are able to see the everything on the lake bottom. It was not long before I saw dust clouds formed on the bottom as the silt is stirred up by carp being spooked off.

Sure that carp are in my swim, I hurriedly baited the rigs and got all three rods out on the likely areas of where I thought the carp would be. Thirty minutes later and the middle rod screamed off. Lifting the rod I could immediately feel it was a good fish. The fish came in without much difficulty until under the rod tip when it put up a decent scrap. Seeing the fish in gin clear water in the late afternoon is carp fishing for me is all about. It is one thing catching these big fish but it is something else being able to see them in the clear water.

31lb 8oz

As I lifted the fish out of the water I could feel it was decent. The fish was tricked using a Monster Tigernut pop up fished on a hinge stiff rig with half a hand of growlers over the top.

I went on to have a further three runs and lost all three due to a snag, a hookpull and being cut off. Bitterly disappointed to lose so many fish, however this fish made me forget all about that.

Until next time. Tight Lines.

Super Singles Produce a Familiar Friend

With winter now in full force the days are a lot shorter and the nights seemingly lasting forever. The grass is dry and dust covers everything. There is an overwhelming cold in the early hours of the morning a tell-tale sign of the season changed.  

It is always a good feeling to have a recapture and  see how the fish is getting on. I would never have thought I would have this dark common twice in two weeks. No less on the single hookbait tactic. 

 

 

The fish was tricked on the first occasion with a single Dynamite Baits white coconut crème pop up tipped off with a pop up green corn fished on a shot on the hair rig. The fish gave a good account of itself and after a short fight went 29lb 5oz on the Reuben.

 A week later and the same fish was tempted this time on a Solar Jet Black Pop Up fished on a hinge stiff rig. The fish weighed 28lb 14oz and it wasn’t until after I released it did I suspect that this fish could in fact be a recapture.  

On the second occasion the fish fought extremely hard. On its first run it took a good 20 metres or so of 50lb powerpro. The fish still had plenty of energy and even close in it ran me ragged. It took a great amount effort to keep it from reaching the snag tree to the right side of my pod and eventually we managed to get this fighter into the back of the net.

 

After a great battle I had imagined the fish to be a lot bigger than it was. That was all made up for when I confirmed that this was a recapture and barely two weeks apart.

 

Hoping to get amongst the bigger fish with a small change in strategy and swim choice in the next coming weeks.

 

 

Autumn Success at close Range

After what has been a busy summer season of fishing, autumn has inevitably crept in and the nights are becoming longer with the days shorter and cooler early morning temperatures felt by all on the bank. I have been targeting this water since October last 2013. The lake is very flat with almost no features. The lake is circular in shape and it gradually steps down slowly from 1ft in the margins to around 3.5 metres in the centre. The lake was a brick field quarry and in 1911 a sailing club was established. Since then the lake has never run dry and is home to big carp as well as big grass carp.

Margin fishing is my favourite type of fishing and I have always had good results when fishing the margins. This past weekend proved yet again just how deadly they can be and also how easily over looked they are by other anglers. I chose my peg immediately after seeing an overhanging willow to the right of the peg. I immediately went out on the boat and found that it was 1.7m deep directly underneath the branches. 2 metres off the branches the depth dropped down to 2.5metres and was a firm gravel bottom with a thin layer of silt over the top.

With one rod placed just off the front of the willow I had my other two rods in deep water and at range. On the first evening the margin rod was the only rod to see any action in the form of a double common and this lovely dark common going 22lb on the nose on the Reubens.

The long range rods saw a bit of action throughout the session with 3 carp banked, the best of which was this fat upper double common.

 

A Spring Thirty at a New Water

With Spring having arrived after a rather mild winter I was itching to get down to a lake on the East of Johannesburg with a mate of mine for a long overdue session. It was my first time at this water but with some good advice and some bait from my mate Sarel the rest was really up to me. Sarel has had a rather good run of late at this water banking three mid thirties in his last three sessions with a few doubles and twenties in between. Not an easy water by any means but again showing his class and knowledge which one would come to expect having fished it almost every weekend for the past two years.

Although being his guest I insist that he fish the swim he has been baiting up and doing so well in. I had actually seen a small patch of lily pads away from his swim to the right which looked right for a fish or two and this was my real reason for wanting to not fish his swim. I arrived at around 5.00am on Saturday morning and within the first half hour of being there I counted at least six fish swirl and turn a metre off the left side of the lily pads. My mind was set and I said to Sarel this is where the first fish will come from. (Don’t you love it when a plan comes together) With most of the fish being caught from open water, anywhere from 60 metres out to the far margin at 250 metres plus I knew I had a good chance of having fish from close in.

The lake looked pretty featureless at first with a gradual slope to 4ft at around 20 metres out when suddenly it drops down to 7ft and then continues with a gradual slope down to 21ft at about 60 metres out. Luckily I had a canoe handy as it revealed that after 7 or so metres from the bank there is water grass about a foot under the surface of the water. The water grass continues until around 3 metres in front of the lily pads and then becomes clear silt on the bottom. The right rod was fished on the left edge of the lilies about a metre off the edge, while the middle and left rods fished in open water at around 70 metres out. Baits were double 14mm Extreme Maple boilies fished straight out the packet as a snowman on a combi rig consisting of 20cm of 50lb fluorocarbon joined by an albright knot to a 5cm length of 25lb Merlin tied knotless knot style to a size 4 Nash Twister. This rig was fished over half a handful of 14mm Extreme Maple boilies and chops.

The lily pad rod was the first rod to see action on Saturday night after a twitchy take at 9.20pm. The fish kited immediately left into some lilies and snagged up before coming off to a hook pull a few moments later. The lily pad rod was off again at 12.15am on Sunday morning just as I netted Sarel's upper double common. After an initial solid run taking at least ten metres of braid the fish came in without much trouble. As the fish slid over the cord and into the depths of the 42 inch net Trevor and Sarel teased and said it was a small’un. Quite ironically Trevor struggled to carry the fish to the unhooking mat. When I opened the net I immediately knew it was a good fish and possibly thirty. The fish went 30lb 1oz on the Reubens and marked my first thirty for the year.

An hour and a half later after redoing the rod it was off again with another screaming take. This fish fought exactly like the first fish, taking some twenty odd metres of braid off the spool in a couple of seconds then coming in fairly easily without any hassle. This fish weighed in at 24lb 1oz.

Thanks again to my mates Sarel & Trevor for a great weekend and a special Thanks to Sarel for the amazing pictures.

Winter Field Testing Success

With not a lot of time spent on the bank this year, my mate Ben and I decided to take advantage of a long weekend and put in a 48 hour session at a difficult open access municipal water. We started baiting up two days before the session, putting out a kilo of boilie on each swim with the throw stick on the first day and then the day before the session another 2kg on each swim.

Ben was fishing at around 90 metres out in 21 foot of water in the deepest part of the lake. The lake is pretty featureless with the majority of the bottom being deep silt. The lake drops down slowly from 1 foot in the close margins to 21 foot in the middle. Ben fished safety clip drop off leads with 15cm hooklinks and bottom baits whilst I fished drop off inline lead arrangments.

After no less than 3 hours of having his lines in, Ben was off the mark with this lovely 21lb 13oz common.

After recasting that rod, it was off an hour later with yet another stunner 21lb 13oz common.

Ben was in the action again shortly after 11pm with this 25lb 2oz common that needed alot of help. The fish had two large sores behind the anal fin that were cut almost to the bone. All we could do was apply some Medicarp and hope for the best. This fish gave the best account of itself out of all the fish banked for the session going on 3 powerful long runs spooling no less than 20 metres of braid on each run.

Morning arrived with no action on any of my two rods fished in 19 foot of water. My left rod fished at range in 21 foot of water however had the stow bobbin clipped off. Strange that the buzzer hadnt sounded at all. I tightened up the slack and reset the bobbin without any hassle. 10 am the left rod gives off a few bleeps, then the middle rod and then the right rod... Puzzled and standing around like Tom looking for Jerry I decide to bring up the slack on the left rod. The bobbin starts to drop but no bleeps from the buzzer. Again I tighten up the slack and the same thing. I pick up the left rod and begin reeling in. The line coming in very slack and feeling as though I had been cut off. Then out of no where, the line comes from my rightside and I feel a heavy weight and then the line starts peeling off the reel. SURPRISE and I'm on with a carp. The fish was on the surface less than 5 metres out infront of the close margin bull rushes. A short fight ensued and without any fuss we netted this scale perfect double figure common at 14lb 2oz.

 

 

We saw no other action for the rest of the day as the cold front arrived on time like the weather man predicted. One more surprise was yet to unfold before us in the form of a healthy 29lb 4oz common again taken at range by Ben in the early hours.

 

A great ending to a superb session for my mate Ben, and proof that prebaiting a good bait can get results in the toughest of conditionS...



 

A Lovely May Day Carp

The weather didnt look good with yet another cold front predicted to arrive late on Saturday afternoon. All the rods bang on the money on each of the three chosen spots by 5pm on Friday afternoon. My wake up call came at 8am on Saturday morning with this cracking common, one of the original strain that are in this lake. Very strong and hard fighting are these old carp, known for their big yellow tails, distinctive lateral line and 'faint scale pattern'. This one was fooled with 3 grains of artificial buoyant corn in yellow, black and yellow fished on a standard shot on the hair rig , size 6 Carp Company hook with 4 hands of particle mix scattered over the hookbait. The particle mix consisted of maize, tigernuts, wheat, sorgum, crushed maize, hempseed, maples and peanuts.



18lb 8oz