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.