Carp Catchers Blog

After deciding to change waters for the coming winter and due to busy banks I’ve had a little bit of a confidence boost. On my first weekend session from late friday evening to early monday morning I had a bit of a result in the shape of 6 mirror and common carp to 21lb15oz. After turning up in the dark at 8.30 friday evening I opted for the north bank as I had been told it was free of any other anglers. After watching the water for nearly 2 hours I decided to fish up the dam end in the the deeper water or what was left of it anyway as this is where I’d seen the carp showing the most . The reservoir serves the purpose of topping up the Grand Union canal so the water levels can get quite low at times.

During my session I banked 6 carp to 21lb 15oz from 3 different spots using  Baitcraft T1  boilies over a spread of bait which included a spod mix of hemp, Solar Pure Bait BYT and crushed T1s over one of my rods. Most of the bites came during the hours of darkness which meant I had to have all my spots marked up to get them back on the spots in the darkness.

The rigs I used consisted of 15lb Korda IQ2 tied to 2 inches of stripped Sufix Stiff Silt with a size 6 Korda Wide Gape Hook, a small piece of shrink tubing over the eye and tied blowback style.

Tight Lines

Dave

(I should have turned my head torch off for the night time shots, but had forgotten while sorting the self takes. Luckily they didn’t turn out too bad.)

After arriving at one of my lakes for a weekend session and finding it busy I made the choice to take a trip over to Welham lake. We arrived at Welham about 2am after picking up a mate from work to find it relatively empty for a weekend. We settled on a couple of swims at the bottom end of the lake away from the other anglers. The swim I choose gave me a nice margin spot, a far margin snag next to the lillies and an open water spot which had all produce for me back when I had fished there years before.

The rods did’nt go out till first light and I got my head down for a very much needed few hours sleep. After no action during the day except the usual bream I proceeded to place the rods back out on the spots for the evening with a handful of freebies over each rod. The left hand rod was waded along the margin and placed gently on top of the soft silt. The middle rod was cast to the far margin snag next to the lillies and the right hand rod was again placed on the open water spot.

The setup I was using consisted of Armaled LocJaw Safety Lead Clips and Armaled LocJaw Tail Rubbers with 3oz Korda Pear leads. A 7 inch length of Sufix Stiff Silt with 2 inchs stripped back, a Korda Wide Gape  hook size 8, a small piece of silicone tubing on the shank of the hook and an extended curved shank using Korda Shrink Tubing

At around 12 pm I had a run on the middle rod resulting in a 14lb mirror and after returning the fish to the water I recast the rod and got my head down. I was woken during the night again by the middle rod but this time a small bream was the culprit. The following morning the margin rod was fizzing and bubbling away and I knew another take was on the cards. About 10 minutes later it tore off and I was in again. This time the fish felt a little better and after a very hard fight with several big lunges for the bush I was fishing upto she was mine. A modest 17.5lb common carp was quickly weighed, pictured and returned.

Later that day I lost a good fish on a zig rig after spending an hour or so observing the fish and the route they were taking through my swim. The rod had been placed a few inches under the surface along a route the majority of the carp appeared to be taking.  After that I recieved no further action and packed up mid afternoon.

Although there were no big’uns , it was nice to get a bend in the rods.

Tight Lines

Dave