More of the same please

April 13th

So days of work had past allowing me to prepare more hemp and get ready for another repeat performance in my chosen swim (hopefully). Work finished and I was changed and on my way to the lake at speed, hoping no-one had dropped in my swim since my lunchtime recon trip.

On arrival the swim was free and it didn't look like anyone had been there the night before, so hopefully the swim would have benefitted from a nights rest! As there is a large open area behind the swim I was able to walk all my rods out to the range markers to ensure I was dropping back on the same spots with my chosen Chod rigs. 15 spods or should I say Spomb's of hemp and boilie to each spot and I was ready to set up the Brolly and wait for the action.

Unlike Monday night I had to wait quite a while longer for my Delkim to sound, but at 21:30hrs I had the unmistakable 'bream bite' with my bobbin flying up and down, whilst the fish was unable to take line from the baitrunner. Not an ideal start to the session, but at around 7lb not a bad bream either.

The next time I was running for my rods was at 22:50hrs the middle rod over my baited patch had given me the beloved single tone run, however the fish wasn't putting up much of a fight - until it got in close, I think it must have shaken some silk weed off its head because he started to strip a lot of line from my clutch, and the fish had me thinking I was hooked into one of the larger residents of the lake. Eventually the marginal charges got weaker and I netted a beautiful long common weighing 19lb 7oz. The tactic was working and after a quick smoke I was drifting back to sleep well chuffed with how the week's fishing was developing.

02:05hrs and I'm squatting on the end of the platform, rod in hand with a fish that is kiting fast to my left into an area of thicker Canadian type weed. There was nothing I could do to stop it and I soon had that sinking feeling of solid resistance in weed. I kept the pressure steady for a few minutes but I couldn't feel any tell tale kicks on the line. I decided to pull a bit harder and gradually the weed was moving towards me. I edged the mass towards my platform and in the light of my head torch it seemed I was towing in an entire weed bed. Somehow I managed to get my net under it all! Once I'd dropped my rod the search began, but sadly in the mass all I could find was my dis-guarded hook and bait.

The rod was recast and just as I was getting back into my bag the other rod on my open water spot screamed off. This time it felt like a good fish from the start, staying deep and taking long steady runs from my clutch. Thankfully its attempts kites into the heavy weed failed and I was photographing my first 20lb carp if the year at 21lb 4oz, this common had me smiling from ear to ear. Sadly the self take photos were not amazing; I won't forget that carp in a while. I retired to my bag feeling victorious; I was one step closer to my season’s aims.

I would have happily slept through to my work alarm and worked all day with a big smile on my face, but the carp had other plans. 03:50hrs and I'm on the end of the platform in my socks playing another fish hard trying to keep it out of the many weed beds. It's still pitch black, but as I slide the net under the fish I realise I'd landed a mirror at last, and it looked bigger than the previous fish! At 22lb 12oz it was my biggest carp of my new campaign, and a very pretty sparsely scaled fish too.

Needless to say my next day at work was pretty painful and involved lots of Redbull, but after banking two 20's and a 19 in one night I really couldn't complain!

Making the tactic pay

11th April 2011

After a scorching weekend session at the pit, and with a Carp under my belt i couldn't wait to get back down there and get the rods back on my spots. The weather had changed in the day and after the week of hot weather we had some light rain, with a strong westerly picking up blowing straight into the reeds swim, with some added cloud cover it was all looking very carpy!

I'd been baiting two areas - one at around 70-80yrds towards open water that cannot really be fished from any other swim, it was also towards the bank that is closed for fishing during the traditional closed season. The other was close to the margin of the island opposide me at about 70yrds.

During my lunch break walks around the lake I'd always found the fish holding up in the unfishable areas, sunning themselves on top of the shallow bars behind the island. In my mind they would have to pass one of my baited area first to get from their daytime holding areas to the social bank (where most people were fishing and putting in bait consistently) for their night time feed.

As the evening settled in i called my Dad to catch up and tell him about the fishing I've been doing recently, and to enquire about my uncles membership on a local syndicate. I only recently started speaking to him again recently, but its always great to have fishing to talk about - he was the reason i started fishing and he really is a wealth of information. Sadly he fishes a lot less these days, prefering to smack small white balls around a perfectly kept field - but I'm sure we will find time for some barbel fishing together before the summer is over!

The reason i mentioned the conversation with my father is it was rudely interupted by a screaming take from my island margin rod, the delkims made a sound my dad recognised (they used to be his!) and we ended the call adbruptly! After a quick fight i had a short plump common on the unhooking mat it weighed in at 15lb 6oz and i was happy that I'd caught so early in the evening, meaning i could sleep soundly on a work night, safe in the knowledge i wasn't on a blank!

After calling my dad back to give him the weight of the fish and say goodbye, soon after putting the phone down my right had rod was away with another screaming take, this fish was fighting well, but stayed out of the weed, just as i was edging it to the net it threw the hook - i was gutted and it was time to try and get some sleep before work.

I drifted into a happy sleep around 21:30hrs. I would say i was rudely awakened at 22:00hrs, but the sound of a screamer on a Delkin is one of the best ways to wake up - i dont care what time of night it happens, its a sound i'm always happy to hear! This time I'd found one of the lakes smaller residents at 9lb 5oz, but the important point was it was from the heavily hemp baited area in the open water area of the lake. After some quick self take pictures I again drifted back into a happy sleep.

23:00hrs and im running for the rods again, this time the fish felt a little bigger and it kited to the left into a weedbed. With constand pressure the lump started to slowly but surely edge towards my platform, allowing me to net a massive green ball with a tail sticking out! This fish pushed the scales to 15lb 12oz, but i think it had has its weetabix because it had definately given me the best scrap so far.

Whilst i was preparing to do the self take photos, with the fish on the matt my middle rod scremed off - they really don't mess around with subtle runs here! The fish found the weed, and whilst applying pressure the hooklink parted just above the swivel knot - I'd been experimenting with Flourocarbon Chod rigs without a curve, but i dont think the material is really cut out for the weed in this pit.

With the fish lost i quickly took the pictures and returned the fish to his weedy home. As i stood up to watch the carp slip away from the light of my head torch the right hand rod on the baited area was off again - however I wasn't connected to the fish for long as it surfaced and shook the hook free. That sort of behaviour is somehting i would expect from pike, I'd never seen a carp lose a hook in that way.

All in all it was a cracking session, 3 landed and 3 lost and all before midnight so i got a decent nights sleep before work!

Out of the starter blocks

Having thought about the problems the blanket weed was presenting me at the shallow pit, and based on my previous experiences with particles I decided that it was time to adjust my approach away from PVA bags, PVA sticks and other similar methods of shielding the hook and jump on the 'Choddie' band wagon! I'm not normally a follower when it comes to tactics and methods - I like to beat my own path and learn from my own experiences, be they good or bad - but in my mind the advantages of the presentation on a chod rig really were perfect for the situation I was finding myself in.

As I had found previously I could easily clear areas in the weed by using particle, obviously I could have raked the weed as well, but due to the crystal clear water, and depth of the lake I knew the fish rarely visited the margins during the day at this time of year, so I would be gambling on marginal spots in the evening. I opted to create feeding areas rather than fish existing known spots or busy swims - this had a two-fold advantage of giving me a greater chance of always getting in my chosen swim, and also being able to keep my captures relatively secret.

I opted to just use hemp as my particle, you really can’t beat it as a fish attractor and I always fish with confidence over a bed of hemp as it’s irresistible to most fish, which would mean all the lakes residents would be on my spots pushing back the blanket weed, and exposing the lake bed. Also with my decision to change to chod rigs it meant that even if the weed was not fully cleared I could be relatively confident that the hook bait and hook would remain weed free and fishing effectively even if my casts did not land exactly on the spots I was trying to create when casting at night.

Finally on the 9th of April I had my first screamer and after a great scrap I had finally landed my first carp of the year - a very pretty common weighing in at 19lb 60z. The weight was largely irrelevant at this stage - I was just over the moon that my campaign had started to produce carp, and that my new bait was working. However the fish had not fallen from the hemp baited spot, it was from my rod on an island margin baited with only boilie. The amount of line bites on my hemp patch did however suggest that there were fish in the area and that it was only a matter of time before I started catching.