Big Carp - Attempt No 4 (Shropshire Mere)

Just back from three days camping carping in the deepest countryside that Shropshire has to offer. I raised my PB carp to over 20 lbs pretty early in the Diaries which was over my "Weekender" target but at 21lbs am still some 9lbs short of my Dream target of 30lbs.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say where I've fished because I was a guest of a syndicate member and don't know the score in the secretive Masonic like big carp circles, but there is a 40lber in the lake and a load of thirties and three days/two nights with a genuine chance of a whopper. The lake name is very similar sounding to a North Wales county...

Well I gave it my best shot - picked a swim in the NORTH EAST corner of the lake (about 10 acres in size) with a good south westerly blowing, set up with silt/chod rigs and thumped in boilies into my main area of attack in open water like no tomorrow and no regard for bankrupting myself. I also fed three loaves of mashed bread with Secret groundbait mixed in into a second line on the edge of a run of trees at waters edge which lead to a snag tree, where the leviathans can be seen in the day talking about cake flavoured boiled before getting ready for a big night on the baited areas.

My host is a v dedicated carper and is up and down trees which is all new to me and not ideal for a short ass in board shorts and crocs, but fairs fair I'm soon sold by spotting plenty of 20-30lb fish in the v weedy shallows in the SOUTH WEST corner of the lake - now where's my gear again!

An afternoon on bottom baits on top of them produces nothing and the night is the best I've slept in ages with my phone still lying at the bottom of the River Dove and no replacement yet. Another day and more furious catapulting of bait into the strike area - 3 bags of Source boilies in now but having read what the carp boys pre-bait with in a Chilly feature in an old Anglers Mail I still think that I may be underdoing it. The wind is still blowing but the bottom is covered in a clingy silk weed which is very fibrous and covers lead and rig completely every cast. I'm double PVA bagging each cast with both hook bait and lead having pellets and crushed boilies to help bring a bite. The big issue is the sheer amount if natural food in this weed - it's literally crawling with snails, shrimps and leeches. On top of that the carp are starting to get frisky with each other in the weedy shallows and I'm just not confident that many are feeding or that my rigs are clear and easy to spot and not totally masked every catch.

My mate Pete tempts a lovely 13lb fully scaled mirror in the shallows but neither of us has had a run in the main swims come the morning of day three. There were two big crashes over my baits at nightfall but they felt more cat than carp. Final day and I stalk a tiddler on the float at 6-7lbs of chubby mirror on luncheon meat but it's not going to happen for me in terms of a horse sized carp. I'm thinking I would have done the same every time when Pete nicks a lovely 21lb common on the edge of the snags. It's Boys Own stuff on a tiny dingy to free it from weeds and net the fish but a lovely way to finish. Not one run in my swim so back to the drawing board to consider a more mobile approach and maybe somewhere a little bit easier...

Cheers

Mr Fish