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
Showing posts with label Carp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carp. Show all posts
09/08/2009
Big Carp Attempt No3 (Crabmill Flash)
A bad football injury to my foot has left me out of fishing action for a few weeks - City will probably only bid 10 mil for me now. I've had a late pass out and didn't have anything planned as regards target species so it's up at the crack of dawn and making it up as I go. Now that I'm a carp expert, it's off to Belmont Pool again for a few more twenty plusers !Arriving at the Belmont complex at 7am, it's obvious that someone is giving away free money at 6am - the place is packed and the only free space is in the car park. Last minute change of plan then and it's off to Crabmill Flash, also on the Lymm Card.
Lovely place but I haven't got a clue when I get there - it's long and thin with a really inviting bay surrounded by bivvies. No idea what's in here so let's hedge my bets and go for carp and bream. Some serious bait goes in but all to no avail - it's red hot and only one bream (7-8lbs) has come out all day. There are fish all over the bait late on but nothing but liners for 12 hours - triffic...
Cliff, the helpful waterkeeper/Lymm Committee man fills me that it's a cat/bream water with a small head of carp. Might give the catfish a go in the Autumn. In the meantime, it's Blankety blank No.2 and back to the drawing board.
Mr Fish
14/07/2009
Big Carp Attempt No.2 (Belmont Pool)
On 13 July 2009, I caught my first new PB and "Weekender" target since setting up the blog/website, a 21lb Mirror Carp from Belmont Pool on the Lymm Anglers card. It was my second attempt on the venue, after a puny evening blank trying to float fish bread flake without success. A switch to boilies over mashed bread/hemp and pellet produced five runs and three fish towards the end of a 9 hour session. The pool had been suffering from low oxygen levels and was closed for approximately a week before my arrival. The club had placed aerators in the pool to maintain oxygen levels which made swim selection and choosing a line of attack more difficult but was more than compensated by a lack of recent angling pressure on the venue.
A quick scan around the pool showed plenty of fish activity, including numerous fish ripping up the bottom in the shallows. One angler had already had a red letter day with 5 fish to 27lb. I picked a longer range spot next to some bushes as the main line of attack and put the first rod on the spot. I had an idea that the fish may be high in the water on a sunny day and so put a pop-up boile on a zig rig on the second rod allowed. No activity on the zig at all for first three hours so switched to a bottom bait with a bag of pellets cast at any fish showing, particularly off the island. The island seems to get quite a bit of hammer at Belmont but I thought it was worth a try for a couple of hours. No joy on the roving rod but fish had now started to show (rolling/blows etc.) over the baited area and so the roving rod was switched to give two bait presentations and sizes.
The action started at about 6.30pm with a strong run on the left rod. I had to play the fish reasonably hard to keep it away from the ropes securing the aerator and after finally getting on top of what looked a low double, the hook pulled - gutted as it was my first carp fishing run for literally years. Fortunately the fish continued to show over the bait and half an hour later the same rod was off again, this time the fish kited straight in to the aerator and it's positional ropes. It seemed it really wasn't going to be my day, despite steady pressure, the line was totally locked up. So, ignoring the cold water and a very sceptical wife (just dropped off tea), it was down to the undies and in to the murky water to try and free the fish. I bottled wading further once the water reached the wedding tackle but somehow managed to unwrap the line from the aerator and cable. Surprise, surprise the fish fish had either shed the hook or ploughed into the snags and wrapped the hooklength around branches etc. Again steady pressure was applied and thankfully the hook pulled free. After staggering back to the bank it seemed the session was over with nil points.
I spent the next half hour trying to dry myself off with a tiny beer towel and thought about packing up. I couldn't believe my eyes though, when a big fish rolled over the baited area, despite me effectively having a swim around it five minutes earlier. It must have been my Kouros aftershave!
Baits out again and half an hour later I'm in an playing the fish hard away from the aerators. A really good scrap and my first carp (a lean mirror) for 15 years is in the net and looks to be a new PB, the old PB being 11lbs 4 oz. The scales go 11lbs, so a near miss. The fish goes back great and before I can get the rod back in, the other rod's off. A shorter, slower fight produces a very chubby carp in the net and as I pick up the mesh it's obvious that this time it's way over the old PB.
A quick scan around the pool showed plenty of fish activity, including numerous fish ripping up the bottom in the shallows. One angler had already had a red letter day with 5 fish to 27lb. I picked a longer range spot next to some bushes as the main line of attack and put the first rod on the spot. I had an idea that the fish may be high in the water on a sunny day and so put a pop-up boile on a zig rig on the second rod allowed. No activity on the zig at all for first three hours so switched to a bottom bait with a bag of pellets cast at any fish showing, particularly off the island. The island seems to get quite a bit of hammer at Belmont but I thought it was worth a try for a couple of hours. No joy on the roving rod but fish had now started to show (rolling/blows etc.) over the baited area and so the roving rod was switched to give two bait presentations and sizes.
The action started at about 6.30pm with a strong run on the left rod. I had to play the fish reasonably hard to keep it away from the ropes securing the aerator and after finally getting on top of what looked a low double, the hook pulled - gutted as it was my first carp fishing run for literally years. Fortunately the fish continued to show over the bait and half an hour later the same rod was off again, this time the fish kited straight in to the aerator and it's positional ropes. It seemed it really wasn't going to be my day, despite steady pressure, the line was totally locked up. So, ignoring the cold water and a very sceptical wife (just dropped off tea), it was down to the undies and in to the murky water to try and free the fish. I bottled wading further once the water reached the wedding tackle but somehow managed to unwrap the line from the aerator and cable. Surprise, surprise the fish fish had either shed the hook or ploughed into the snags and wrapped the hooklength around branches etc. Again steady pressure was applied and thankfully the hook pulled free. After staggering back to the bank it seemed the session was over with nil points.
I spent the next half hour trying to dry myself off with a tiny beer towel and thought about packing up. I couldn't believe my eyes though, when a big fish rolled over the baited area, despite me effectively having a swim around it five minutes earlier. It must have been my Kouros aftershave!
Baits out again and half an hour later I'm in an playing the fish hard away from the aerators. A really good scrap and my first carp (a lean mirror) for 15 years is in the net and looks to be a new PB, the old PB being 11lbs 4 oz. The scales go 11lbs, so a near miss. The fish goes back great and before I can get the rod back in, the other rod's off. A shorter, slower fight produces a very chubby carp in the net and as I pick up the mesh it's obvious that this time it's way over the old PB.
The fish, a very fat mirror, goes 21 lbs and a new PB by almost 10 lbs bringing some kind of respectability to my carp fishing. An absolutely screaming run as the moon started to take over from the sun, produces a 6lb mirror, showing that the run is no indicator of size and it's time to wrap up on the first successful session. Three fish to 21lb - job done on Carp for now and on to the next species!
Mr Fish
01/07/2009
Big Carp Attempt No.1 (Belmont Pool)
It's taken a while to get out of the traps, but here we are giving it the first go of the quest on an evening session at Cheshire carp venue, Belmont Pool, in Antrobus. It's a sticky dry evening with a few fish moving on the top.
In my wisdom, I've decided that using a different approach to tackle an established, pressured carp water is the way forward. No need for bolt rigs and boilies, it's liquidised bread; beefed up float tackle; 1.75lb tc rod and bread flake on a size 10. It looks like a great plan, with everyone else sitting behind the buzzer bars and getting no action at all and the fish already blowing on the bread in my swim.
Full of expectation, I sit and watch the chubby float bob, quiver and wobble....for 4 hours until it's time to pack up. No bites and I've fallen at the first. A big fat blank to start off, but at least noone else has had a run while I've been on the pool....
Off home to think again.
Mr Fish
In my wisdom, I've decided that using a different approach to tackle an established, pressured carp water is the way forward. No need for bolt rigs and boilies, it's liquidised bread; beefed up float tackle; 1.75lb tc rod and bread flake on a size 10. It looks like a great plan, with everyone else sitting behind the buzzer bars and getting no action at all and the fish already blowing on the bread in my swim.
Full of expectation, I sit and watch the chubby float bob, quiver and wobble....for 4 hours until it's time to pack up. No bites and I've fallen at the first. A big fat blank to start off, but at least noone else has had a run while I've been on the pool....
Off home to think again.
Mr Fish
16/06/2009
Big Fish Diaries - The Start
Well it's the height of a North West summer and for once there's some sun for the start of the season. I've decided that my poorest efforts to date have been in respect of carp fishing, not having caught one since my early 20s and only having a rubbish PB of 11lbs 4oz.
I've been reading books by Simon Crow, Terry Hearn, Rob Hughes, Lee Jackson and other carp fishing luminaries. It's become very obvious that messing about at Tabley Mere on the Lymm card is not the way forward to catch a specimen to be proud of before I'm old and grey. So, it's off to Belmont Pool on the Lymm Anglers Card for my first attempt.
Mr Fish
I've been reading books by Simon Crow, Terry Hearn, Rob Hughes, Lee Jackson and other carp fishing luminaries. It's become very obvious that messing about at Tabley Mere on the Lymm card is not the way forward to catch a specimen to be proud of before I'm old and grey. So, it's off to Belmont Pool on the Lymm Anglers Card for my first attempt.
Mr Fish
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