Due to work and family commitments, on average I get around 1 night every week to get out fishing, so being organised is a must. When I am at the lake being prepared to move onto fish, staying focused and on the ball is the only way to be consistent. As we all know carp fishing is often a puzzle that we piece together only through experience, observation and willingness to learn.

At the start of the ticket on my syndicate in April it was particularly busy and my night to angle is normally a Friday, so more often than not it’s a case of making the best of what’s left and looking for any opportunity’s. It was quite slow to start with and I was generally catching 1 or 2 every other trip. I started to get my mojo back a bit, you know the feeling where you start to connect with the lake and its surroundings and the confidence levels begin to rise as you start to believe in yourself and what you do whilst out on the bank. One particular day I had been working outside and I could feel a new weather front arriving and in my mind I already had an idea of where I needed to look when I arrived at the lake. After pulling into the car park, I went straight to an area I fancied and got up a tree and watched for a while. Out of the corner of my eye I could see fish fizzing like crazy, really going for it, so I slid down the tree in double quick time ran to the van got my gear and raced back round. Not wanting to spook them casting about too much I decided to fish just one rod in the area over just a handful of 15mm ABS Rock Lobster boilies fed individually. I wasn’t 100% sure what the bottom would be like, so I tied up a hinged stiff rig with an 8 inch boom using 25lb Ultra Skin, with 3-4 inch separation between buffer bead and safety bead. I added a piece of Rigwise Dissolving Foam around the size 4 Dark Covert Incizor to overcome any low lying weed that might be lying over the area where the fish were fizzing. I put on the waders walked out to the end of the treeline and flicked the rig as quietly as possible and as luck would have it I got the cast first time. The drop indicated that the rig had fallen into silk weed or low lying Canadian, but having allowed for this within my presentation, I wasn’t too worried. I sunk my line (GT-HD 18LB) then slackened off a little allowing it to lay over the weed and debris. I had only just clipped the lightweight Bug hanger onto my main line when I saw another sheet of bubbles rise right next to where I had cast. Minutes later I was just tidying my kit when the alarm started singing and rod tip was buckled round. I hit into it and straight away and it felt like a chunk and after a strong whole hearted battle a big mirror lay in the folds of the net. Whilst the fish was languishing in the net I quickly introduced a little more bait, again spread individually around the area to hope to keep them there. I readied my other rod with a fresh identical arrangement and repositioned into the zone.

We weighed the mirror and pictured her at weight of 36lb 1oz, almost 5lbs down on winter weight, but I wasn’t too disappointed as it was one of the other remaining big mirrors off the wish list plus she had spawned successfully. No sooner after I’d returned the mirror I was away again only this time it was an ancient looking 21lb mirror that had skin like sandpaper and tiny little fins with a dark blue colouration. I repeated the process and topped the swim up with more boilies, but the fish had backed off a little so I had to wait a couple of hours before I was away again – this time with a new PB Common of 36lb, which marginally beat my former best.

I stayed the night but nothing else was forthcoming. Since that session things have really started to go well with many more fish under my belt, which I’m sure I’ll write about in my next catch reports. Tight lines.