I wanted to write this article about one of my recent sessions when I landed my second UK forty pound carp. After arriving at my Southern Syndicate lake, I began by having a little walk around to try and locate where the fish were, so I had a good chance of catching a couple. I spoke to a friend who was already setup and he gave me a head start by saying he had seen and heard a few during the night in one of the bays. I took his advice and headed to a swim called The Gravely as I hadn’t been able to spot any signs of fish.

I got the camp sorted and had a quick lead around to find some spots. I managed to find one at sixteen rod lengths straight out in front of the swim and decided to have two rods on this area for the night. I found another spot for my third rod 10 wraps out to the left hand side where there was a snaggy tree line. I put around a kilo and a half out of particle and boilies between the two spots and got the rods out for the night.

The night passed quietly and I hadn’t seen or heard anything, which made me think that the fish may have moved out of the bay I was fishing in. I sent my friend a text to see whether he’d had anything through the night. He responded saying he had landed a few, so I knew I needed to move.

After a good look about I decided on a swim called The Comfy where I felt a lot more confident. I found a couple of spots, one which was out towards some flag poles in the distance at sixteen and a half wraps and another straight out at eighteen rod lengths. The lake remained quiet and I didn’t see any signs through the day. I kept the baiting to a minimum and put out just enough over each rod for a bite.

I stayed up late watching and listening for signs of fish, but it remained very quiet. I awoke during the early hours of the morning to motionless indicators, so I stayed awake and kept watching the water for any signs. I finally saw a few fish show themselves in a corner on the other side of the lake. I was contemplating moving onto them, so I drop my friend who was fishing the gate swim a text. He had also seen the fish and he was keen to move onto them, so I stayed where I was.

I hoped the fish would repeat their movements of the previous week where they would move down the lake during the morning and end up in front of where I was fishing in the evening. I got a bit of bait out there over each spot and got the rods clipped up. My rigs were trusty Hinged Stiff Rigs tied using an Invisi-Link boom section, with the end section tied using a new chod filament on text. Hook choice was a super sharp size 6 Covert Dark Incizor.

I got the rods ready for the night ahead and tied on fresh pop ups before getting them back on the spots. The plan started to come together and as it started to get dark the fish started moving down the lake and towards the water I was fishing in. I stayed up and watched the fish until I could only hear them boshing out in the darkness, before I decided to get some sleep.

At 2am I awoke to a slow take and I pulled into a heavy fish, which plodded around in front of me. I could tell it was a good fish as it was so heavy and used its weight to stay deep. As it started to give up it showed itself not too far out and at first it didn’t look too big, but once it was in the net and I could see it was a decent fish and a mirror known as the Slate Grey.

I unhooked her in the net, got the rod clipped up and back on the spot. I got her up on the scales and the needle went to 40lb 0oz exactly and I was absolutely buzzing. My girlfriend got the camera ready and I held up my second UK forty! I got a couple of water shots before releasing her back to her home. I soon had the kit packed up and headed off to home a very happy man!

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