As we arrived at the complex on Saturday morning the group that was just pulling off said there had been a couple of carp out that night, but nothing in the daytime. This was probably to do with the weather, as temperatures were hitting up to 31 degrees!

My allocated pegs were 15 to 21, so I had a lot of water to cover, and looking around it was clear I had some nice marginal spots to work with, as well as the open water. Eventually, after spending a lot of time looking up and down this stretch of the lake, I made the decision to set up at peg 18 as there was already signs of fish cruising around and enjoying the already intense morning sun.

I decided to go and prime all the margin spots and baited these areas with a handful of particle, pellet and crushed boilie; just enough for a good mouthful. In the clear water you could see the bait clearly on the gravel spots between the weed. After all the stealth work had been done and constantly returning to see if there were any signs of feeding carp, I noticed a lot of carp out in front of me and the light breeze seemed to be pushing them to the corner of the lake.

I made a big decision to start spombing out mixers and come back to the margin spots later in the day. After about 10 Spombs of mixers (only about 30 yards out) they began to group up and compete for the bait. Luckily the breeze seemed to keep them all in one area. After 2 hours of feeding I decided to rig up the floater gear using the 10lb Zig Link and a Size 8 Chod hook. The reason I choose this pattern was purely down to the hook bait I was using and the Chod hook made it sit perfectly once glued onto the hook (the thin nozzle on the rig glue pen made it perfect to stick in the groove with no spillage).

With a hook link of 5 feet in length it was difficult casting out because there was so much vegetation around but I just managed to cast it exactly where I wanted it. The breeze seemed to help with my line lay, as it straightened it up, and within 10 minutes of watching the carp compete for the mixers my line tightened and the tip of my rod bent round and then I knew I was in to my first Blue Pool carp.

As I was playing the fish I noticed a thick weed bed from the margin to about 8ft out. I couldn’t believe the power of the carp, which kited across the left hand side of the lake striping line of my spool that was set with a reasonably tight on the clutch. After fighting for 10 minutes I knew I was gaining the upper hand and she darted into the weed bed right in front of me. Keeping the pressure on I managed to get her head up and she gracefully slid her across the waiting net. I lifted the net up, removed the weed and there she was, big shoulders shining in the sun. She weighed in at 20lb 15oz and after the pictures were done I continued to fire out the mixers, but the carp had switched off and moved on down the lake, out of my reach.

Time was moving by quickly and before I knew it, it was late afternoon so I walked round my margin spots but saw nothing so I set my rods out for the night. Through the hours of darkness I heard a few crashing round the lake and had a few liners at the break of dawn. I went back round the margin spots to see if there was any movement but again nothing. After speaking to the rest of the party it turned out that no one had a run in the night.

I decided to try and get an area going again with the mixers, as the odd one or two were showing themselves. Within a few hours of constantly spodding mixers out there seemed to be more and more of the carp grouping up in the area. It took me most of the morning to get them competing, and then, using the same tactics I cast out beyond the feeding carp and slowly reeled back into the area. After a patiently waiting I was in again, my clutch screaming off with an angry carp. After a worthy fight I slid the net under a beautiful looking mirror that went 29lb 10oz!

I had just beaten my personal best at Blue Pool, and I was buzzing! After all it was a trip that I ended up going on because someone else had pulled out. I have never experienced such a fight with a carp like that and off the top.

That night I applied different tactics, but again it was very slow and only one carp had come out as dawn broke. We all had to be off for 9.30am so I decided to try and get them on the mixers again. I had 2 hours before we were due back in the car and I also noticed a drop in pressure and very overcast conditions.

Within minutes of putting out the mixers again I had them competing. I waited a good hour this time (as I wanted to make sure they was feeding hard because of the time), and out went the floater and I ended up with another beautiful mirror weighing 24lb 10oz that turned out to be my last fish of the session. With my tally of 3 mirrors and a having caught personal best I can honestly say that the Blue Pool lived up to its reputation – a beautiful place with big powerful carp. With difficult conditions (being bit burnt to a crisp) it certainly demonstrated that effort certainly equals rewards.