I’ve really been enjoying my fishing on Vinny this year, so I took half a day’s holiday on Wednesday the 16th July and got there about 3pm. With no one else fishing, I did a couple of circuits looking carefully for signs of fish activity; and in the end I decided to fish the Right Hand Point swim.
The weed has been a bit of a problem on there this year. At first I struggled to find a clear spot, but after a little effort with a bare lead I found two little clearer area’s. However, despite accurately fishing these no action came on the first night.
My brother Pete turned up early on the Thursday and he was standing in the swim opposite called The Reception when he saw a carp jump out. He quickly set up in there trying to capitalise on the sighting.
By mid-day on the Thursday I’d reeled in and walked round to see him and show him the new hooks that I’ve been using; the Covert Wide Gape Talon Tip in a size 6. After thoroughly inspecting them he said they looked good, and we had a chat for a while passing the time of day.
I asked him if he had brought the weed rake that our dad had made him? I was in luck when he said “It’s in my car” and agreed to me borrowing it for a while (to rake a swim that no one fishes).
I walked off to the swim, imaginatively called ‘Weedy Corner’ and after a little bit of “blood, sweat ‘n tears” with the little weed rake, I had cleared a nice spot ten yards out. I didn’t bait it yet as I wanted it all to settle, and only my brother Pete knew I had done this swim prepping. After popping back to his swim for a rejuvenating cuppa, I wandered back to my swim to get the rods out for the night.
I cast the marker float out into a different area in my swim and was pleasantly surprised when it went down with a donk, so I popped the float up and found it to be four foot deep. To check out how clear the area was I cast around the float with a rig on, dragging it back and then whipping it up off the bottom when I reeled in. The rig was clean, so I felt a lot more confident with the new area. I cast a rod either side of the float and spodded in a couple of kilo’s of Dynamite’s Red Ammo boilies, along with some particles, as tight to the float as I could.
With everything sorted I had my dinner early that night and soon dozed off.
During the night I was woken by the sound of thunder; it was really crazy with lightning flashes all around. A really intense storm! To tell you the truth I was a little bit worried and at 4am I had a take whilst it was still raining hard.
After a brief battle I got the carp in the net and then rang Pete – just as he also had a take as well! So we both had carp in the net at the same time! He said to me to secure mine and then come round to take the pictures, then he would come round and take pictures for me.
There was a lot of weed in the net and up my line that I cleared, and then I saw the hook in the bottom of the net so I grabbed that out and moved the rod and as I turned around the carp jumped out of the net!
NO!
I felt utterly sick as I sat on my bed chair and phoned Pete to tell him what had just happened…
He said “well at least you caught it!”, which was true I suppose.
It was a common, about mid twenty, so I went round to see what he had caught. His fish turned out to be a nice mirror of 27lb, and we did his photos, had a cuppa and then went back to my swim.
I looked out to where I was fishing and noticed there was a flat spot, then a carp stuck it’s head out over the spot, so I quickly put a new rig and hook bait on.
Luckily, I had the rods clipped up to the distance and got it back on the spot first cast. Once I had got the rod sorted, five minutes later it pulled up tight and I was in to another Vinny carp! After I little while I had it in the net, so I phoned Pete and he came round to take pictures for me. This time it was a mirror called Slugworth at 28lb plus.
I was really pleased with that result and after I had slipped her back I showed Pete my successful rig. He liked it so much he asked me to tie him a couple up using the size 6 Wide Gape Talon Tips and 15lb Disruption. The hook bait was presented on a sliding rig ring on the shank and that night he called me to help with some more photos as he had caught two both on the rigs that I had tied him!
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