After losing four fish on the trot during different sessions on my local syndicate due to various forms of bad luck, I was itching to settle to the score and land another fish from the venue before the carp decided to spawn.

I spent a day searching for them and I finally located a number of fish held up in a weedbed. Luckily the swim that covered the area was free, so I quickly secured the area. I chose to put one rod tight to the front of the weedbed and another on the side of it.

Unsurprisingly, the carp basked in the safety of the weedbed during the heat of the day, however as dusk came the fish started to vacate the area. I felt they were starting to think about grouping to start to spawn within the next week or so.

I introduced around a kilo of CC Moore Equinox freezer baits and topped the swim up every hour with about 30 to 40 baits during daylight hours as I knew the tench were also present and feeding. I needed to keep the area topped up for when the carp decided they would feed. The rods were rigged up using hinged stiff rigs incorporating my usual Covert terminal tackle, a 15lb Disruption boom section, 25lb Trip Wire end section and a super sharp size 5 Covert Chod hook. The area was around six feet deep, which was lovely and gravelly, yet covered in a thin layer of silkweed.

I fished a couple of nights in the area and managed a bite at roughly the same time each evening as the fish departed from the weed. The fish picked up an Equinox pop up and each fish tried hard to reach the sanctuary of the weedbed. It was nothing that the Pro XM main line couldn’t handle and I managed to gain the upper hand, prize them out of the weed and safely over the net cord. Surprisingly the usual banker spot in this swim did not produce, however I left happy with two 20lb+ fish under my belt, knowing it would be my last session on the venue until the autumn.

A new campaign is now underway on the river once again, searching out the nomadic carp that live along a lengthy stretch. Hopefully I will be able to show you a few in the near future along with a few more from my syndicate lake once I have banked a few from running water.