After Spring and a session in the UK at the Pads Lake in Yateley, I took a 5 day trip to Lisbon in Portugal (non fishing) and also a holiday with the Mrs to fish on the River Moselle from a fantastic house on the bank. I managed to land two big catfish, but as these weren’t the intended quarry, I safely returned them without any pictures. Once back at home I was sweating my nuts off all summer and the heat wave did my head in. Consequently I did not fish until the end of August. My first session after the summer break was on the club/park lake and I had around 6 fish and lost 3 during a 24 hour session.

Rig wise I started with Ronnie Rigs on two of the rods and a Turbo Tweaked German on the third. The Ronnies were fished on pink pop ups and on the TT German Rig I had a 15mm Wafter. Interestingly the Ronnie’s stayed silent and after landing 3 fish on the TT German, I changed another rod over to a German and reeled the third rod in and fished only two! I managed six further bites on this presentation (lost 3 in the end), so all in all it was an enjoyable session.

The weekend after I headed back to the club/park lake for more and with two nights ahead of me I was confident of some further action. On talking to a local he informed me it was slow going, so I headed to the opposite side of the lake to an area I’d yet to fish.

I soon had two rods ready to go and after casting them out both rods were away, I didn’t even have a chance to put the pod onto the platform. One rod was on the Ronnie and the other on the TT German Rig, so it was all to play for. I stayed fishing with two rods instead of 3 as it can be a mad house at times on there. The next take was on the TT German again and by the evening I’d had a few more on the same rig and one more on the Ronnie. The TT German Rig was outfishing the Ronnie in a big way. After dark it slowed down as it always seems to on this lake, and I reeled in one of the two rods as I didn’t want double or triple takes at night!

After a good night’s sleep I started early as at 8am I had to reel in, because every Saturday is match day for the pole anglers of the club! So, from 8am until 5pm no carp angling was allowed as a match was on. Before I knew it though I was in again with another hard fighting common! I landed two more fish before 8am. I rested the swim once the match had started and after walking around for a few hours and chatting to some of the match anglers it was soon 5pm and time to get the rods back out again.

By Sunday morning I had managed to land 16 carp and 12 – 13 of them had fallen to the amazing TT German Rig, so it will certainly form my main line of attack this autumn and winter on the syndicate lake I will be fishing.

One thing I know is that I am very happy that I gave the TT German Rig a try. Combined with match the hatch wafters it worked very well. In my opinon by this time of the year fluoro pop ups are blown as everyone’s been using them full on since the Spring.

The TT German Rig looks like a Ronnie, but by using a Covert C-Lok swivel (without the flexi ring as used with the Ronnie) it gives the rig less movement, so it acts differently to a Ronnie. When it comes to hook length material, I prefer using either Ultra Skin or Stiff Ultra Skin, depending on the lake bed I am fishing over, combined with a super strong size 6 Covert Dark Continental Mugga hook.

Be lucky to all of you, Tight lines Tommy De Cleen