Having moved off of Kingsmead 1, after it proved impossible to get through the Bream, I had a wander around the venue and found 4 nice looking chunks meandering in one of the bays on Church Lake (Horton). I dropped a handful of Grange boilies onto a little clear patch in the weed, just a rod length off the swim, then I took THE opportunity to pop to the shop to get the new carp-dog some more food.

When I returned I found the 4 fish still milling about, but the bait had gone. Excitedly I dropped another handful, one bait at a time, to gently move them from the area and lowered my rig onto the spot.

I dropped a handful of Grange boilies onto a little clear patch in the weed, just a rod length off the swim.

The rig I chose incorporated a 7 inch brown Sink Skin hook link attached to a size 6 Covert Mugga. The hookbait was drilled out and filed with 6mm black Gardner Zig Rig Foam to critically balance the bait, so it tipped it up off the size 20 Target rig swivel that I had mounted (Multi-Rig style) just off the hook shank. When fixed in the perfect position, it allows the hook to pivot and the hook point to drop perfectly. This was attached to a 2.5oz inline Flat Pear using my own ‘triple pivot’ lead system https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2LPFKKsi1A and 16 lb Mirage (0.37mm) fluorocarbon. Finally, at the business end a small Skinny Dipper PVA stick held 2 boilies, with a little bit of fine boilie crumb in between the boilies to protect my hook point whilst threading the bag on…

Lee's rig incorporated a 7 inch brown Sink Skin hook link attached to a size 6 Covert Mugga.

The final trick was to position my rods way back on the pontoon, so the tips didn’t overhang the water. After placing the hookbait, I dropped the super slack Mirage over a handily positioned reed stem, which acted just like having a high tip over the water without the ‘spookiness’ of a rod being in position.

I carefully crept back behind the tree line, away from the water and 20 minutes later the rod roared into life. The fight was hairy as the whole swim is surrounded by beds of Canadian pondweed and strands of lilies! It was seriously like being in a boxing ring, where one false move would have ended up in a knockout blow.

She finally succumbed after a spirited 5 minutes and I was rewarded with another lovely Church Lake carp – this time it was a fish called ‘Split Pec’ at a very healthy (spawned out) out weight of 26lb 8oz.
Lee with Horton's Split Pec weighing 26lb 8oz.