The last couple of months have been mega busy with work and family. However, I’ve been fortunate enough to get out regularly and quite often for two nights a week, which is double what I have been doing in previous years. I’ve been very lucky recently and I have landed some lovely carp and made some great memories. At the beginning of July I started catching a few over at Welly and after having held the ticket for a month or so I started to piece the puzzle together. One of the highlights was a new PB ghost carp which weighed 46lb that I landed on my birthday (12th July). The capture came after an early morning move and after a quiet night I decided I’d pack up and walk the lake until I found fish. After an hour of looking I found a few carp and set about placing a couple of traps in close. A couple of hours later my right hand rod ripped off and I was attached to the biggest ghost carp I’d ever seen. Unbelievably this mega lake is home to a fair few of this size and bigger!
Next was the Gardner Tackle annual social over at the Burghfield Blue Pool run by Advanced Angling. I had a fantastic time meeting and angling with some of the other team members. During the two nights I stayed I was lucky enough to land a trio of carp to just shy of 30lb, which included a double take during the early hours of the morning that got me in a bit of a pickle. Luckily Matt Eaton came over to lend a hand (eventually cough). The team are a fountain of knowledge having fished far and wide for some the rarest and most wanted carp in the country and had many a story to share. We enjoyed a fantastic BBQ and refreshments were in plentiful supply. A big thanks to Alan and Lewis for the invite.
I continued to plug away at Welly for the rest of the month and I managed to catch a handful more. Two sessions really stood out and the first was a mid-week 24 hour trip. I got rained off from work so I made my way down to the lake and after settling into my swim all three rods went out first time of asking (I love it when it goes like that). At midday one of the rods pulled up tight and during the middle of a seriously long hard scrap, unbelievably the right hand rod ripped off! As the carnage unfolded Dean Fletcher walked into the swim and lent a hand. As I netted the first I passed Dean the net and he transferred the fish into a retainer. I picked up the other rod and did the business with what we both believed it to be a really big common based on the amount of water it was moving. Playing two carp back to back did me up like a right kipper – the joys of getting old eh? The pouring rain didn’t help matters and I got soaked to the bone, but it was well worth it with a brace of carp weighing 31lb 14oz and 30lb 8oz. A big thanks to Dean for hanging around in the pouring rain and helping me out. I’m sure I’ll repay the favour soon.
Later that week I managed to get another overnighter in and I decided to try a new area of the lake that I hadn’t fished known as Bramble Bay. I initially put a single rod out towards some fizzers but after an hour had passed the fizzing stopped. I decided to move to the opposite side of the bay and have a quick lead about with my new GT Application Rod. I soon located a glass like silty area in what I guessed to be around 5 feet of water. A new wind was pumping in and the conditions looked incredible, so I decided to give it a good hit of 12mm and 18mm Chocomino boilies. The day and night passed quietly but I was confident of a bite from the silt patch and sure enough my middle rod was away the following morning. After a short but heavy fight a real old character rolled over the net cord. It turned about to be a historic Welly carp named Lumpy, which weighed at 44lb and luckily for me Leon Bartropp was on hand to take some cracking snaps.
That just about brings me up to date. Until next time, tight lines!
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