Catch Reports
After three harsh frosts and sightings dwindling to a minimum, I’d decided that my autumn campaign in search of the Coconut Common had come to an end. Having fished the lake before with no cold-water bite, I felt like my chances were realistically slim to none...
My plan worked and I had another very good fish in the net. I took some shots, did a bit more filming, got him back in the water and then let him go. Once more I was feeling great with an amazing experience with a very old friend. Man, I love carp fishing all on my own. These are memories that will last a life-time.
By the age of 5, I was bugging my dad every weekend to go fishing. Rain or shine, snow or hail, it didn’t matter to me I just wanted to be outside next to the water. I still remember what he used to say to me “when you can swim, then I’ll take you” so I learnt to swim pretty sharpish...
We are all guilty of setting up in a swim and hoping it will happen at some point in the day, but sometimes it doesn't. Therefore, it is not always best to put all your eggs in one basket. One key technique for maximising opportunities is to bait a few margin spots around the lake, on the off chance an extra opportunity appears.
The fish took a bit of line on solid runs that I wasn’t going to even try and stop, even if I could. I gained a bit of ground before it took off again. As the fight drew nearer to the bank, I lowered my other two rods to get them out of the way and after one final burst I slid the net under the fish before taking a look inside.
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).
I sat there for an hour or so and saw around 10 carp throw themselves out in the early morning mist, clattering noisily just behind the rope. We were due very similar weather conditions for the Saturday night, so I gathered there would be a very good chance the fish would behave in the same way...
I moved round to the second swim that I had seen fish in; a quiet corner of the lake known as “No Carp Corner” where there was a small group of fish browsing the top of the marginal shelf. I climbed the tree in the swim and watched their movements for a while, looking for the best spot to place the rig and waiting for them to leave the area...
After getting everything sorted it took some time before I got my first bite after the disturbance of finding spots and baiting; this was after sunset. I was happy with the first one, after the preceding 11 nights blanking, and it turned out to be a high double. After returning this one the other rod was off, and this fish turned out a low twenty.
I had previously held the lake record at the lake, with a mirror of 54lb captured a few years earlier, though that had recently been beaten by another carp of 57lb, so I was amazed and more than happy to see the needle spin round and stop at 57lb 8oz! I had taken my lake record back again.
I’ve recently been fishing on a lovely venue and have been enjoying some amazing sport. It’s a Fenland still water with no prior recent history of big Rudd; just stories from the early 90's of large shoals and huge Rudd being seen but never captured...
With so much water, comes that inevitable natural aura and ambience that just makes the air smell 'carpy' in the Cotswolds. Well this ticket offered a similar challenge to my other new ticket, being bigger at 45 acres, but with depths more manageable (up to 10ft), areas of dense weed, islands, but with relatively well catalogued stock, understood to be in the region of 110 or so carp, with 5 or 6 carp over the magical 40lb mark.
I knew it was a double straight away, but it was only once I lifted it out that I saw just how wide and deep it was. It was easily the widest Tench I had ever seen. I couldn't believe it when the scales bounced round to 12lb 4oz. Only 3 weeks previously I’d had a fish of a lifetime with a 12lb 2oz tench, and amazingly I had broken that PB already, and from another completely different venue as well.
The fish took a good 50-60 yards of line on its first run, before hitting the surface. The battle was far from over and we spent the next 10 minutes playing tug of war, until she began to realise I was the stronger opponent...
It was a prolonged and dogged fight but I slowly drew a chunky mirror into the folds of the waiting net. I woke up another member Simon, and he in turn helped with the weighing and pictures (I retuned the same favour later that morning). The old mirror weighed a healthy post spawn weight of 35lb 14oz. I was elated to get a carp on my first trip and get the ball rolling...
It’s always nice to peel back the cord and look at your prize, and to say I was somewhat elated to see it was one of my target fish would be an understatement, I was over the moon! As is often the case at this time of year she was a little low in weight at 39lb 10oz, but that didn’t bother me, I was just happy to have the pleasure of meeting 'The Anchor' in person.
The scaly one in the net weighed 14lb 14oz and we clicked off a few pictures. We had a quick brew and then weighed the fish from earlier in the morning. This one turned out to be bang on 28lb, and with the pictures done I set about doing a round of bacon sandwiches for us. The perfect start to any day!
We all kept working the swim and the bites kept coming, Ben then had his opportunity and after a very hairy battle where an angry carp dived from one weed bed to another, he eventually landed a beautiful dark Horseshoe mirror at a new P.B. weight of 25.08lb.
I looked into the net and shouted at Terry that I wasn’t sure what it was, but that it was a decent fish. Only when I laid it on the mat did I realise that it was indeed the Half Lin! With the scales steadied on my shiny new (rarely used) Gardner weigh bar, there was no getting away from its official weight being 39.15!
Lengthening and increasingly warm day and night time temperatures and the dawn chorus getting earlier each day can only mean one thing if you’re a specimen angler, it’s time for a spot of tench fishing!
