Carp Catch Reports
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.
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.
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!
Well that was an epic weekend! Following on from my capture of the 30lb common carp on Thursday night, I wanted to get back in ‘The Day Swim’ for the weekend as I’d seen fish showing the night before and hoped they might still be loitering around.
When Ellis turned five years old, three years ago, I started using the Easter holiday to gradually get him to enjoy the solitude and tranquillity carp fishing has to offer. During this time, it’s grown on him and it would be fair to say he is now hooked...
Kai Richards details a successful carp fishing trip, where he lands some lovely looking specimens for the cameras using a zig rig set up.
I have had this public complex of waters on my mind for a long time and this year I am definitely going to fish there more seriously, after walking around there every year for the last 20 years. A few fish had caught my eye, and for the first time a few targets got on that wish list.
By the time we reached January this year I felt ready to get out fishing again after family circumstances had meant it had been several months since I’d been out. During that time, I had kept my finger on the carping pulse, staying in contact with a few close friends, and then early in [...]
In this article James Clarke, Gardner Tackle's new Sales Rep. details his carp fishing triumphs and his misshaps of 2018. No matter what, we're pleased to have him on the team.
Rick Golder tells us about his last years carp fishing. Even though he had a
