Weather: 7C - 12C cloudy with patches of strong sun, very little wind.
Water: Dark green / brown.
Peg: 26
Baits: White & Bronze maggot, Caster and Groundbait mix
Weight: 5lb-14oz
A lovely early spring day greeted this Sunday along with a sore head and cotton like mouth. Nothing a few gallons of tea and a good breaky at the Whitehall didn't soon fix.
On arriving at the pool a good crowd had turned up from some neighbouring angling clubs. It looked as though a good match would be on the cards. At the draw I pulled out peg 26, an awkward peg with a tree directly behind it but a good peg for some decent fish. All the talk before the match was of big bream that had been coming out the past week and that to catch a few would send you well on your way.
Off to my peg I went, I had planned to use a groundbait approach as the fish were still reluctant to leave the deck on most pegs. Bait wise I kept it simple, 70% Bag'Em super skimmer dark was mixed with 30% brown crumb and 2 hand fulls of caster. Hookbaits were caster and white maggot.
Setting up a line for the deck at top3+2, I also found that top3+3 and top3+1 were all the same depth of around 8ft, ideal. I used a Garbo DC18 4x18 on 0.10 to 0.09 bottom with a Drennan silverfish maggot size 20 hook. This was fished dead depth due to the lack of wind about today. This was matched to double middy hi viz 3-4 elastic. Second top 3 was set up to fish on the drop at 7ft deep with a 0.6 homemade pencil straight through on 0.10 to the same hook as above, this time matched to solid 6 latex.
At the all in I potted two small balls of groundbait in my top3+2 line and went out with a single maggot. To my left a 1lb 7oz roach was landed first bung and to my right a 1lb perch. My float flew under soon after and a solid strike saw 3ft of elastic stream out of my pole and stay solid. The fish swam towards me lethargically when shipping back, I thought I had located the big bream. When I lifted my top kit a huge carp lurched up to the surface only to realise whats going on and to shoot off for the opposite bank. TWANG... One broken hook length and a huge birds nest on the end of my pole.
Back to square one and after 6-7mins I sort myself out, angler to my right has just had the same problem. On to the roach and 10 fish come in the next 30mins all on maggot. A switch to the caster brings a quiet spell so back to the maggot for 5 quick roach. I was feeding after striking into a fish to let the bait get down to the bottom by time I got my rig in the water. This seemed to be working and I was in a rhythm when once again a carp showed up. This time I decided not to hook it in the mouth but to have some fun and hook it in the tail. 45mins later with 6 sections of pole in the air and me standing on my box frantically scooping at the fish I get it in 8lbs or more this fish and a straightened hook to boot. At least it cheered the lads up around me watching me wrestle the thing in.
After the carp had ruined my swim it was back to square one feeding wise and I got back into a rhythm and put 8-10 fish in the net quickly. The swim went quite after an hour so I came closer in to have a look and had 3 goldfish, immediately putting those back I went long and had another 5 fish. Back to my rested line I had a few funny bites and then a solid lump, again it hardly moved and I got very excited as I thought it may be a bonus bream, alas it was a clonking F1 of at least 4lbs, I had never seen a fish like it, after showing the bailiff opposite he confirmed it a rare catch. Would have liked a photo with that fish but it had to go back for another day.
The last hour saw me going out long for all my fish at 7-8m. I tried coming up in the water but they were not having it. In the good old fashion way I filled a line in with 4 balls of groundbait with 30mins to go. I needed a bonus fish to frame. A bonus fish I got with another carp taking my single maggot, a lengthy battle followed which ended up with my rig up in the tree above me!!
Overall a disappointing day, I was not the only person to have to fight off the carp but I provided the most entertainment value doing so!! 5lb 14oz went on the scales which I was pleased with having probably half the 4 hours taken up messing around with carp.
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