I've always found summer Carping to be somewhat of a chore. For many years I fished for Carp during the summer but then somewhen in my angling career I realised that I was no longer enjoying it. I suffer from severe pollen allergies and I don't do well in heat. Then you add in the insects, hot sticky nights and the fact that Carp tend to feed more in the hours of darkness during this season and it all adds up to something that is no longer enjoyable., for me at least. So I moved away from summer Carping and have spent most of my time on the coast fishing for Bass and other saltwater species in the intervening years, only reverting to Carp fishing during the Autumn, winter and early spring.
My Son and I have for the past 3 years joined a club on the mainland that offers a wide variety of waters to fish and travelled across to fish one or two of these waters. The trips have admittedly been infrequent, more because of my fickle relationship with Carp angling in general than anything else.
Having a young Son who is a Carp fishing monster is a cross I have to bear, being constantly nagged and badgered about going Carp fishing does nothing for my tolerance of this branch of the sport. Let me explain.
When I started Carp fishing some 30 odd years ago things were very different and the whole scene was a completely different ball game to how it is now. Waters were much quieter, even the now almost continually rammed Linear Complex was much, much quieter and it was always possible to find your own water even if you couldn't get in a going swim. It was you against the fish and not you against the other anglers as well as the fish like it is now.
As Carp fishing grew and became more commercial and popularised by the leading tackle companies, and the internet changed things, and I found that I was no longer enjoying Carp fishing, My friends and I fished around seeking quiteter destinations on which to pursue our passion and for a while we ticked over and fished some now quite famous venues before they became over popularised day ticket waters or expensive Syndicates. But the monster kept growing and eventually enough was enough. Our attention wandered and we ended up diversifying into other species and other types of fishing, only ever returning to Carp fishing when we could be sure that the banks would be devoid of the other combatants. Winter became our time to fish for Carp, in fact we have become adept at catching fish during the colder months and raised a few eyebrows wherever we have gone with our success when others that remained to brave the elements have struggled. My eager Son has grown up with the modern style of combat Carping and has never known the pioneering of waters that my friends and I knew, where we were often the only one's on a lake with some big fish in it, that were under fished for, we enjoyed peace and quiet, solitude and could very much do our own thing, and those are the things I crave from my Angling, much more so these days too.
So after much whingeing and tantrums I have finally given in and resigned myself to having to endure the things I have an intolerance for in order to keep his lordship happy. Fortunately I have found that I much more tolerant to the heat of Summer these days, up to a point of course, and I now follow a strict regimen regarding my allergies and managing them. This still leaves my inability to slot in on a busy water and compete against other Anglers all targeting incredibly over pressured fish. So we have made an agreement that should our ( his ), chosen water be too busy we will seek to fish elsewhere for the duration of our trip. It may not be ideal from the point of view of catching the fish we really want to but at least we will be fishing, hopefully somewhere less busy but still with some decent fish to go for.
So it transpired on our most recent trip this was the case, the water we really wanted to fish was quite literally rammed, and we witnessed anglers moving into swims as soon as another angler vacated them. Definitely not my cup of tea and even my Son agreed it was far from ideal. The Complex we have been fishing does have a couple of other waters to choose from, Unfortunately our second choice venue was closed for a match that weekend and so we looked at another lake on the complex. Now this particular lake gets very little attention, however the reasons why are quite obvious. Thick weed carpets the bottom and the water itself is notorious for it's snaggy nature and low stock. Given our situation we decided to investigate the lake nevertheless. Unfortunately by late afternoon we were exasperated, after many hours of walking, looking, plumbing about and sweating in the heat and being bitten and sun burnt there was little in the way of clear spots to fish and I was suffering from being severely bitten by insects resulting in huge welts appearing on my neck and legs. ( I'd been daft enough to wear shorts in an effort to stay cool and forgot to apply the repellent which was in my bag! ). We were feeling very low and on the point of abandoning the whole trip and heading back home when my Son suggested we look at another water not far away. We had nothing to lose at this stage and I agreed it was worth a look, and despite being almost completely exhausted we loaded our gear back onto the barrows, trudged back to the van, packed the van and then headed off. Five minutes later we arrived at our new destination. First impressions were that it was not at all busy, in fact there was plenty of room...
Summoning the last of my energy we did a circuit of the lake. Thankfully this isn't a large water and as we walked I began to feel that maybe the trip could be salvaged after all. First impressions were of a small, deepish gravel pit with clear water and some marginal weedbeds. Lots of tall trees consisting of the usual willows and poplars and oaks that you find around these pits. A couple of Islands break the water up and offer a far margin to fish to in the swims that face them. I believe there to be some weed here and there in the middle of the lake but nothing that we couldn't cope with.
We mooched some more until we came upon a small bay at the far end whereupon Son decided to shin up a tree to get a better view of the water in front of us. It wasn't many seconds before he spotted some fish in the bay, however to cut a long and somewhat confrontational story short, ( more combat Carping! ), another newly arrived Angler had also spotted the fish. So in order to keep the peace we had to resign ourselves to another area of the lake for the night, but the Angler would be leaving the next day and so hopefully the fish might still be in the area and we might, just might be able to get on some fish.
We had actually been very lucky to stumble upon the fish we found because the lake supports a very small head of Carp, however they do grow to very good proportions. And that's really all I know, we have little to go on in that respect, rumours and some minimal information we can find on the Internet but not much in the way of specifics. But what little we do know tells us that it's worth spending some time on here. I guess you could say that the mystery is adding to the appeal.
The night passed uneventfully in the area we had dropped into which was about the halfway mark on the lake so the next day about 10 o'clock, we moved into the top bay after the Angler that was in there had vacated. It soon became obvious that the fish had maintained their residence in the bay and from his tree branch view point Son was able to confirm this. There also seemed to be a proliferation of bubbling in the bay, most of which we surmised to be Tench or Bream, however the presence of the Carp made us hopeful that some of the bubbles were originating from them and that they might be in the mood to feed on our baits.
Choosing swims on opposing sides of the bay, and with Son positioned more towards the entrance and me opting to fish a swim right in the corner we felt that strategically this was the best ploy as the fish moved in and out. We could also respect each others water and do our own thing as long as we did it quietly there would be no affecting each others chances.
I opted to fish small solid PVA bags with a mixture of Pellet, crumb and Boilie, when cast I am able to control the landing of the bags by feathering the line so as they enter the water with minimal disturbance. Noise wise it's more like a fish breaking the surface rather than the thud of a lead. Son donned the waders and positioned his rigs by hand along his margin.
We settled into our new pitches and for the first time this trip we actually began to relax and enjoy the session. The next few hours and through the night passed fairly quietly, only a liner having me up and running for the rods in the early hours. Sunday dawned and we were still alone in the bay and out in the open water in front of us was a mass of bubbling. Having left my rods static for the night I decided on a tactical change and to cast to some of the bubbling with my small solid bags. This can be a great tactic on the right day and it did indeed get me some buzzer action. The first occurrence I am certain was a Carp, a very wise and crafty Carp that managed to shed the hook! The alarm sounded and the line and Bobbin pulled up tight to the rod, then dropped back a bit, I was up and by the rod in a flash with my hand hovering hesitantly ready to strike at the next movement, which didn't come. The lead had obviously moved but that was as far as I could figure things out.
Looking at the rod tip for further indications I observed it nodding slightly but the bobbin didn't tighten. I picked the rod up and tightened up a bit, feeling for movement and all of a sudden the line dropped slack, I wound down and kept winding expecting to connect with a fish any second, but the line remained slack and the lead and rig skipped in to the bank. Immediately I looked at the lead which had been discharged from the swivel and was running free up near the top of the short leader. I think it's obvious to any experienced Angler that has fished waters where the Carp are very wise to shedding rigs exactly what had happened. I have read in what little I have found, that the Carp in this water are very adept at dealing with rigs and clearly one had picked up the rig, swum towards me and managed to shake the lead hard enough to discharge it, the nodding on the rod was the line running through the lead as it swum towards me, the last step was to blow the ( Barbless ), hook out! Curses! my hesitancy and slight confusion over what was going on had cost me my first chance from this water. Unfortunately there is a Barbless hook rule on this and the other waters on the ticket which means I have to go back to the drawing board as far as how I fish this and the other waters in future. I prefer to fish with Fluorocarbon mainline as I think I have mentioned before. Using Fluorocarbon means I can relax the line a little and get some of it down on the bottom behind the rig without having to use backleads. It also means less stretch and normally better bite indication. Slack without too much slack if you see what I mean. The weight of the Fluorocarbon is enough to pull a metre or so down behind the rig whilst still maintaining a fairly tight line to the rod because of the water pressure and weight/sinking properties of the Fluoro. No it doesn't allow them to get into snags and if fishing near snags I keep the line much tighter, plus I don't use Baitrunners even if the reels have the mechanism, I always use tight clutches however I'm fishing. You will never hear my Alarms give a 'one toner'...This method has served me well for many years and I believe it has helped me to catch more fish. I may have to rethink my strategy on this in future on these waters, heavier leads tighter lines., maybe something completely different...Later on I had a large Tench that had taken the rig well back and not discharged the lead, Tench generally don't tend to discharge the lead, completely different to the earlier scenario convincing me even more that the culprit was indeed old Cypry! I also lost a Tench when the hook pulled in some weed. And that was it for the session. So a session of very mixed fortunes, did we have to go through Hell to find a possible Heaven? Were we given a tantalising taste of something good? Did we have a very tasty Carrot dangled in front of our noses? I am a firm believer that fate can sometimes play a large part in our lives, especially when it comes to fishing and maybe this time it was telling us that this little water was where we needed to be...
What I do know is that we will be having another look at this lovely little venue on our next trip, all being well, and I say lovely because it is a nice looking water, it's a nice place to bivvy up and while away a few days in pursuit of Carp. That's not something I can honestly say about many waters I've been to in the last few years. Time will tell and I will update you on our progress in the next blog.
Thanks for reading
Chris
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