Twenty number 2!

You join me a few days after the success of another fishing trip down the local ponds. I only had a few hours fishing and I needed to make the most of it. Taking minimal equipment and light baiting ideas allowed me to pursue the fish, instead of baiting and waiting.

It was an overcast day with temperatures struggling to reach upper double figures. A cool but gentle westerly breeze blew straight into my favourite swim. Things looked good, but not as good as I could have expected!
Recently purchasing some new bite alarms and indicators I was keen to christen them with a couple of good, hard fighting carp which would give the alarms a good work out.
The alarms and bobbins in question were Delkims coupled with Korda Stows. To say that start of the session went off well was quite an understatement. The Stows - fished slack - twitched, rose slightly, dropped, and then went ballistic!  Being a short session, I was sat next to my rods with Carp World magazine, a packet of crisps and not much else. By the time I got up to hit the rod, the fish was 5 yards away in another weed bed.

20Lb 10Oz

As mentioned so many times before, it is unwise to just pull, pull and pull a bit more. Instead, giving barely any pressure - just enough to stay in contact with the fish - allowed it to free itself from the weed bed but still keep in contact with the fish. I was on my own at this time, but thankfully an ex-angler was fortunate enough to observe and then finally net the fish - along with another 10lbs of weed behind it!

Many photos were taken, though unfortunately a few had to be deleted. Top tip is to give your photographer a run through on how to work your camera! However, saying that, a couple were quite good and I was made up to see my 2nd 20lb carp, and a first for my home lakes, swim away strongly.

I put the landing net back together again, hung it up to dry, and sat in my chair just to soak up the satisfaction of my catch for a minute or two.

After that, I got up, put a fresh Black Ice dumbell hookbait from Ace Baits on, tied a stick of their fast breakdown pellets and glugged the whole lot in CSL and Molasses liquid. No other bait was put in as the fish were clearly turned off on larger beds of baits.
Take number 2 came off from the left hand rod - though being only 3 yards from where the right one was positioned  - with one of the lakes' dumpy little mirrors. Though giving spectacular bites and fights, all seems lost when they come to size. Not being fussy, as these fish are in fantastic condition and wonderfully scrappy, I do like catching these fish now and then.
Fish number 2 was caught on my favourite type of pop-up rig, see Rig Library, with a Black
Ice pop-up.

As our sessions are getting cooler, get on Black Ice from Ace Baits, it's a fantastic all-season bait!.
Again, best of luck with your own fishing, and don't forget to send us your photos/catch reports. CMM

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