New water, new adventures.

We are now safely into the open season and what a joy it has been so far. The weather has given some opportunities to wet a line and, as always, you’ve got to take it as it comes. That’s exactly what I did last Wednesday to carry on my adventure on this new water of mine. The lake is the largest on the club at about two acres with heavy weed growth. To make it even more difficult to get to the carp and tench, there is a heavy stocking of 3-6lb bream. If there is one thing to know about bream, they are greedy fish with a great appetite for carp anglers’ baits. As company is concerned, I was greeted by SussexCarpandCoarse for this session. We kicked off at 10:30 to finish at 18:30, a short session wasn’t ideal as this isn’t a lake with a great deal of the target species – carp! Without being able to change this, moaning about the times wasn’t going to help. We packed the barrow and headed down the steep track to the lake. The swim was excellent for two as the island was long enough to house four rigs cast along the side of it.

I was using a 10mm Cell dumbbell hookbait topped off with a Milky toffee pop-up – balanced so the rig sinks very slowly on top of the weed. My other rod had the same hookbait tipped with a white plastic corn – soaked in strawberry buttercream and molasses.

 Not much happened for about an hour – not even a bream. However, large fish – probably carp – were crashing out between two lily beds and a gentle ‘flick’ got the rig on top of them at about 65 yards. Pulling off plenty of slack line and resting the rod for about ten minutes allowed the line to fully sink to the lake bed. After the slack line had sunk, my 

lightest bobbins were clipped on. Another hour past without another sign of the fish crashing, a recast was in order but as I walked over to the rods, the bobbin jumped into life and the line was ticking through the rings at a steady pace. 

At first, I thought it was a decent tench but then a lean carp boiled the surface before picking up a clump of Canadian weed in the next swim down. Netting the fish - and the weed – was a great success as it was only my 2nd carp out of this low stock lake.

Not a big fish, but in pristine condition and around 8lb I wasn’t unhappy about it. After not much success on the island rod and only one between the lilies, a move onto the dam wall proved it far easier to cast to my lily spot and a more promising edge of the island for SussexCarpandCoarse to fish to.

Until about 18:30, I had 4 tench including my first male and a PB of 4lb 6oz, not huge but in nice condition and put up a great scrap.

However, a few local friends had popped by as we were packing up. We were in no immediate rush so we hung around a little longer than expected. It paid off though. As the sun was setting, my 6th fish was on it’s way with a screaming alarm. Running to the rods, I could see in the distance my fish boiling on the surface of a weed bed. Side strain brought the fish in with no hassle and a 10lb mirror carp was in the net.

Again, SussexCarpandCoarse will join me in a 4 day session carping on the 23rd of July. Watch out for our ‘tails’ on that trip soon.