I am aiming to increase the size a few of my PB’s this year and the first job is to get happy with my kit and rigs, so it
was off to Waldens Farm for an overnighter after work as I knew I should be
able to get a few bites from there. I
managed to get to the lakes by 2pm and I was soon walking around the main carp
lakes looking at loads of carp that were cruising around enjoying the sunshine,
I was soon hot footing it back to the van to get my gear.
I dumped the majority of it in a swim that controlled a
lot of open water and then proceeded to start doing laps again around the
lakes, this time carrying a bucket of pellet and corn mix, after a lap feeding
a few good looking spots it was time to try and catch one. It was a 1 rod job with a method feeder on a
foot of leadcore and a proper hook baited with pepperami and fake corn.
As you can see from the picture I was fishing a few tight
swims, but I managed 1 in the afternoon session from close to the hut in the
form of this small common.
I was glad for my rod and line choice as I hooked it close
to an overhanging tree, and guess where it headed on the bite…….
The rod was a 1.5lb 11ft Drennan series 7 specialist and
I was fishing it with 12lb reel line as it was what I had on the reel at the
time, I am looking at lightening it up to 10lb as I think that will balance the
outfit more. Anyway, after the excitement
of the first fish I was soon on the move with all my kit in tow to a swim in a
back bay where I had seen numbers of fish cruising through a gap between two
islands. I put a zig amongst them to no
avail and after about an hour of them mugging me off they all ghosted away. It
coincided with the air temp dropping a few degrees so I decided to put the
method back on both rods. I put the first
down the edge to my left where something was bubbling and the other went tight
to a snag where I locked the rod into the buzz bars. I managed two carp from
the snag and a pike and two skimmers from the inside line.
As you can see the Pike took a piece of pepparami and
corn and I was not really happy in the swim as I was having to fish locked up
to the snag which meant that I could not sleep and fish it, fortunately a few
fish started crashing on the next lake along so just after dark I decided to
move onto the next lake.
I fished the two methods, one towards an island and the
other close in by an overhanging tree that was not touching the water. I had 3 skimmers on the open water rod and
then at half three in the morning I was awoken by this:
A low double common that looked and fought like it was
half ghostie. That was it for the night
until the dawn chorus woke me up and a few carp started crashing on the pond
directly behind me. I had my breakfast
with a rod laid on the floor and I gave it until mid-morning but nothing else
happened. I decided to try for tree carp
from three lakes so with about an hour until I had to depart I moved again onto
my third lake and put two rigs into likely spots, the fish had been bubbling
and clouding up as I arrived but they soon stopped after my bait hit the water.
I gave it an hour but then had to pack up and go home, still 4 carp to low double, 4 skimmers and a
pike is not too shabby for my first go at the proper fish on the complex.
What would I do different?
1. Next
time I am going for 5 from 5, one carp from each lake.
2. I
saw one other angler on the carp lake and he was fishing the method, I am going
to try something different next time, maybe a corn stack on a pop up rig??
Might be enough to trip up one of the biggies.
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