Carp Blitzed

I then wandered down to another spot I had looked at before and there were bubbles all over the place with fish head and shouldering and swirling at the surface. I dropped my cup with the shock of seeing this much activity here at this particular lake. I retrieved my cup and swigged down what was left of the coffee, then virtually ran (well at least jogged) back to theca to get the gear. I hurriedly strapped on the rucksack, threw the rod bag over the shoulder and picked up the boat bag (just in case since there was lots of open water in front of the swim).

Keith and a big carp

Bait was boated out and in a PVA bag

On arrival back at the swim the fish activity was still going on so I quickly removed the rods and got one out there real fast with the bait in a PVA bag. I then proceeded to get the rest of the gear out including the pod (concrete banks), net, etc. Once the pod was set up I decided that rather than casting the second rod out over the top of the feeding fish and disturbing them I would use the remote controlled boat and drag a bait out into the open water, about 200 yard, just to see if I could pick something up out there. I ran the boat out, dropped off the hookbait with a small amount of freebies, then put the rod on the pod with the Baitrunner on (no alarm or indicator)and started to bring the boat back. I had the boat about 5 yards from the shore when the Baitrunner started ticking line off so I picked up the rod, hit the fish hard (as it was at such great range), then put the rod down and sped the boat back in as fast as possible.

After removing the boat from the water I picked the rod up and proceeded to retrieve the fish. Following about 15 minutes of hauling the fish was bankside and ready for netting. I slipped the net under the fish and lifted it out only to find that my unhooking mat was nowhere to be seen (it was in fact lost on my last trip) so I put my jacket into the bag the boat had been in and made a smaller mat to protect the fish. I unhooked and weighed the first carp of the day from a ‘new’ area of the lake at 17lb 6oz. I was happy with that after only 5 minutes in the water.

I then dropped the hookbait back in the boat, put in a handful of bait and drove the boat back out to the same area. This time I managed to get the boat back, tidy up a little and sit down for five minutes before the same rod went off again (with the Fox screaming for at least 30 seconds after I had picked up the rod). This fish fought all 200 yards of the way back to the bank and then gave up as soon as I tried to net it. The fish weighed 19lb 2oz. So I was even happier. But not happy enough with spending 25 minutes getting a 19lber back from that distance.

Since nothing was happening on the rod over the rolling/swirling/bubbling fish I decided that I would add the second rod to that area and try and increase my chances.

The area

Perhaps a description of this area is in order – I am sitting with the main body of the lake off at 2 o’ clock. Directly in front of me at 90-100 yards is a marker buoy for the sailing boats, and at 350 yards is the opposite side of the bay I am fishing, at 9 -10 o’ clock are another two buoys both marked reef, and I know from having taken the inflatable over this area there is a drop-off on my side of the buoys of about 1ft. The first rod is in the middle of this triangle of three buoys (now known as the Bermuda Triangle) and I decided to put the second one out by the right-hand buoy.

And then it was one fish after another……

I settled back after casting out the second rod and spodding out six or seven spodsful of bait. At about 6:10 I hooked a fish in the triangle which decided it wanted to swim directly towards me. I felt it was a smaller carp, or maybe even a catfish, so I wasn’t paying it a lot of respect until it swirled about 10ft out from the bank and actually looked a lot bigger.Then we fought each other doggedly for 15 minutes but eventually the carp was beaten and I weighed it in at 26lb 12oz.

At 6:45 and the rod has been back in the water five minutes and away it goes again. As opposed to the previous fish this one went completely nutty, making me think it was a bionic mid-double, it ended up being a high double at 18lb 4oz. At 7:45 the same rod went off, same bionic double type fight but a bit longer this time and when it did come close it stayed deep and fought very hard. I eventually prevailed and landed another good looking fish at 21lb 2oz. By now I was starting to worry that I may not have enough bait with me. Thought I might put the rods back out without the PVA bags if I got real low and since I knew Jules was coming down later in the afternoon I thought I would give him a call. I called him at about 9:00 and updated him with the whole situation, let him know what a good morning’s fishing he had missed, told him to get his butt down to the lake, bring lots of bait and at that moment the rod out by the buoy dropped back slowly. I calmly told Jules I would call him back after I landed the fish, disconnected the call, put the phone in my pocket then picked up the rod and started to play the fish.

Now this particular fish just slowly ran in towards the bank at my left. On getting there (about 30yds to my left) it just wallowed on the surface like it did not have any fight left. I could see at the time it was a good fish so took it easy and brought it along the margin towards me. As soon as it was in front it decided to hug the bottom of the lake. It just swam in small circles under the rod tip with me easing its head up now and then. After about 15 minutes of this I eventually got its head up and it rolled on its side ready for netting. I netted it, lifted the net up onto the bait boat bag (temporary unhooking mat), and weighed the fish at 21lb 11oz. I released the fish, rebaited and recast the rod, then called Jules back to let him know what was happening. I could hear him chomping at the bit to get down.

After speaking with Jules I called up Paul to see if he was going to be coming down as well. He surprisingly answered the phone first time (he is usually on the net or not answering the phone), whereupon I regaled him with my morning’s story. He said he may make it down but he had things to do first. I said I would probably see him later and hung up after about 20 minutes.

By now it was 10:30 and I had had nothing on the right hand rod since 7:45, so I decided a recast was in order. I wound in to find a small clam jammed over the hook which explained why there had been no bite. I recast and lay back to await more action. I was dozing off, having got up at 3:15, when I had a single bleep from the left-hand rod. I looked over at the rod and saw the indicator slowly creeping up giving another bleep. I thought I’d better get that, so jumped up and as I got to the rod, which was about 15ft away, the fish had obviously got enough movement to hit the backstop and started to tear off. (Time was 11:50). This fish decided to go between the two buoys to my left and closer to the nearer one, in fact it managed to get real close as I could feel the line grating on the buoy anchor rope (not a pleasant feeling I can tell you, especially since this felt like a good fish). After a couple of minutes of heavy pressure the fish came back round the buoy and started heading for open water. That’s more like it thinks I, but the fish had other ideas and after getting into the open water it then turned round and went to the buoy to my right. This is getting ridiculous, I think to myself, and really lean into the fish in an attempt to get it away from the buoy. The fish did not like that at all and boiled on the surface very heavily immediately to the right of the buoy. Unfortunately my line was to the left of the buoy so I had to give it the butt.

After about 3 or 4 minutes of stalemate the fish came back round the buoy and now felt like a dead weight on the end of the line, I think it used all of its energy with that part of the fight as it came in really easy and was in the net within five minutes of coming free from the buoy. This was one of the typical larger carp in the lake, being very long and lean with a huge tail. The fish was weighed at 27lb 1oz and photographed for me by a passer-by.

It’s now 12:45 and the rod is back in the water. Ten minutes later the right-hand rod starts ripping off and another high double graces the net at 18lb 3oz. The rod goes back out and 15 minutes later it rips off yet again and this time the fish is 19lb 12oz.

At 1:50 I see Jules’ car over in the car park so I give a call on the cell telling him to get his gear over and leave everything else and I will go fetch it when he arrives. He said he had the cart so he’d be there soon with everything. As I hang up and put the phone back in my pocket the left-hand rod tears off so I take my time playing the fish so Jules can see it and maybe help. I look round and see he is still over by the car so I just get the fish in, weigh it at 19lb and slip it back. Jules cannot believe it when he arrives 10 minutes later. He drops his gear about 35 yards to my right and I point out where I have been casting and where there is bait. I am sitting chatting with him while he sets up when the right hand rod goes off again so I run up there (spilling my beer on the way) hit the rod and then spend another 15 minutes fighting a very feisty 16lb 4oz fish. I wander back down to Jules after recasting so I can grab some bait off him to spod out since the bites are getting further and further apart time-wise so I think I need more bait out there.

Later on, about 5:30, Jules has a fish from one of the spots I had put bait on for him – weight was 16lb 4oz – and Paul arrived just after we had returned the fish. I let him know that he had been missing out badly and walked down even further to Jules’ left to plonk him in a spot I had seen some fish moving earlier. After chatting for a while I walked back to where Jules was just as he was having a take on his other rod, unfortunately this one got round the nearest buoy so Jules had to hustle it out and when it got close the hook popped out (probably due to the earlier hustling) but the fish looked to be another good double. Immediately following this I had another one from my left hand rod which was duly played, landed, weighed, photographed and slipped back at 16lb 2oz.

Everything went a little quiet after this as the early evening arrived. We all sat in Jules’ swim having a beer, chatting and smoking. Occasionally a fish would roll in front of us and Jules spotted a good fish rolling three or four times out near the left hand buoy. My right hand bait was only about 10ft from this buoy so I said “that’ll be looking for my bait then”. Within seconds of the last roll my right-hand Fox screamed and I ran over, picked up the rod with the Fox still doing it best imitation of a strangled ferret. Up with the rod and a strong fish was forcing its way further out and to the right of the buoy – the bait had been nearer and to the left – so I had to give the fish some serious pressure to prevent it getting round the buoy (all this talk of going round buoys reminds me that I am using Power Pro braid and had no problems with line damage). Once I had stopped the initial run it was the usual tug of war and another of those close in fights where we did not see the fish until the last minutes.

Eventually Jules slipped the net under the fish, we weighed it as it looked close to 20lb and Jules and Paul took some shots of the weighing and me posing of course, the fish was 18lb 6oz and was slipped back to fight another day. By now it was starting to cool down and the sun was starting to disappear, Paul started to pack up and caught a channel cat on corn after he had taken the rods of the indicator. Jules hooked another one that ended up being 14lb and I had a baby carp at about 3 or 4 lb. All in the space of 30 minutes.

At the end of the day I had taken (excluding the baby one which was not weighed) 13 carp for a total weigh of just over 263lb and an average of just over 20lb per fish. This is one of the best days fishing (probably the best in numbers) at this lake since we started fishing it and goes to show that you should always have a look around before you start fishing just in case there a fish somewhere you do not normally see them.

Tackle
For those who need to know tackle was as follows:
Rods – Diawa Amorphous SU 13ft, 2.75TC
Reels – Diawa Emblem Z6000’s
Line – Power Pro Braid (30lb test) with 45 feet of 15lb Big Game as a leader (to allow some spring in the line)
End tackle – 3ft of lead core, spliced with loops at each end, 3 oz running lead with a back stop 9 inches up the line, 25lb Kryston Merlin hooklink, attached to a size 4 Hutchinson Vice Rig hook by the knotless knot.

Bait
Feed corn (maize), soaked for 2 days and boiled for 30 minutes. No flavour or additives. Three grains and a piece of cork to balance the weight of the hook. All in a PVA bag or boated out for the first two fish.