I decided to go to Newlands today, I hadn't been there since 16th June and recent reports said it was hit and miss.
I got there and the bottom car park was empty. There were a couple of anglers fishing. Speaking to one he said he had been there hour and a half and not had a bite .He said the same about the bloke on the other bank.
I thought while I made the effort I may as well stay.
I set up the Shimano Speedcast feeder rod matched to a Shimano 4000DL Baitrunner loaded with 5lb Maxima. The business end was a PI inline 20g lead . Hook length was 6lb Guru to a 14 Guru xstrong hook.
Next was the Matrix MTX Margin pole.
The 2 margin rigs were PI Shallow floats 4 X 14 on 0.17 mainline to a 0.15 hook length and a PR34 hook.
The left margin was 3' deep this was baited with a few handfuls of red maggots.
The right margin was 6' deep, this was baited with a few 6mm pellets, this was my throw away line. The last time I fished it the right margin was 4' deep, I have a feeling the club have removed all the lilies from there.
From the off on the left margin I was catching perch from less than an ounce to around 4ounces. Not much fun on solid 16 slip elastic.
The float dipped again and I lifted into it expecting another perch, the elastic shot out and after a few minutes the hook parted from the hook length, I was cursing Preston Innovations. So I made a hook length up with Guru pulse and a Guru xstrong hook.
I fed a few grains of corn with the maggots in the left margin, and kept throwing a couple of grains in every 5 minutes while I had a go on the right hand margin.Nothing doing on it.
By now I reeled the straight lead in from the island 40 yards out, never had a bite. and didn't bother with it again.
So back to the left margin .
Baited the hook with a grain of corn and fed a couple of grains and a few maggots.
I had a couple of roach.Then a tentative bite and a slight dip on the float, I lifted into it and again the elastic zoomed out,
After about 5 minutes of keeping the fish from going under the platform and keeping it from the weed. And standing up with topkit in my hand while using side pullers, I managed to trap the elastic between fingers and topkit, reach for landing net and scooped a carp of around 10lb.
Released the fish after resting it in the net, had a drink and sandwich, and decided to call it a day. Picture of carp enclosed