Back home, Patrick reported:
“I had just come back from another trip to France and was reviewing and reflecting on those experiences when, as so often happens, I started to feel restless.
That was the sign to want to set off once again in search of big carp and I started to work out how I could schedule it in, which water I should go to and what tactics I would need to use? The cost would need cheap this time because I had already spent more than enough but I really wanted to experience something new. In principle these two criteria were in conflict, but I remembered a reservoir I had seen two years previously that now seemed to be the ideal destination; in addition to this the time of year and likely water temperature made it a great choice. So, with everything quickly settled – and not 24 hours since my last trip – I once again drove my car across the German border.
Once there, I loaded up my trolley with a rod holdall and umbrella, a small dinghy, sleeping bag, bedchair, some food and a couple of kilos of test samples of Rubby Dubby boilies and pulled it to the water’s edge. Soon, everything was set up and I prepared myself for the marathon waits typically associated with this type of water. Against all carp fishing rules for this time of year, I positioned one rig in just 60cm of water and scattered ten boilies around the hookbait. This is actually a spring tactic but I did it then simply because my instinct told me to do so. Besides good baits, confidence in your own angling ability is the most important element for successful fishing.
Just a few hours later, I found myself in my Mission Craft Floh 180 dinghy battling through a rainy night against a fierce onshore wind to quickly get on top of a hooked fish and land it safely. After a few runs, a large mirror carp slid into the mesh of my landing net but having drifted some way from my starting point I decided to get a closer look at it only once I was back ashore – but I could tell it was a good fish and could not help myself from cheering in celebration.
Back on shore the scales showed 25.7kg (56lb 6oz) and a further cheer rang out across the water! My hunch of laying out the rig in a very shallow inlet with just a few highly attractive boilies, proved to be the right decision and it’s clear to me that our Quantum Radical boilie range will continue to go from strength to strength with both the Rubby Dubby and Yellow Zombie likely to catch a lot of fish in 2013.”
