| STUART DENNIS | |
Stuart Dennis is a passionate carp angler who has to juggle a busy work schedule and a young family with his yearning to go carp fishing. With that in mind he’s joined a local carp syndicate and, more important, gained permission from his wife to fish the venue for an overnighter once each week, providing Holby City or some other riveting soap is on the box. Stuart is one of those anglers who is not happy to just sit there and follow the herd; he likes to think laterally, out of the box, and come up with his own ideas. In this occasional series we’ll follow his adventures and his thoughts as he tackles the carp in his new syndicate water. |
| THE SYNDICATE – SESSION 3 Round three and all is well. Right up until I leave work and the thunder and lightning joins me in my race to get to the lake. Bloody typical ain’t it? I’ve had the stomach pangs for the last couple of hours in the office all in readiness for my next little adventure. I get to the lake and open ‘ye ole clouds’ it comes. Now being fishing as long as I have has at the very least taught me to be wise. I don’t mind fishing through storms, hail, snow or blizzards, I don’t mind packing up in them either, but setting up in an unsympathetic downpour and fishing soaking wet for 11 hours before work beckons then you can poke it where the sun don’t shine and let’s face it, it was far from shining! Thinking on me feet and after sitting by the venue for 2 hours waiting for it to stop its relentless onslaught, I called the Boss. Five minutes of my ‘little boy lost’ voice and all was set to abandon my visit to the following day! Arghhh….no rain and we’re off. Session 3 is underway. I walked round the lake to see far more anglers than I’d seen before. This time they were spread out across the venue leaving little more than a polite unofficial look to say “yes there is room to fish between us, but that just wouldn’t be cricket would it?” Enough said and after a chat with a couple explaining that the hot to trot swims were not producing and that in general not much has happened in the last 48 hours and I was off. Off to fish the part of the lake that always looked the part, but seemingly wasn’t giving up the lake’s jewels. Admittedly not overconfident but happy to be fishing I stuck my gear on the barrow and walked the hill around the lake and settled down. I had about 100 yards in front of me and to my right was the out of bounds area where the fish are left to relax and wryly wink back at you. I set up camp and sat to ponder over tactics. Mid way across the lake were lilies, not in abundance but there none the less. My first two trips had led me to want to hit the far margins where fish had been seen and today this was no exception (apart from the lilies of course). As previously stated there is no allowance for leadcore so I’m set up with tubing and semi fixed leads. I think I’m getting to an age where confidence outvotes scenarios these days and with that in mind I tend to use safety clips as opposed to running leads for most of my fishing. Unfortunately the issue that sometimes arises is when you want to punch distance and add heavier leads you may lose the occasional one. To many this may not concern you, but for me when my rigs are designed for the weight of the lead to be used as the anchor for the hookhold it does leave me sitting and wondering from time to time.
From the last two trips it seemed apparent that loose feed particles and balls, etc, were not producing and that PVA bags full of mixed pellet and broken boilies were left to mulch whilst the hook bait stood alone. New tactics; boilie funnel sized PVA with 10 x 15mil boilies placed inside. They look quite neat actually and if I like the look of them, then I’m sure my little wet friends would! I’d modified the rigs once more and to tell you the truth I’m still not 100% happy. It’s not the design or the hooking ability its more the lifespan of them that’s throwing my mind out. The rigs are deemed useless after every take and I need to work on this to be 100% happy. Ok, so with heavier leads on board, PVA mesh stringers at the ready and my hooks dropped down to a size 8 with sinking braid hooklengths (short 6 inch) I’m ready to launch and give them the gun. I’ve got one clear cast ahead of me which with a little luck will see me clear of the lily stems, the other is going to lay right through them. I used to be scared of fishing through weed but with the right amount of experience and confidence I’ve seemed to have overcome this and will fish through almost anything these days. The traps are launched and set. I don’t tend to put the alarms on for the first five minutes because I want the slack line to be just that. I think slack lines is an interesting topic, there’s those who are happy with casting out and not pulling tight to the traps only to place the bobbin on which pulls the whole outfit tight anyway. Then there are those like me, who let the whole set-up rest for a few minutes so all slack is taken back into the lake. I set the drag in case the rod rips off (and don’t worry you’ll hear it) and place onto rests and buzzers after I am happy that slack lines really are slack. In summary, I’ve got two baits situated on the deck across the lake towards the far margin with 10 free boilies surrounding the hookbait after melting out of a PVA funnel stringer. I’ve used heavy leads to take me the distance and I am fishing slack lines with light bobbins. One rod has a clear path to the trap and the other line is settled on top of lily stems (underwater). Time to set up camp and concentrate on the parts of my rig that are still bothering me. All settled and an hour and a half passes. Bleep, bleep, bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep goes the right hand rod. An absolute screaming take which I strike and we’re on. As I tighten down to the fish I realise that the tip of the rod is pointing to the right. At first I didn’t realise why this fish had kited so far and so fast by the time I made contact. A lunging battle and a fierce fight allowed me to turn its head which now redirects the fish with immense power into the bank on my right. Problem I have now is that the fish has got about 70 yards of line and is deep heading its way into no-mans land, to the safety of no-fish zone. This of course is full of snags and thick lilies.
The battle of ‘how much bottle do I have’ kicks in as I now fully depend on my confidence in set-up and tackle as I give the fish little way of making ground. Slowly but surely I gain ground myself and tow her back towards camp. I am suitably impressed with the power of these fish as the little monster flows across the draw string of my landing net. The picture shows the size of the carp’s paddle and they certainly know how to use them at this venue. A quick self picture or two and a weigh in sets the fish at 15.7lb. A nice start to the session and a welcome reward to a swim that’s not supposed to be producing at the moment. (I can’t see it, but hey, that’s what I’m told). After putting the little lady back in her nest I analysed the situation. Why was it that when the scream kicked in and I made contact the fish was some 25 yards to my right (the rod tip and line direction)? Why had the indication registered so late after the fish had kited right? After racking my brains it became quite apparent. When I cast out the heavy lead on these clips with the PVA stringer mesh, the lead had been dropped, thus the fish had carried on right regardless of any indication. The fish was not towing a lead which would send the message directly to the buzzers it was free flowing with just the line attached. I am certain the lead was dropped on the cast and not on the hooking as otherwise the indication would have been instant. However although a negative position to be in with regard to the lead dropping before the fish was hooked, this did in fact boost my confidence even further that the rigs were turning fast and taking hold without the need to anchor them by the lead. The night was closing in and the rain starting to threaten so I climbed into the sack. A few liners through the night and a duck or two broke my sleep but other than that a quiet night. The alarm went off and once more I was packing up and mentally preparing for the office. I’d spent last week pondering as to why my snowman baits (1 x bottom bait and 1 x pop-up bait) were coming back as singles. On winding in this morning, I had no bait on both rods. You may laugh here and say that’s why you caught nothing through the night, but my thoughts are that the baits are far too soft for any lengthy amount of time which for me is near on useless once comfortable and confident in a chosen swim. I won’t name and shame the bait manufacturer but I will be moving over to a bottom bait that’s got a little more guts. Walked the 45 miles back to the motor in the rain and thought about the improvements I needed to make in order to start bagging a little more, or at least make more out of the situations I am finding myself in. It’s easy to keep going fishing time after time, but to stop and question everything you do on every occasion will produce answers. Some you like, some you’re embarrassed about and some that make all the difference. But if you don’t question, you don’t find the answers! Until Next week tight lines (or in my case, slack ones!). |
