Bigger and Better Things.

Bigger and Better Things.

       There most likely has been a sever delay on my writing and other happenings on twitter recently, I obtained a job doing some delivery driving for Pizza Hut, I did so many shift I didn’t have a social life and I was fully knackered at the end of the week and was craving a session to chill out and finally wet my line again.  I finally find time in between doing assignment work, which I had 5 due in the week of the 30^th April, I managed to get them all done over the weekend and text a good mate from college to go up and have a wonder around some new lakes that I have never even seen before, I take this a fresh start to try to catch some fish that I fancy targeting and hopefully making famous over the next few months.



The Fox Rapide System/Solid Bag



            After pacing round a couple hundred yards of otter fence I had found the missing ingredient which I was waiting to add into the “carp fishing recipe” with some stunning carp I am definitely fishing there for the time being, I’m going to name it the secret lake for my own personal reasons. We then looked around the lagoon that resides next to the small secret lake to see just an expanse of water which holds some stunning fish to my mates knowledge, looking at this lagoon and the secret lake I took up the decision to get onto the lagoon for a nights fishing after getting some of the college work done with reigns over my fishing time, not forgetting it taking over my social life.

            After taking a visit to the local Tesco I look through the pages of the recent Carp Talk magazine to look for some more inspiration, I see it littered with huge carp; hopefully I will be seeing my cheesy smile in there very soon cradling a secret lake carp!

            I have been thinking through the tactics that I will be using and they aren’t complex by any stretch of the imagination, they are as follows:-

·         Solid Bags of Velocity Baits The M&Ms pellet in 1mm with an NV-R pop-up

·         A 9-10 inch hair rig with a size 8 Korda Choddy hook with  Velocity Baits 14mm AK4-R pop-up(red), coupled with a small PVA bag of the NV-R stick mix.

            As I’m a member of the Velocity Baits members group there has been a huge amount of 30lb+ fish caught on the bait so I have no reason to change and hopefully enter that list myself.

           

            I will be coupling these tactics with a Spomb mix yet again simple and very affective and hopefully to the lagoon carps taste:-

·         7.5kg – 10kg of Bird seed(from a farm shop)

·         2.5kg – NV-R Boilies in 10mm

·         NV-R Stick Mix

·         Tin of sweet corn

            I see this spod mix as a very simple yet affective Spomb mix, it boats attraction and it had all the small food items in hope to keep the carp in the swim investigating for more food tripping one or two up along the way, in another sense of this I hope that the carp do not get pre-occupied on my free offerings and to stumble upon my rigs. I am in great favour of using solid bag tactics; they are ever so simple to tie up once you get the hang of how it’s done, I have at least 5 tied up for when I’m fishing, I then tie one extra up when if I catch a fish on them, this has been made oh so easier with the new Fox Rapide system which I greatly fell in love with when I saw it on Facebook and watched videos of it on YouTube, amazing!

Anyway enough chat onto the session ahead:-



Prepartion is Key



            After rattling off the assignments I was tasked to do I made my way up to the lake at around 11:00am enjoying the 25 minute drive, I am greeted to swim of choice, just what I like when I arrive at the lake. With being able to park behind the swim on the agenda I stand and examine the water for about 10-15 minutes in order to see if there are any chances of quick bites with the pre-tied solids.

            I line up to horizon markers to where I want to position the traps along with the Spomb mix, I cast in a direct straight line with just a lead tied onto the end of my main line to see what the lake bed consisted of. I then clip up to a clear spot at round 90 yards range... just for the record I haven’t tried hitting 90 yards in the dark so this could end badly! I then press 2 bank sticks in the ground to clip up the Spomb rod and the other rod to save disturbance. With all this done I then begin to mix up the carpy grub that I will be using which has all been pre-cooked by yours sincerely.

            I then set about putting around 3kg of the mix to the 90 yard spot. With all the bait deposited I leave the spot to work SOME magic whilst I begin setting up the bank sticks in my swim and get them all sorted before enduring the task of putting some more Spombs of bait out to get the rod out onto the spot. With both of the rods banged hard on the clip and myself brimming with confidence, I then set both rods on the sticks and set about setting up my mammoth of a bivvy which is a 2-man bivvy, I’m not exactly the biggest of fisherman but I love the space and with all the downpours I don’t exactly fancy being washed out of my small Maver brolly fed up and soaked wanting to go home!

            Bivvy all set, rods all set, swim primed with carpy grub and sitting in my chair firing up the stove for a well-earned cup of tea I peer endlessly at the water to see what’s going on, no signs of activity as of yet but hopefully some goings on under the surface will be a good starting point.



My "Bits Bucket"



            I was craving a night out on the bank as I have been a good lad and stayed at home to do college work when I could have been on the bank, I believe I deserve it, one night shouldn’t in theory do any harm, I haven’t done a night since the BYCAC back in August last year when I reached the finals, that was the last time I did a night. When college is all cleared out the way I’ll be aiming for one night a week or even one night every other week most definitely!



Lovely Glugs!



            With everything in prime position and endless amounts of bacon an sausages on constant on the stove, there was no action, I took the idea of re-casting the rods with fresh bait and changing one rod to double pop-up corn and a very carpy bag of NV-R stick mix with the matching glug, both banged the clip and I was happy. I have been fishing the lines incredibly slack to reduce disturbance, bow string tight lines are a massive no no!

            The night goes on and with the burgers cooking away the left rod lets out what appeared to be a savage liner that had me on the edge of the chair, what will unfold? Unfortunately nothing unfolded from that liner but I retired to the bivvy after a few rounds of double burger rolls.  I lay there with my eye lids slowly closing telling me to sleep so I did just that. Lying in the most awkward position my arms went dead, that’s not the first time that’s happened by hey ho! With no carpy action during the night I wake up to some light rain, I fired up the kettle and sat back for a further half an hour, still nothing, time to load the car and make the trip home.

            This has been an enjoyable session, I will be returning to “The Lagoon” very soon seeking some action from the stunners that reside in there.

                                                         Thanks for Reading!         

Curing the Carp Fishing Itch!

                Well this blog hasn’t gone particularly well this time around, the reason being is that I was hoping to be reporting from a new fishery which I have visited in the past with some stunners, that’s one for the next couple of weeks I think!

                As I haven’t been fishing for a few weeks I decide to go to a highly stocked water to see how I go, armed with normal gear but fishing light as I’m only fishing for smaller fish. This is a highly stocked lake known as Chestnut Pool in Bedfordshire, a good lake for shed loads of bites. I am going armed with tactics that I deem as perfect tactics



Small Crafty Bream



                I’ve air dried some 10mm boilies and some 12mm boilies to create good steady amount of bait hopefully enticing quick bites as the fish should snaffle the lot all in one go. The fish take well to single baits; I’ll fish both rods on singles which you’ll see a bit further down. Where I was working at the Carpin On show I visited the lads at Velocity Baits to pick up some bait, I got some NV-R pop-ups in 10mm, AK4-R in 10mm/14mm and some pop-ups that smell great – Mulberry in 10mm/14mm. They are bright baits and I have full confidence in getting a bite or 2 off them for sure! I’ll be using a small braided pop-up rig, I’ll be coupling this with a small 2.5oz lead on a Nash Diffusion Bolt Bead and a metre length of Diffusion Rig Tubing, call it over kill but the less visible the better for me anywhere I fish.  I’ll be concealing the bait on the cast with a small PVA nugget as I won’t be using small mesh bags, this is one thing I always do when fishing singles to eliminate tangles.



The Swim I Settled In



                You may think to yourself “why not sit on the bank for a night?” I have been thinking that I but I have to find a quick cure for the carp fishing itch somehow and a few bites will kick off a good mood and a good steady drive to continuously get on the bank as often as I can! I haven’t really got to the lake on time to have pick of swims, this time I’ll be there just before gates open so that I can nab a decent peg before anyone else does, it always turns out I get stuck in a swim where I haven’t seen any fish.. I suppose I need to push myself to get out of bed earlier to get there for a decent choice I guess!

                I arrived at the lake later than expected, not to worry as it wasn’t overly busy, I picked a swim a short distance from the carp park as the side I wanted was busy with night anglers. To start the session off I cast and clipped up both rods tight to the island in front of me, I then used a mini Spomb to spread the 10mm and 12mm NV-R freebies, both rods were soon on the money and I was sat back on my chair firing up the kettle.



My Spod Rod Set-up



                The weather has been up and down for  the past few weeks, it hasn’t settled on one specific temperature or weather type, as I woke up this morning the temperature gauge on the car read “2.5degrees” and the car was fully frozen… so much for spring. On the left rod I have a single 10mm Mulberry Pop-up and on the left I have a 10mm AK4-R pop-up, they are 2 flavours that I haven’t tried before. Where I was fishing slack lines the right rod had tightened up slightly, I lifted the rod and felt some resistance on the end; I was in battle with a small bream. After the event with the bream he was unhooked and I decided to put a Zig on the right hand rod. 



The Left Hander



                As soon as the zig is out into open water I am topping up the island with 5 spombs of boilies over the top of the rod that is left over there, I was scanning the lake when my left hand rod let out a flurry of beeps and then went into meltdown, I struck into a very angry single figure mirror, but I wasn’t bothered as it was my first fish of 2012. The rod was soon back out on the spot and then I topped up the swim with another 5 spombs of boilies to keep the swim going, I was receiving liners whilst the bait was going in across the top of the rod. The kettle was soon back on and another cuppa was on the go, the action seemed to have died down for about three quarters of an hour so I put another few spombs of bait back out over the rods, as I get the bacon going on the stove my left hander goes off again and I’m in battle with another small carp and that puts 2 down for me, it wasn’t very big about 6lb or so but more than welcome to my first carp session of 2012.

                The rod is soon back in with some more bait and I’m then sinking my teeth in to a long awaited bacon sarnie, well I’m glad I waited as it was lovely!



                The rod is then soon picking up indication as there is liners happening quite rapidly, I get a sudden occurrence on the zig rig, the bobbin cracks the rod blank and falls down and does nothing.. Maybe just a savage liner. At this point I have used around 1kg of the boilies that I air dried which isn’t bad going, the mini Spomb is brilliant as it makes light work of baiting up and make fishing so much better. The weather today has been really up and down, a lot of patchy cloud as I was observing the skies movements, the cold snap last night into this morning didn’t affect the carp as the bait kept on going into the swim.



The First Carp of 2012

                Just as I pick the phone up to phone a mate from college the left hand rod tears off and I’m in battle with my 3^rd carp of the session, the fish is soon in the folds of the net and another single figure fish to add to the tally. Every fish that I have had has been absolutely nailed so it shows there competing for the bait and there not put off by it, just a bigger confidence boosted for me. I look into the air dry sack to see how much boilies I have left, I have used about 1.5kg of boilies over on rod and there is still some time to get more out onto the spot. I never use to be a big boilie fan as I was constantly using maize on my local venues to great effect; I was catching an average of 5 carp a session on the same lake amounting to an astonishing amount of fish. These boilies have a great nutritional value for the fish and are packed with all things healthy, they are a good boilie and can be digested easily which is what I like.



                Another lull in the action and some more bait put over the left hand rod, a few minutes later the rod is off again, this time this fish is doing all the fight out in the lake rather than in the margins, he is soon in the folds of the net and is a mirror of 9lb. A steady run in the action keeps me going, rather than waiting for one fish on this session a few have come along and it has brightened my spirits no end.

                The last piece of activity was a sudden drop back on the left hander again, I’m on it like something from a martial arts film, but it doesn’t fight, it’s another bream, but not to worry if I had the 2 bream it’d have saved a blank if anything! This session has taught me that the mini Spomb can be used to great effect, the fish like a lot of bait and there not put off by how much goes out obviously don’t go over the top and fill it in. this is one method that I will carry on using throughout the coming season and hopefully to great effect.



The rods Finally Get Some Excercise.



This draws a close to this month’s blog, don’t forget you can follow me on twitter @Rosst93 – keep catching!



Short Session Roach Fishing.

This is only a short one this time, it was the first session where I had a little bit of success managing to get on the bank for something a bit different and to try another method.

                With carp fishing put on the back burner for the time being, I decide to dust off the float road and the feeder rod and head off for some Roach fishing. I set off to the tackle shop first of all to get myself a pint of the best Roach bait... MAGGOTS!

The Tackle I Was Using



                I returned home and loaded the gear into the car and set off for the lake, Coots Corner. As I get through the gates I see that the top lake is crawling with anglers so I lose out on that one. I pull up and unload the gear; I set for the third swim along on the bottom lake as a majority of the pegs are free. The method in question is a light quiver tip, the best method I feel on this lake for singling out the bigger Roach, I tie on a maggot feeder; this is tied on with a single over hand loop so that it is lying free on the bottom. Then I tie on a 5 inch 4lb hook link with a size 16 Guru MWG hook on the end. The feeder is filled to the brim with maggots to ensure a good liberal feed spread on the bottom.

                The rod is cast to the left of my swim a few times; I decide to set up the float rod to see if this could bring a bite. As I'm setting up the float rod I get a nice wrap round, I strike into a nice 1lb 8oz Roach this puts a nice grin on my face at a roach like that is a great start for me!

Nice 1lb 8oz Roach on the Feeder.



             With a good start to the session, I started off a little and often baiting strategy, catapulting a few maggots over the top of the feeder, this seems to bring a few more nice sized Roach, the action seemed to have slowed down a little bit. The float rod never managed to come into play with no fish on it, so I bring in the feeder rod for another appearance this was good as I managed to bank 3 more Roach losing one, there are good decent sized Roach in this lake, they seemed to have grown in leaps and bounds since I fished it in my early days of fishing.



The Drawing of the Set-up.

                Its days like this one that draws me into fishing, I love catching these thriving smaller species, the lovely small silver flash through the water brings it back, the fish put up a lovely fight on the light rod that I was using. This is a good way to fish for these Roach; they see a waggler float on a day to day basis, so the maggot feeder is a great way to catch them.

                 Using a little and often approach with the maggots seems to have brought the fish in quicker than waiting for the feed to release from the feeder, as much as I give out banter about float and feeder fishing, I love it!

               

This is the end of the short blog for this session, I'll be at the Carpin' On show with college next weekend, and then out the following weekend, in hope that the nicer weather has kicked the fish into touch, hopefully banking some nice carp.

Until Next time, tight lines and Keep Catching!

Dont Forget To Follow  Me On Twitter - @Rosst93. Keep In The Loop Of My Blogs As They Happen And Things Unfolding On The Bank.

With a busy 2011 of fishing and other college bits and pieces done, I look back at all the good times and the amount of fish that I have caught and some amazing people I have met. a quick low down of what went on:-

In March after the carpin on show I got my self some field testing for velocity bait services, I had a load of bait to use and to test out in the lakes, the first few fish I had were 2 small low doubles. Later on in that session after fishing the top end of Becks Lake at Manor Farm in Bedfordshire along a reed line that I have always thought looked carpy i got the chance to drop into that swim, seein a flurry of carpy activity I didnt catch anything else until later on that evening, a roar on the left hand rod I had a long and fiesty battle with a lovely 22lb 8oz Common, I was really happy, it was nailed on a basic pop-up rig, with a 10mm pop-up with a small mesh bag of weight watcher pellet. What a session.

The next great session was undertaken with a mate from college, he said he had a ticket for a couple of lakes in Milton Keynes, I jumped at the chance and I'm glad I did, netting over 6 tench and 6 bream I wasnt disheartened. We moved onto one of the smaller day ticket lakes as there was no-one on it, the first few hours I was the first one to catch, fishing next to a weed bed, my left hander belted off and and snagged me up in the weed, staying patient I managed to coax the fish out of the weed bed and into my awaiting landing net, beating my PB a 22lb 13oz Mirror what a stunner, that session went on to see me catch a small 10lb Common and losing 2 more fish down to that weed bed to my left hand side. These were taken on bright baits fished a couple of yards off the weed bed.

The next session was at a small lake in Stanford in Bedfordshire, I had a 16lb Common on the surface only using 6lb line and a 12ft match rod, hairy or what!  With confidence oozing out my ears I went back to attack it again, casting barely a metre off the far side trees I lost a fish during the day, still confident and buzzing i got the rod straight back and and my Delkim went into meltdown, I was soon latched into a hard fighting carp, this time it turned out to be a lovely brightly coloured 17lb ghost carp, this had beat yet another personal best. No more action followed but happiness still brimming.

Well as you can see with 2 memorable session already taken I was getting more and more confident, braving the fateful blanks which cant be helped, I carried on catching fish.

With June upon us, myself and my brother plan to do a night back at Manor Farm in Bedfordshire, this time on the carp lake looking for a better specimen. settling into one of the newly dug swims, gravel under feet, looking out across reed fringed margins and calm water with bird lifes galore, leading about was on the cards, a chod rig on one rod with about 20-30 boilies scattered around and the other, an inline lead with a small mesh bag and a 14mm boilie was cast into a small hole in the weed to my left. We sit in the swim having a laugh and a chat, 9:00pm was quick approaching, as there was no action before i decided to leave the rods in as they were "on the money", a take signalled from the left hand rod, I was on the rod in a flash, fighting a fish that didnt really seem to pull, in the margin she goes and finally shows her true power, making a few surges she was gulping for air on the surface. The beaut was resting in the landing net whilst drenching the matt and getting the sling zeroed. She was hoisted onto the beanie matt and transferred into a newly purchase weigh sling, the dial spun round and I was shocked with the size, 21lb 7oz of truely stunning common carp, a few trophy shots were taken and she was soon slipped back to fight another day. Later on that evening my brother got a take on his rods, this was taken on a Grange boilie hookbait among 30 free offerings, this one being an 11lb 5oz mirror, what a lovely fish, no more action came but it the water was alive with carp head and shouldering out of the water what a sight.

My application for the British Young Carp Anglers Championships was sent off and was awaiting on the date for my eliminator, it was the Friday, the last day of the eliminator stages. The date came around and i was up at 4:00am - sorting my tackle into the car, unfreezing bait and packing all the essentials that would be needed and I was bang on time for the draw, drawing peg 14 wasn't a bad choice, open water with small weedy patches. Sitting in the swim looking around admiring the sight of Brasenose 2 and seeing people walking around I was knocking up PVA bags consisting of - 1meter of Korda Kable Leader, a Drop off Inline Pear Lead, and a short 3inch Supernatural Hooklink with a 10mm pop-up on the business end, all tied up into a small solid bag.. Pucka!   The hooter went and I was leading around finding a decent patch, i found a gravel area about 2.5-3.0ft long so I out 2 rigs on there, not taking to the same as everyone else, spodding etc i decided to go quiet and put two baits straight out, i peered across the lake to see one lad netting a fish as one of my rods rattled off,  I put on my waders and was in the margins in battle with a small plump 11lb 5oz Mirror, what a way to start, but missing out on winning 2 Nash Siren alarms.. a few minutesd later with the rod re-positioned, another take signalled, this time being a 20lb 10oz Mirror, I was over the moon to net yet another 20lb carp. i was riding at the top of the leader board but soon got pushed down but not so far that i wouldnt qualify. That evening I was absolutely knackered, back home then up a few hours later, i must be bonkers, getting back to the lake just before 9:00am, I was lapping the lake looking for a swim to drop into, I had a list of a whole host of swims, the peg i had the day before being the main contender, I was soon drawn of of the bag and i called out for peg.14, happy with my choice i stepped back and watch the rest of the draw. With all the gear transferred to the swim eagerly awaiting the hooter, it was under way the 2011 finals. No fish for me until the 2nd day early in the morning about 6:00am my swim illuminted by a blue led, i netted a small 6lb common putting me on the board, not in high places as a few people already had 4-5 fish, i wasnt at all dispondant soldiering on I carried on the same strategies as I was doing, no more fish saw the close of the competition, I came out 25th over all in the end and really happy, grinning like a cheshire cat. With the prizes all given out by the man himself Ali Hamidi I was out the gate heading for home, so tired I fell asleep in the car making the journey seem quicker,  I had an array of text messages from my girlfirend and also from friends that I fish with and a few of the staff from Velcotiy Baits I couldnt thank them enough for there support.

Thats a basic round up of my year in carp fishing, I will be carrying on the blog every week to keep you up to date on what i get up to on the bank, thanks for reading, follow me on twitter:- @Rosst93  thannk you and until next week, keep catching!