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!