Trip 17 – Carp Fishing – 2017 | UK Carp & Coarse Fishing

With Spring ever closer and the family away in Ireland for the week. I am out on the lake and not sure if I will split the week up with a trip to Suffolk or not. I will wait for a report from Rob on the mill pond and also how I get on here.

The lake was very full over the weekend and had produced some fish. I had my eye on a particular swim/area of the lake. However, there were only a couple of swims free that didn’t have much confidence in, so I hung around and had a good chat with other members. I opted to put my barrow in a swim until they had packed up.

Ground & Fishing Thermometer

I had brought my thermometer along to check the water temperature, it was only 4 degrees (still very cold). With this in mind, I was only going to be putting out my groundbait mix and 10mm catalyst boilies.

With plenty of micro particulars – this would not over feed the fish, easily break down and get mopped up by nuisance fish. It would also hopefully attract the carp!

Day 1

I was joined by my friend for a few hours, who was Pike fishing. It was a very pleasant day and a good catch up and even the sun came out for a few hours! Dispite all this, I have only had a couple of Bream so far. The water temperature was finally starting to rise with a warm westerly blowing – the pressure was dropping, I may well be in for a change.

A very pleasant evening.

Day 2

Well, that was a very uneventful day not a single bleep. The only good thing is that the water temperature is holding at 5 degree’s and the pressure has dropped even more. I have a feeling that the fish caught over the weekend were on the back of all the sunshine we had, it must have got them moving. Unfortunately, with the wind & grey sky’s, I think this may have stopped thier activities. However, I did hear fish last night and I have opted to add some more bait today, we shall see if that’s the right plan but I feel it is.

Gained a friend today.

Day 3

Not much to say, still catching Bream and still no carp. I am sticking to the plan of not much bait (until tomrrow), when I feel its been enough time since the weekend bait up from all the other anglers.

Day 4

Been a hard day, with still no Carp, however the wind had picked up and it feels warmer and the pressure is still dropping. I have added 3 kilos of Catalyst boilies over my two spots, I hope that when the fish switch on, they have and nice baited area to feed in and I hope I can hold them there.

Day 5

I was yet again woken up by a Bream, it’s like a morning alarm clock! The wind and rain had arrived in the early hours, signaling the arrival of storm Doris and as the day progressed the rain moved away, the wind picked up to 50mph gusts and had swung around into my face. It battered the bivvy until later afternoon, when it died down to 25mph gusts, which felt like a gentle breeze, after nearly 12hrs of much stronger winds.

Now that the pressure had dropped to 990, I was hoping that some action may arrive and so did the other 5 other angler’s who arrived this afternoon. I was not feeling that confident any more and the wind swung to WNW, there was a real bitter chill in the air. I am still determine to catch a Carp and plan on stay tonight and review the situation again tomorrow lunchtime

Day 6

Well that was another non-eventful night. This has made my mind up, despite the weather changing, I am clearly in the wrong spot. It’s time to regroup, learn from this session and move onto the next one. I try not to be down hearted about blank periods of fishing and try to learn something from them. You should always try and turn a negative into a positive, as in life, you learn something every day. You should use this information to your advantage, I will analyse this trip over the next few days and be back out soon.