The family was off doing various stuff with friends and family, so I was free to get out for 4 nights. At the beginning of the week, it didn’t look brilliant on the weather front at all, but it all started to change and was soon looking pukka.
It was clearing up, so I needed to get there asap on Wednesday. As luck would have it, I managed to avoid the rain on Monday and squeeze an extra job in from the next day. This then gave me the opportunity to shuffle things around and do the same on Tuesday and now I had no work Wednesday! Winner, winner chicken dinner. However, my hands were feeling it after all the weeding and pruning.
I spoke to Ian on Tuesday about swim options. After studying the weather, it was pretty clear we needed to be in the same area as last week. I do hope the carp feel the same way.
It was a lovely sunny day back at home but down in the Avon Valley, it was borderline foggy, I pulled into the lake around 0700 hours and headed off around to the area I’d discussed with Ian.
There was a car parked in the small car park that leads to the Cliff swim and that was it. I’m pretty sure Mark will be down the bottom lake, I just left him to that, along with another Steve.
I quickly headed off down to the Double Gravel swim, with my T2 and Overwrap. I’d not used it yet, as it was mainly for winter use, but with these weather conditions, I need to give it a test run.
It was a flat calm misty morning on the Airfield Lake, it was looking stunning, the quiet before the storm. Surely, it was going to produce something special this trip.
The bivvy was the first job, then back to the car for my first barrow load and then the second load.
My Fox Explorer Deluxe, along with Global Angling convention kits, is a must when you take as much kit as me. If it wasn’t for the T2, a load of Cooking kit, Fox 30ltr Aquos cool box and a large bucket of bait that is under the barrow, as well as my very comfortable camping chair. I can do a single trip with my Aqua fast and light. But I choose comfort these days. Actually, I have used my Fast and Light a few times this year, you may have noticed.
I sorted everything out first, then got the marker rod out.
After my epic failures on the last few trips, I’d been thinking over the last few days that I needed to switch back to when things had been productive for me. I was going to be going back to pva bags and close-range fishing.
The spomb was loaded and headed out to a couple of spots. My bucket was full of 12mm Catalyst, Smokey Jack, and Classic corn Boilies, along with a load of particles and ground-up boilies which had been soaking for some time in various liquids. This was going to be my strategy for the coming 4 nights, the first two days were all about building up the swim, then switching to boilies only for the last two nights. The attraction would’ve nicely soaked into the silty lake bed, it was going to be hard work getting all that bait out there, but surely worth that much effort.
It was then time to get the rods on the spots. I’d also decided that the rod that had the bags on was going to have a 12mm Pink Pepper Squid pop-up. I wasn’t sure if they needed something different from a wafter. We will see how that goes over the next two nights and if there’s a need to switch either way. The other rod would be my normal 20mm Wafter, with a 3-bait Stringer, just to try something different. I need to tempt these carp away from what they’re on and back over to my hook baits.
Once everything was sorted, it was definitely time to relax for a couple of hours, before I started up the spombing again (around 1300). I really wanted to get the loose feed out there within the first 24 hours, then sit back and top up the precise spots with my 12mm boilies. Hopefully, this will bring them in from afar, then narrow it down to my smaller area of boilies – sort of like Rod H’s pyramid baiting but in a circular area. It works pretty well for me over the years.
The rain wasn’t too far away, however, it was looking less windy and with less heavy rain. Let’s hope that’s correct as it was looking like heavy rain all night long and that wouldn’t help me at all.
I’m glad of the T2 space, as I can sit here with the Weber on doing my lasagne, without any issues, and it’s pretty warm in here now.
It was a long night in the wind and rain, but a lot better than I was thinking it would be. The wind wasn’t as strong as I thought and there was definitely a lot less heavy rain.
Just before 0500, the right rod rattled off, with a very hard-fighting long Airfield Lake Common, tipping the scales at 17lb 8oz in the rain
Well, the pop-up bag tactics paid off on the first night. Let’s hope this continues and just wasn’t just a one-off. A new bag was on and cast back on the spot, luckily there is less rain at this point, I put a brew on, got back into my bag, and watched the water.
I tried to sleep in a bit this morning and made it to 0830 to catch up on last night’s fish and stormy conditions. Steve and Adrian popped over for a chat before they headed home. Unfortunately, Steve lost one, but Adrian had a couple of low doubles. Before they left, Ian arrived and started setting up in the same swim as last week – due to the pending winds from the South West winds over Saturday night.
I sat down and edited the first part of this video before then. It’s so nice to have this amount of room and be able to get things done.
Once Ian was sorted and ready to spomb out, I did exactly the same to lessen the impact of the noise.
Then it was time to give the swim a couple of hours rest and have a couple of tuna salad wraps talking to Ian. Then it was time to get the rod’s out and sort out a few bags for the night.
The sun nearly came out a couple of times this afternoon, but the drizzling rain won the day. By now, it was time for tea and a good tidy-up.
The bivvy is all tidy now and I’ve stretched my legs. It’s now time to watch the water and possibly a film later if I fancy it. Fingers crossed for tonight.
The night was dead, without a single bleep, the weather has also changed away from strong winds and rain, to an overcast cloudy day. The pressure is rising slowly and it still looks perfect for a bite.
The morning was a mixture of sunshine and clouds. However, you could really feel the heat when the sun came out and it was very oppressive at times, the UV was very strong. We gave it until 1230 and then rebaited the area.
I covered myself in my particle and ground up boilies a few times. It was then time for a bit of a walk about for a few hours investigating the whole complex and which swims had been fished or not.
I felt about 1600 hours was time to get those rods out again. I’d switch over both rods on pva bags now, feeling this was my best option. After observing the carp feeding at extra range, I blasted out 8 spombs as far as possible, spread over the entire area I was fishing in an attempt to spread the attraction about and draw them closer to my baited areas and knew they feed in.
I’d dropped off by then, and I just sat back and enjoyed the surroundings of this stunning place.
As evening drew in, it was feeling very carpy, and my confidence levels were rising for the coming night.
It was another carp-free night for both of us. Despite getting some rain in the early hours, I was really expecting some form of action after that passed, but no, I drifted back off to sleep and woke to a sunny, but damp morning. Around 10 am, I got the Deeper sonar out and drifted it across both our swims, with no disturbance to my rods or Ian’s, simply with just one cast.
We were interested in the volume of weed growth in this area, it had been noticeably getting thinker over the weeks. We found a few spots where it was getting close to a foot tall!
My zooming in on your Deeper app, you can work on the depth of the weed. We also found a few carp over both our baited areas – much to our surprise.
It made us both think that we needed to change tactics and maybe use a bigger pop-up and off the bottom more, making it more visual and hopefully spiking their interest.
After a lot of thought, I came up with a plan of action for tonight. Firstly, no more bait over the main baited area, and secondly, go long on the left-hand rod and switch over to pop-ups on both rods.
That seems a sensible strategy, without going too far away from my original plan. There appear to be carp moving in the area, I just need to get them interested in picking a hook bait up.
All the mucking around with rigs and hook baits has finally paid off, with an absolute belting take. Just before 9 pm, from the instant the alarm burst into life, this carp was on a mission to go left at all costs and it became clear that I really needed to gain ground fast. I started to walk backward as fast as possible reeling and pumping the carp towards me, then run forward about 30 feet and repeat this process until the carp was past the overhanging trees that were my main concern. Then I had to walk back towards my swim, and I had gone as far right as possible, without giving the carp any ground towards that snag. Once I was back in my swim, it was time to slow things down and play the fish out under the rod time, until it was ready for the net.
24lb 15oz Common, I was absolutely made up, after nearly 3 days of waiting for my next bite (pukka photograph by Ian). I personally believe that if it hadn’t been daylight hours, I would have struggled to get that carp to the net. Being able to see how much line, as well as the angle the carp was heading, lead me to react quickly and gain the upper hand.
I sorted out the rig, a new Catalyst pop up, and blasted the bait back put on to the spot.
It’s now 0134, and it’s turning into a disastrous night, at about 2055, I believe I picked up a trailing line? I had a take, I picked the rod up and pulled into fresh air! Frustrating. About half an hour ago, I lost a nice carp to a hook pull, not more than 4-rod lengths out, for some reason it got spooked by my head torch! Despite it being on all the time I’m playing the fish, so I can avoid any chance they will head too far left or right on me.
I’ve also taken the decision that I will reel in the other rod and put that out at the same range as my left rod, but over to the right more. As I’ve just heard another carp crash out there and I feel I need both rods out there at that close range. One hasn’t produced a bite in 3 nights and I’ve potentially had 3 takes in less than 5 hours and it clearly must be the best course of action to move it.
I was up at first light, looking at the spectacular skies and wondering if I stood any chance of another bite after last night’s success/disappointing fish loss. I checked the weather again and it was still looking like rain by 10 am. As my rods were not exactly where I wanted them to be, I reeled both in and put fresh hook baits on. I quickly did two trips up to the car and came back and put them perfectly on the spots again. I now needed the weather forecast to change, so I could hang on for a bit longer. I waited till 0730 and checked again, it was still looking like a wet one.
You wouldn’t think it looking at these skies.
I popped over to Ian’s swim and woke him up regarding the weather forecast. We were of the same opinion and quickly got packing down the kit.
We both managed to get the kit all down and in the car before the rain came.
Until next time
Richard
UK Carp & Coarse Fishing 