After having a fabulous week camping at the best campsite in Wales, I’m back out after the carp. I had a good walk around, looking for any carpy signs at about 1400 hours when I arrived.  This is probably the worst time to arrive here, as the carp are generally very inactive. I couldn’t find a thing. I studied the weather forecast first thing this morning, thinking if I don’t see anything, where will they most likely be? The winds were due to blow from the North West or West over these few days, which would give me a fair few options along the East Bank. The temperatures were going to be around 18C and cloudy, making these few days look like perfect fishing conditions, as long as the weather forecast is correct.

After speaking to a couple of fellow syndicate members, it appeared that The Middle Lake was fishing well, and I finally spotted a carp. My favourite swim was going to be hard to fish due to the high water levels still on the lake. Additionally, after looking at the point where I like to fish right in front of, it was showing signs of heavy fishing, the last thing I needed was to wake up and find a day angler in there. I continued to look around, but ultimately, fishing The Point Swim became my choice for the next few nights.

I returned to the car, fully loaded the barrow, and headed off, only to tip the thing over in the long grass after not spotting a hump in the path. This is the only downside of fishing wild and overgrown waters.

This swim is pretty straightforward. Both rods in the margins filled ina with bait. Well, that’s what I do when casting over here. However, I’ve actually never had a carp from this swim in the margins when fishing it. I’ve only caught by going out over the plateau, which I can’t do these days, as a swim appeared there after the end one was dug up to make the channel bigger.

As I didn’t get into the swim until after 1500 hours, my approach will be to bait the margins, use 12mm pop-ups, slack lines, and see how the first 18 hours go before I adjust anything.

The first night was event-free, apart from a couple of tench in the early evening. It was incredibly calm over the dark hours. I was up early to clear skies and still no wind. It was still forecast, so I can only wait until it picks up again. Despite the lake looking gorgeous, it wasn’t very carpy. By 0900 hours, there was a nice breeze blowing across the lake, giving me a lot more confidence, along with hearing a couple of carp crashing in the bay to my left. Let’s hope today brings my first bite.

It was a beautiful day and evening, which felt very carpy, but that was just me thinking and not the carp, which were still eluding me. I had thought of heading home today, but I’m not letting the swim get the better of me. I will definitely need to put my thinking hat on to produce a bite. It will be interesting to see how others have gotten on last night.

My current thought process is to get those tench feeding, which will bring the carp into feed, by using pellets and crushed-up particles, with a few 20mm Classic Corn Boilies. I also plan to change my hook baits over to wafters or bottom baits, instead of pop-ups, which currently aren’t working for me.

After some thought, I popped to the car and collected the crushed particles and more catalyst pellets. I sorted about 100 x 20mm boilies, plus a tin of sweetcorn, and mixed it all up in a bucket. Then, I spombed out half over each spot, after determining they were my best options. Plus, there’s a good likelihood that there are remnants of the bait I put out when I arrived. I switched over to 20mm bottom baits in the hope of avoiding the smaller tench. It would be nice to know how big they go in here. I clipped a couple of PVA mesh bags that had been drizzled with Catalyst food dip.

I had a few people pop over for a chat and a brew today. It was great sitting out in the warm sunshine in such a beautiful, tranquil place. The evening was very similar, with the exception of people, as the sun was setting. The clear skies and flat, calm lake loomed. I could only hope I’d got it all right on my last night and everything would come together.

At 23:45, the left-hand rod absolutely screamed off. It was pitch black. I’d been in the middle of a dream in deep sleep. You know the feeling: one minute you’re off in a faraway dreamland, and the next you’re holding a rod, tip under the water, trying to stop a carp from going around the corner into the bar. You’re on autopilot and have to shake yourself back to life. The carp came back around and straight across the front of the swim, nearly picking up the other rod. I then spent the next 10 minutes playing the carp under the rod tip, stopping it from going right into the other bay and away from my other line. At the last minute, I went under that rod again, but the net was already sitting in the middle of the swim. I quickly lifted the net up, pulled back on the rod, and guided the carp into the net on the first try.

I reeled the other rod in as it had bleeped a couple of times, and I couldn’t be sure it hadn’t moved the lead. Plus, it made sense, as it would help with getting the carp up the bank onto the unhooking mat.

A lovely long Airfield Lake common, going 17lb 3oz on the scales. Perfect, I’d not blanked.

With the rods back out, it was time to edit the photos and video and write this while it’s all fresh in my mind.

Apart from a tench about an hour later, I woke to a bright, sunny morning and proceeded to pack up once 0900 hours arrived.

Until next time,

Richard

 

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