June Frustrations – When the Carp Refuse to Play

With my gardening jobs for the week finally completed, I was more than ready to get back on the bank. The weather hadn’t been particularly kind for gardening, but from a fishing perspective, it looked absolutely perfect. Strong south-westerly winds, heavy rain showers, and low pressure – exactly the sort of conditions that often get carp anglers excited.

I arrived at the lake around 12:30pm on Wednesday after driving through a torrential downpour, all the while hoping there would be a break in the weather long enough for me to get set up without being completely soaked.

Ian had arrived earlier, around 10:00am, and kindly gave me an update on the swim situation and what he had observed so far. Combined with the weather forecast, it gave me a good starting point and narrowed down the areas I wanted to investigate upon arrival.

My first stop was the Bottom Lake. To my surprise, it was completely devoid of anglers and, more importantly, there were plenty of carp showing. Originally, I had hoped to fish somewhere close to Ian so we could have a sociable few days, but the available swims didn’t allow for that.

After a good look around, I settled on a point swim roughly in the middle of the lake. It offered good visibility and, importantly, gave me the option of making a quick move should the need arise.

After double-checking my spots and introducing some bait, I wandered over for a chat with Ian before eventually casting out at around 3:30pm. With the conditions looking so favourable, I was hopeful of an early evening bite.

A Quiet Start

The first 24 hours passed with very little activity. Despite seeing carp show themselves at various times, the only action came from a tench that picked up my left-hand rod around 8:00am.

By then, the rain had arrived and looked set to stay for most of the day. I topped up both areas with a couple of pouchfuls of mixed Nutrabaits boilies and pellets soaked in hemp oil, before taking the opportunity to prepare some fresh mesh bags.

Using Godman Angling’s Double System 35mm mesh, I created a mixture of various pellet sizes combined with Himalayan Rock Salt and a generous soaking of hemp oil.

Current rod positions:

Right Rod: 7.2 wraps
Left Rod: 8.5 wraps

The Importance of Observation

Later that day, Ian wandered over for a coffee and, while chatting, noticed a group of geese feeding on weed further to the left of my swim.

Once he returned to his own rods, I waited for a break in the rain before casting the marker rod into the area he had pointed out. Sure enough, I found weed. Even better, I located several additional patches nearby.

It wasn’t a huge distance from my original spots, but as every carp angler knows, half a wrap can make all the difference.

Encouraged by the discovery, I repositioned one rod to take advantage of the new area and moved the second rod towards the entrance of a bar on my right-hand side. The strong south-westerly wind was pushing nicely into that area and, although the carp had been showing much further beyond it, I reasoned they had to travel through this route at some stage.

I’ve often struggled to find a reliable second bite-producing area in this swim, but this time I was determined to persevere and learn more about it.

Confidence and Doubt

At 4:25am the following morning, I found myself sitting on my bucket with a mug of coffee in hand, listening to carp crashing nearby.

The previous evening, I had been full of confidence after relocating both rods. Yet, despite seeing fish in my area, I had also spent several hours contemplating a move. In fact, I’d come very close to relocating around 7:00pm.

The dilemma was familiar.

Do I stay?

Do I move?

Or do I simply accept that June can be one of the hardest months of the year?

The fish seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

Post-Spawning Thoughts

As I sat watching the lake come to life, my thoughts drifted towards something I’ve considered many times before.

Following the spawning period, I believe one of the biggest challenges we face as anglers is understanding what nutritional deficiencies exist within the carp’s diet. What essential nutrients are they currently lacking? Which requirements are being fulfilled by natural food sources, and which aren’t being met by the baits we introduce?

It’s a subject I’ve been pondering for some time, and perhaps one day I’ll manage to put my thoughts onto paper in a way that fully makes sense.

Whatever the answer, one thing was certain – the conditions couldn’t have looked much better.

More Questions Than Answers

By 8:48am I still hadn’t had a single indication.

After waking at 4:00am and seriously considering a move, I eventually crawled back into bed at 6:00am, hoping to wake up to the sound of a screaming alarm.

It never came.

By 10:00am, after seeing several carp showing very close to my swim and noticing fish fizzing over the areas I’d been watching, I decided moving made little sense. Conversations with a few of the day-ticket anglers revealed the same story across the entire complex.

The fishing was simply hard.

I recast one rod further into open water, attaching a yellow Blank Saver hookbait and a small mesh bag. My plan was to spend the afternoon leading around and studying my Deeper Maps+ to gain a better understanding of the swim.

At 12:30pm, after seeing a couple more fish show further out, I moved both rods into open water.

At this stage, I was effectively fishing for showing fish with little more than single hookbaits. My hope was that a mobile approach might produce an opportunity before settling on two final spots for the last night.

New positions:

Left Rod: 14.5 wraps
Right Rod: 20 wraps

Last Throw of the Dice

By 1:45 p.m., I was confident I had identified the areas I wanted to fish.

The marker rod went out one final time, and I scattered a handful of boilies around each location. Rather than piling in bait, I spread approximately ten boilies around each area, encouraging the carp to browse and hopefully stumble across one of my hookbaits.

At that point, there was little more I could do.

The rods were in fishy areas.

The baiting approach felt right.

The conditions looked perfect.

The rest was in the hands of the Carp Gods.

Home Time Reflections

I genuinely believed the final night would produce something. Unfortunately, it wasn’t written in the script.

Over the course of the three days, I only heard of two carp being landed across the entire complex. Ironically, one of those captures came from a swim I had seriously considered fishing before deciding on a complete change of scenery.

Even so, I have no regrets.

The challenge of understanding a difficult venue is part of what keeps me coming back. Although I still haven’t fully cracked that particular swim, I’m certain I’ll find myself sitting there again in the future, trying to unravel its secrets.

Until next time.

Richard

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