UK Carp & Coarse Fishing

This week has been tricky to get the weather conditions perfect for the days I can fish. I have a second appointment with a consultant about my tooth that needs removing, and the saga continues and will no doubt cost me a few pounds. Going private is like buying the best reel once, instead of buying cheap and buying twice. I don’t want to wait for months with the NHS and then end up going back and forth to get it fixed, but there’s a limit on how much I can spend. This appointment is all set for Friday morning, which means I can’t fish Thursday night, which happens to be one of the best nights this week. I’m desperate to do two consecutive nights this week, as next week may well have to be two separate nights, due to a couple of family things.

Yesterday, being Monday, had 40 mph winds from the Northwest, plus a horrendous wind chill. Tonight and Wednesday are looking good until the dreaded rain is due back again, similar to Sunday, which was a complete washout. To get my nights in, I now have three choices available to me:

1. Only do one night.
2. Pack up Thursday before the rain, which is looking like 5 am in the morning.
3. Sit it out until it stops around 1500/1600 hours, also not enjoyable. Plus, I really need to be home by lunchtime Thursday.

The option I’m contemplating currently is to get up early on Thursday, pack away the bivvy, and sit until the carp’s feeding time is over. However, I don’t personally believe they like heavy rain, which would make it a bit pointless. The thing is, I feel the nights are the important times, and I really need to do as many as possible. It’s looking like I’ll be up early Thursday before the rain.

My swim choice was made at home, using the weather conditions and new information from my last trip. I just needed to refine the location or the feature. I could do with three rods to cover all options. I’m thinking of baiting the middle spot, so I’m able to switch the other rod around if needed. I’m arriving at 0730, hoping to avoid any day anglers. I don’t really like these earlier starts, but needs must sometimes. I’m aware this swim was fished over the weekend with no carp action, but these conditions are perfect. It would have been silly arriving yesterday with the wind pushing full-on into this swim. These nights are the best available to me.

I set up my rods and cast them out to an area where the carp generally show around this time of the day. Then, I sit back and watch the water for a couple of hours from the comfort of my car before settling 100% on fishing here. Additionally, I could check the weather and move up the bank to a swim I haven’t fished for years if the carp start showing themselves around there. In the meantime, I can mark the spots I scanned with my Deeper Sonar last week before committing to this swim.

By 1030, I had started to set up the bivvy and get all the kit sorted. After a couple of day anglers had been around and not seen anything. It was definitely the right choice, as I really wanted to try a new spot I’d found. After seeing a carp crash there on the last morning of my last trip, I was extremely confident in my swim choice. I flicked the marker rod out, and yep, it was spot on.

One rod needed a spomb to get the bait out there, and the other was just catapultable, reducing the noise. By 1130, the rods had been switched over, and I had seen a couple of carp, probably a Tench or two. It was starting to look pukka.

The sun was shining, and there was a slight breeze from the southwest. The pressure was around 1020, nowhere near as good as last week. The forecast for tonight was 6 degrees, along with 11 degrees in the day tomorrow and 9 degrees at night. The pressure would start dropping Thursday leading to 998 mbs over the weekend. I just had to hope these carp felt like a feed over the next 48 hours, and the Scattered Lin would come my way soon.

I had done my best over the winter to get into this area. When it felt right, I’d probably caught less than I could have done this winter, but to target a particular carp is something I had not done for many years, and it felt quite enjoyable.

It was a very disappointing night after the amount of carp I’d seen yesterday afternoon. I couldn’t quite believe I didn’t have a single bleep all night long. I was hoping for an early morning take, but that didn’t happen either. I need to put some thought into the oncoming weather conditions and work out if it’s worth the wet pack-up tomorrow or not. There’s light rain due throughout today, building up the temperature to 10 degrees overnight. This is really giving me the enthusiasm to hang it out for tonight and part of tomorrow. Plus, I can’t pick my days next week. Monday and Wednesday are my only options, with a small possibility of arriving late Sunday. The weather isn’t so appealing either, and a couple of single overnighters could work well, as long as they’re not the worst night weather of the week.

I’ve only got two weeks before The Airfield Lake opens, and I’m pretty keen to get over there straight away this year and start getting the bait in there. I probably have five nights left fishing here, and I should really make the most of them.

Big decision made: I’m taking my chances and sitting out this rain and will head home tomorrow at some point, depending on when there’s a break in the rain. There’s absolutely no point in packing anything in the car tonight, as it’s already raining and due to continue for the next 24 hours. However, it’s mostly light rain, which I think, in conjunction with the warm night and the fact that my rods are staying out until tomorrow’s home time, will produce the bite I’ve been looking for over the last 24 hours.

The carp were definitely more active again in the afternoon. I can only hope the warmer night gets them on the munch. It looks and feels perfect.

Well, that didn’t work one bit. I was up early trying to plan my exit strategy regarding avoiding the heavy rain. Just before 0930, I spotted a couple of carp shows. Without a doubt, I had to reel both my rods and flick them out there. It had to be worth an hour or two. In the meantime, I managed to get all my kit into the car without getting myself too wet.

By 1030, it was clearly not going to happen, and with the prospect of a very wet unloading at home, I was soon on my way.

Until next time,

Richard