With the wife away on a business trip for a few nights, I was hoping to get down the lake Friday evening, however as she was traveling around the M25 on a Friday afternoon, it was 50/50 if it would be Friday night or Saturday morning.

Thankfully, her journey wasn’t that bad and I arrived just after a quarter past seven. Ian had been down since Thursday morning and had managed one so far. My plan was to pitch up next to him, as he wasn’t fishing for the next two weekends and then I was off for two weekends as it is the Jubilee bank holidays and we are away in Wales camping.

The beauty of fishing this lake for so long is that I know every swim well enough to turn up and get the rod on the spot without much disruption. I soon had the rod done and spombed out some bait – I was going to be using the new hook bait from Spotted Fin.

These baits smell awesome. On the other rod, I would be using even faithful Masala wafters.

Once I had finished sorting the bivvy out and got organized, it was time for a glass of red.

It wasn’t long before it was time to get my head down and hopefully bag a carp tonight.

Just after 0630, the left-hand rod was away and I was very pleased to get this lovely 23lb 2 oz common in the net.

With the rod back out, it was time for some coffee and a burger with onions for breakfast. It’s been a funny morning, with light rain and the wind changing to the north. There is definitely a chill in the air, but the conditions are looking good for another bite during the day – with any luck.

The afternoon was spent avoiding the extreme heat. I’m pretty certain the carp will be spawning by tomorrow at some point as the temperature is on the rise this afternoon and the cold northerly wind has gone.

As the evening passed, it was getting warmer by the minute and I wasn’t sure the rods would go off again tonight, but you never know with this place.

Sometime after 3 am, Ian’s rod burst into life and began a battle with a hard-fighting carp. It was clearly determined to kite right past both my rods, which I did pick up one by one and safely resting against my bivvy. Ian was still battling away with this carp, which was determined not to come to the surface and anywhere near the waiting net. As time went by and it started to slow down and slipped over the cord.

Just as Ian was about to pick the carp up for the photo, his other rod was away. I quickly sacked the first carp up and got it in the water, then Ian netted the next fish – which was less problematic, with the exception of it trying to go under the trees to the left of his swim.

With the photoshoot sorted and all 4 over are rods back out, dawn was arriving over the forest and just after 0410, I took the opportunity to change both baits and touch up the hooks.

Time to get a couple of hours before daylight and the inevitable packing up time.

Above is Ian’s 28lber from Thursday night on a self-take, stunning lump, and the stamp of fish coming out this session is getting so much better each year.

It’s very much looking like it’s going to be a very hot sunny day, the light northerly is keeping the temperature down. No more action for me or Ian over the night. He will be very happy going into a two-weekend break, for me I’ve another two weekends fishing, then I’m off for a couple as it’s the school holidays. But I am getting ahead of myself, let’s enoy the rest of May first.

Until next time

Richard

 

 

 

 

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If anyone tells you they have mastered lake of fishing; they’re lying.  It can change in the blink of an eye!

I personally think the biggest mistake anglers make, is once they perceive they’re at the top of their game and have cracked their chosen venue, they sit back on their hands and fail to keep the momentum going.  Then blame other factors for the inability to catch fish.  You have to work hard at fishing and keep one step ahead of the carp.  Never compare yourself to other anglers, as you will burn out.

Carp are living creatures and are more connected with nature than we will ever be.  This has been clearly proven lately by all the rubbish etc left on the beaches/parks after lockdown finished.  The human race is definitely the biggest problem this planet has.

Lakes evolve with the coming and going of each season and also global warming.  Nature has a way of adapting, it may take a few years, but it will recover.

Fish have learnt to move with these changes.  If as an angler you carry on fishing the same old spots each week, don’t you think they will wise up, there isn’t a big sign out there telling the carp where to feed, they do as they wish.

Fish are more connected with their body’s than we are and certainly know what’s good for them.  I’m sure some learn that if they eat boilies they will get caught and they will be returned to the water, so they just carry on.  However, there will be an equal number that doesn’t like the experience, will learn to be very wary and keep will away.  This is why it’s always worth fishing the swim, that exists on most lakes, called no carp something, that would always be my first port of call on a new lake.

There is always the hot swim, but is it because they are fished the most frequently and the law of averages dictates that more fish will come from that swim?  This doesn’t make it the best swim on the lake.  The best swim could easily be the overgrown one in the corner that’s not seen a fisherman’s bait for decades.  They are also one of my first ports of call on a new water.

There are so many factors which can influence carp; from weather with high pressure to low pressure constantly changing or long periods of the same.  This is something I personally feel is overlooked.  A constant high or low is perhaps something the carp can acclimatise to, just like we do.  If you move to a hot or cold country it’s horrible for a period of time, but you get used to it and it becomes enjoyable.  Well, perhaps carp can adjust quickly and relax.  Whereas ups and downs in the pressure could completely throw them off track.

Angler pressure, unless you are on the bank 24/7, you don’t really have any idea of what had been going on since your last trip – where people have fished, how much bait has been put out and the number of takes they have had.  This is more important than the number of fish landed, as it gives you a better indication of what is really going on in the swim. I understand it’s all about catching, but if they have landed 2 carp and also lost 4, the swim is producing takes, if you are only aware of the fish landed, that would be just 2 and influence your discussion making.

Water temperature can also play a key factor in fish most certainly and I believe it affected the lake I fish quite dramatically.  A couple of years back, there was a couple of big long heatwaves and I’m not convinced that the carp on the shallower part of the lake which is about 30 acres and on average 3ft deep, didn’t deal with the higher water temperatures.  They hid under all the margins where the overhanging trees are.  I don’t believe they fully recovered from this until this winter just gone.  Deeper waters are a completely different ball game and I’m sure at beyond a certain depth the variations in the temperature are less dramatic.  The carp may prefer this constant temperature rather than the dramatic changes.

Their food source and I’m not talking about bait the anglers put in!  I’m more interested in the natural side of the equation, you can never really tell how much anglers have put in.  Unless you watch and see them doing it, so it’s best to stick to the natural side of their food source e.g. blood worm beds.  How much natural food there is in the weed bed, crayfish, etc?  This is a very tricky one unless you can get out there and investigate or glean some information from other sources, you are realistically guessing.

Sanctuary area’s, are brilliant for the wellbeing of the carp and it gives them somewhere to hide.  They can easily be over created and give the carp the ability to feed and stay safely out of the angler way for years.  Making the exit points the primary swim, doesn’t help the situation as the carp will just stay there and not come out.  Wouldn’t you?.

Water levels will certainly change the dynamics of the carp’s behaviour and create more save havens as the levers drop extremely low or even the opposite when water levels are high.  This gives them more access to snaggy areas under overhanging tree or even swampy area’s.  You would be surprised how little water they need some times, just look at the depth of a 30 lber and add an inch or two on and it won’t be much deeper than your knee.

I hope I’ve not added to your issues about catching carp but helped you get more fish on the bank.

The many points of this article are to generate food for thought and not sit back a just keep going with the same old routine.  Adapt, tweak things, but never too much at the same time and keep going forward with your fishing.  Don’t look back and say it was much better than now, things have changed.  There is a bucket load of possibilities to take onto consideration and I’ve only touched on some of them.  You could go into way more detail.  Never forget to enjoy your fishing and why you got into it.  It’s not all about catching and especially under the current situation going on in the world, enjoy it, relax, unwind, be grateful and go catch your next PB.

Until next time

Richard

That’s more like it.

Richard

Why the perfect capture shot?  This is the question I ask myself quite a lot when flicking through Facebook.  There is a distinct lack of night shots and I know that technology has moved on with slings and sack.  However, there is no way of stopping the stress placed on the fish. It has just be captured and taken out the water weight and then put in a retaining sling for 8 or more hours, all because there is a demanded to have the perfect shot.  In my book this is just not an expectable way to treat fish.  It amazes me that anglers are happy to do this, when they treasure the quarry so much and get upset when they get eaten by otters or when another angler mistreats the fish.  Hypercritical, I would say.  If you are on the list of anglers who keep the fish in a sling/sack for more than 10/15 minutes, this is all the time you need to set up the camera kit.  I have been doing it this was for more than 35 years.  We are in a battle to outwit the carp and land them.  It therefore does not matter if you didn’t get a photo, it was poor quality or even not in the perfect spot.  You have captured your quarry and won the battle.  Now all that it required is to put the fish back and reduce the stressed caused.  I have seen anglers take the photos in the morning after the fish has been in the net most of the night, then place the fish back into the retainer and then sit in there brolly’s checking if the photos are perfect.  If not, they keep repeating this process until they get it spot on.  They would then wonder why the fish goes belly up a couple of weeks.  I believe this is partly driven by the industry who demand the perfect shot.  This is a bit narrow-minded in itself as most are anglers, modern day anglers are hooked on Facebook and there seems to be a need to also out do their fellow anglers with who gets the best shots etc.  I come from there era of secret squirrel and you never really knew who caught what, other than what you heard over the grape vine.  Don’t get me wrong, I have embraced Facebook, as it nice to see how well other anglers are getting on.  It’s a battle between the angler and the fish and not a battle between us all, unless you are match fishing.  The barbel anglers fully understand this and do their up most to look after the quarry.  Why can’t the carp anglers (with the advice of camera technology and remote systems) do the same?  The perfect shot can be taken at night, the more anglers start doing this must be better for the fish.  This would also have the knock on effect of showing the rest, who may be not keen that fish safety must come first.  How do we know how much stress builds up in a fish over time?  Just look at human beings, there is a great deal of people having to take tablets for stress (which has built up over time), this must be the same for all living things.  On my website there is a page all about Carp Safety Photographing Fish which is the way I have been doing this for many years and with camera technology moving on things can only get better.

Just remember, the next time you see a photo of your target fish, how much stress was placed on it at the time? And will it be around for you to catch it in the future?  Look after the fish and they will be around for a long time to come.

An example of what can be archived with a bit of help from a photo editor.

Be lucky in your quest for the monster fish.

Richard