After fishing some 35 winters, I have come to the conclusion (or realisation), that you are really only fishing 30 nights max over this period. This is based on two nights a week. In general (unless you are really unlucky), a good percentage of this nights will be not that extreme. And with modern-day carp fishing equipment, it can be very pleasant if you get your mindset right. You are still fishing the same amount of time as before, its just dark (obviously) and that’s the hard part. Setting up and packing up in the dark, you just need a routine, a very good knowledge of the swims and the lake. This comes with time. As carp on most waters, like feeding at night, you should stand more chance of a take. Admittedly it can be cold but with these mild winter’s, but you also have the prospects of catching carp at their biggest weights.
With modern bivvys, sleeping bags, bivvy lights and armed with a mobile phone or tablet, you can sit in the bivvy watching plenty of stuff when you want to hibernate! Some anglers find the thought of watch tv a big no-no. If I had not been doing this, I would have been asleep most of the night (which I did do when the children were younger) and not heard a thing, I would have moved my baits onto topping fish. I tend to use headphones with only one ear peace in, as it helps to listen out for the carp topping. With the long moon lit nights, this can be in fact the best period of the year to understand where the carp are. Even a walk around the lake at night with your ears wide open will give you more knowledge than you can dream of.
With a good storm around this weekend, I was lucky to be able to move a couple of gardening jobs, which was not a problem as Friday morning it was tipping it down.
I arrived at the lake to find one person set up. I really felt I had to be in the thick of it, from a wind point of view, this gave me a couple of choices on the swim front. After standing around in the rain for some time, I spotted a good fish to the right of me and as over the past few weeks, I had spotted a few carp along the right-hand tree margins. It’s an area which is not feasible as you are highly likely to lose a carp.
My choice was made and I quickly set up camp and got the rods out. The first one went very well and I no sooner had a bream and needed to get the rod back out. It all went a bit pear-shaped when my reel broke, the line guard had a malfunction and snapped off a couple of bits.
The wind then picked up and my casting went all over the place. I got that sorted out and we were back on track. The baits were on my chosen spots and my baiting up was finally done. I could get the kettle on (after nearly 4 hrs), now time to relax for the next two days.
Oh, joy, I think I may have found the long-lost bream shoal, I have just had another one. Let’s hope the carp are not too far away and they move on by nightfall.
As night fell, there were no signs of any carp, but the wind was certainly stirring things up. It was like fishing in the sea!
It was around 9pm when my left-hand rod pull tight and then drop down, it gave a small twitch up again, that was it – I quickly picked up I had to catch up with the fish who was heading towards me. Well, more to the point, towards the small island next to me and under the snags. I gained line and point the rod tip under the water and pumped the fish away from the snags. At this point, I didn’t feel I was going to be a big fish but once under the rod tip, it woke up and gave me a right run around for some time. Then it was safely in the nsr and I could breathe again
26 – 6 common
Now came the fun – getting the bait on the spot with a very strong crosswind. I was quite lucky and my line looked pretty good and was pointing at my horizon marker.
My next fish was on the right-hand spot and it was yet another bream. This can be a bit frustrating as there are not many of them about in this lake. I can’t quite believe there are no carp out there, fingers crossed for the next bit being a carp.
My next take happened on the left-hand rod, which answers the question of was it on the spot? It ripped off, just after 0530. It was a resounding yes. This fish certainly did know it was hooked but this time headed for open water. This relaxed me somewhat until I woke up and realized it was heading for the right-hand bush. No chance. After a short battle in the margin, my second carp of the trip was safely in the nsr.
25-15 common
The rod back was back on the spot again, it’s just after 6am and my head was feeling it, after a windy night, 2 carp & 2 bream. I thought I better get back in the bag and get my head down for an hour.
The day past with no action for me, the wind died down and even the sun popped out for a bit, it felt like a summers day. There was the odd carp crashing in the far left corner and I’ve been having liners on and off over the last couple of hours.
It was just about 1720 when that rod pulls right up to the buzzer and held there. I jumped up, pulled into the fish, felt a bump and it was off the hook.
I checked the rig and all was well. I redid a new hook bait, got it out there again and hopefully, we’ll get another chance later on tonight.
I was up about 2am, as there were fish crashing all about, this boosted my confidence for the night. I had two more bream but just after 3am, the rain set in and I am sure that put pay to me having any more fish. My dad is down the week, I need to get home pretty early and it was my first real wet pack up for a long time. The rain was set in all day, which would make drying thing out tricky.
With a free day from gardening, I was off down the lake. Probably not the best conditions, with bright sunshine. You can’t always pick and choose when you’re free. You just have to make the most of your time on the bank.
I headed to a nice swim in the day only area of the lake. I feel it’ll give me the best option, as it’s an overlooked area. I also need to spend some time with the Deeper around this area, I have yet to build up a picture of the bottom. It’s not going to be that simple due to all the island and overhanging trees, but it’s going to be worth the effort as I may well find myself here a lot in the winter. The lake is very busy in the winter, I may well switch over to long day sessions in these area’s, I am sure the carp will also feel the same pressure.
With winter getting closer, I’m starting to play around with Evolution carp tackle corn stack. This has many color combinations, which can certainly be an edge in the autumn & winter months.
The other rod I’ve baited with a frank Warwick caramel cream wafter, as I didn’t wish to fish a bright white bait, but I felt an off-white/washed out, may do the trick today.
It was not to be, however, I did find some very interesting features in another area, which will certainly come in handy in the future.
It’s been some time since my last midweek trip out on the lake. What a shock I got as I drove around looking for a likely spot to fish. There were 8 people fishing on a Monday night! Total shock. I was not left which of an option a long walk to the swim a fished last time or a swim that needed precise casting (not going to happen with the fading light) or a swim on the south bank with the wind behind me. This was the area where the wind was belting down to all weekend. It must be worth a quick overnighter in there.
I had mapped the swim some time ago, so I quickly referred to the lake map on my Deeper. This was online and familiarised where I needed to cast and the number of wraps needed, this also corresponds to some old log notes I still keep.
I made up a couple of bags with the leftover spomb mix from my last trip and then tied on a couple of wafters. I then cast out on the spot and put about 10 pouches full out over the top, which was a mixture of catalyst boilies and Smokey Jack boilies.
I then finished setting up in the dark and wondered why I had changed to my Winter bag, it was because it was pretty cold at the weekend.
Unfortunately, no video as its that time of the year.
Fishing is an amazing past time – it changes you from the normal everyday stressed, rushed, busy person to a relaxed and chilled out human.
I can’t stand in queues if they are too long, I will just walk away. Even if I really need something, I just can’t stand waiting about but put me behind a rod and I can wait – hours, weeks, a month for a fish.
We just all sit and watch the world go by without thinking of anything else. The stress relief from relaxing should be prescribed by doctors and the passion for fishing just can’t communicate with other non-fishing people. They just don’t see it. I have tried over the years, there just must be something different about us all.
I do find that if you don’t go that many times each year, the drive just fades out of some people. For me, I find very odd as I can’t see myself losing that bug.
From watching the line twitch and the float knock. Your adrenaline is fired up which non-fishing folks just clearly don’t get.
Come rain or shine, we head out feeling the passion driving us forwards. On a cold wet Winters day, you drive to the shop thinking ‘I don’t want to be out here’, but given the chance to go fishing, you would happily sit under the brolly for hour after hour and not wishing to go home.
I think it’s the combination of all the senses which drives us all forward time after time as well as the peaceful surroundings where we spend hours. It must take us back to the Stoneage hunter/gather thing to sit patiently after our prey and formulate better ways to capture and outwit them.
26 – 6 common
