With the nights drawing out and decent warm weather upon us (for the time being) i decided to squeeze in a quick evening session on a local club water. Ive fished the water on and off for 3-4 years now and its been a long held ambition of mine to catch a 20lb carp from there. In addition to this the water also holds one or two nice Tench and im planning a few closed season trips here to fill in the time until those estate lake Tench are ripe for catching .
I brought my baitboat along for this trip because from past experience, the main problem with catching Carp in this lake was always that upon hooking them they were straight under the trees and it was very difficult to get them out. I wanted to setup opposite the trees rather than amongst them so that any hooked fish could be pulled away from danger as quickly as possible.
The boat was needed in order to position the baits accurately and with the minimum of fuss. Tacklewise i used my Tench gear with light semi-fixed inline rigs, one with maggots and the other with boilies.
Shortly after i placed the baits i got Cooted on the maggot rod and had to redo it all over again only for the little bugger to come back for seconds! Now, if i had been fishing at close range and not having to boat the rod out each time this wouldnt have been a problem but i wasnt happy with the disturbance caused every time the boat went out so i changed the maggots for another boilie setup in an attempt to ward my feathered friend off a bit.
After about half an hour of watching the bird continually diving on my bait still, the rod suddenly juddered to life and the bobbin dropped back . Angrily, thinking the damned Coot had hooked itself, i picked the rod up to wind in only for it to buckle over as a powerful fish made a dash for some serious looking snags. I locked up and held on for dear life not giving an inch, fully expecting the line to part or the hook to pull at any moment. Thankfully everything held together and i soon had the fish in open water where it plodded about staying deep until i got it under the rod tip and then, after a few last minute bursts, into the net.
The fish went 17lb4oz on the scales, it looked bigger but i wasnt disappointed, it was nice battle-scarred old warrior and a typical example of the lakes stamp of Carp.
After that fish i continued to fish just into dark with no more action. I dropped what bait i had left with me into a couple of likely spots ready for Sundays planned trip and then headed for home.
The water temp was 12.5degrees which is the warmest ive recorded so far this year and i also saw a Pike swim past which is very unusual as the venue is not known for its Pike and thats the first one ive ever seen there.
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