I had an evening free and really wanted to get out on the boat again. But the weather was making it difficult! My little boat is ok when everything is dry but when it's wet it's too dangerous to fish from. Now was the perfect chance to have a quick evening session on my local club lake. The lake is about 15 acres in size but has an average depth of at least 25ft! The shallowest part I have found is a plateau about 17ft deep.
I got to the lake and the rain was dying out. I loaded up my barrow and walked up to the lake to find I had the whole place to myself. Lucky me hey! : D When I got to the 1st swim I stopped to have a look and see if any carp were showing. Sure enough the carp gave their whereabouts away. They were showing all over to be honest but they were showing mostly around the plateau I mentioned earlier. Most of the Carp were jumping only a few rod lengths out from the bank so I decided to fish both rigs in the margin. In this lake the margins slope down almost vertical and down to around 25ft deep!
I baited one and a half rod lengths out in front of me with 5 handfuls of mixed carp pellets and 30 of my homemade boilies. I glugged the pellets in corn steep liquor and a little cod liver oil to create an area full of attraction. This lake has a good stock of Carp plus the usual Tench and Bream. I have found it is still easy to overfeed so this is why I go easy on the bait. I top the swim up after every fish I catch. Rigs were tied blow back style and baited with a bottom bait and half a pop up the create a slightly balanced rig. I use the Nash Chain reactions to make sure the hook is free of debris.
After dropping the rigs down to the bottom it did not take long for the action to begin. I was into a fish 15 minutes later. It was an uneventful fight to be honest. It felt like a heavy weight though. The Carp in this lake are normally the hardest fighting Carp I have ever caught! The fish plodded around for several minutes until it popped up on the surface to be netted. It was bigger than I expected and weighed 21lb 8oz.
I topped the swim up with a couple of handfuls of pellets and 20 boilies. Just enough to get a bite. The fish tend to work along the bottom of the marginal shelf in shoals and I want them to compete for the food. Too much food and they can take their time and be fussy. Anyway, 10 minutes passed when the micron one toned and the ultegras spool spun at 50 mph! This fight was the opposite of the previous and took me all over the place before I could get any control of the fish! This is more like it I thought to myself : D After several attempts at netting it the Carp Cooperated and went into the net. The fish weighed 22lb 8oz. Two 20lb fish in 25 minutes. I was well chuffed with that!
I had 5 more hard fighting Carp weighing 10 to 16lb including a lovely scaley linear which is a rare fish for this lake. I packed up and left for home very happy after 4 hours of fishing.
