Choose life. Choose a lake. Choose a swim. Choose a bait. Choose a rig. Choose sleepless nights under the stars. Choose the nocturnal music of branches creaking in the wind, leaves whispering, and the eerie night-calls of owls and wildfowl. Choose bright moons shattered in the rippling surface of lakes, and purple skies at sunset perfectly mirrored. Choose silent mist-shrouded pools at dawn. Choose visions of white-flowering waterlilies turning green-gold in the half-light. Choose the flashing bronze flanks of carp, twisting below the surface, on the edge of visibility. Choose a heightened heart-rate. Choose an emotional rollercoaster. Choose the psychological assault-course of planning, watching, locating, preparing, casting and waiting. Choose the endless hours of strung-out anticipation. Choose the rush of striking, hooking, fighting, and landing (or losing) the fish. Choose to walk the tightrope between desperate failure and the adrenaline-inducing, life-enhancing triumphant high of success. Choose life. Choose obsession. Choose Carp Fishing.
"Greg Freestone, Carpspotting 2011"

Wednesday 25 September 2013

The Autumnal Equinox

After a few weeks off from fishing it was nice to get back out on the bank for a few nights with some mates.

I headed down to the lake after work on the Friday and with the fish on the feed big time I armed myself with 5kg of bait as I know they can be greedy buggers and like to clear you out.

With it being a weekend I knew it would be busy so I aimed to head to the pads midweek and when I sore it was free when I arrived I was one happy man as I knew the fish would be in and out of there wile there was a southwesterly wind and spots of sunshine.

The nights are starting to pull in now so I didn't have much time to find my spots before it was dark so I had a quick lead about near a small weed patch and found it was fishable so I baited it up with 3kg of 15mm monster squid and kg of mixed black monster squid and amber strawberry dumbbells.

With the swim so tight I was only fishing with two rods so one rod went onto the baited area in about 12ft of water and the other rod went towards the pads I around 8ft of water.

My choice of rig for the area I was fishing was a stiff hinge rig made from 12 inches of silt black missing link and 3 inches of fluoro carbon with a size 6 fang x hook.
Bait Wise I armed the rig up with 2 10mm white amber pop ups to match the freebees I had put out.

I like to use white hook baits as the lake has lots of muscle beds that glow white on the lake bed so i think the fish feel comfortable feeding on them and don't see white baits as much of a threat.

After a quite night with only the odd liners I spreaded out a few more handfuls of monster squid over the area as I knew the fish would soon be moving in when the sun started to get up and it wasn't long before me and my mate nick was into some action.

25lb leather carp

Fight blood to nick with this nice 25lb leather carp. The fish started to show big time this end of the lake so I knew we had a good chance of bagging a few.

I headed back to my bivvy to have a recast on my right hand rod to move it off the pads towards my baited area and moments later my left hand rod started to scream off so I dropped my rod and struck into the other to feel the force of a hard fighting carp, I knew it was a good fish from the way it was plodding along with the odd burst of fight.
I got it closer and sore it was a common and a good one at that so I played it softly and slipped it into my net. I took a quick peep and knew it was over 30lb so I unhooked it in the net and slipped it into my retainer sling and went round to grab my mate for some pictures.

35lb 8oz

35lb 8oz

35lb 8oz


I was buzzing to catch and was even more buzzing that it was another 30lb+ fish, 35lb 8oz this weighed and after a quick few pictures the lump was slipped back into the lake to fight another day

After a few beers to wash down the excitement of catching such a lump it wasn't long before the rod was off again, this time a cracking mirror which looked bigger then the common I had earlier that day but as I was just about to net it the hook pulled and the carp turned over and swam back to the depths. GUTTED! that's fishing for ya cant get them all.

With no bait left singles was all I was left with to fish with and wasn't feeling to confident as I knew they had cleared me out.

With my mate nick in the next swim he managed to get a few more bagging a few 26lbs and a cracking 29lb 15oz two tone mirror


29lb 15oz

26lb+

26lb+