Out there and at ‘em!

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Out there and at ‘em!

Well as usual it’s been a busy start to the year for me as I’ve been out and about on several waters already, as you may have read. Once the weather starts to warm up however, I like to make plans for a spring assault on somewhere away from the crowds and this year has been no exception. I originally had two waters in mind that were relatively local to my home, both of which hold a big fish so I started to sneak over to each at dawn for a look and a cast about to identify an area to bait.

The first pit I had fished last spring and had caught my target among most of the other fish in the lake, but had lost a whacker that had taken close to two hundred yards of line before breaking the hook link, so naturally I wanted revenge. Obviously having caught the bulk of the stock in the lake, this would not be my serious water.

My main interest was in a big pit of sixty acres near my home that holds one very big fish; again the stock is low so I chose a spot on a private bank with very difficult access and began baiting both pits. Both my areas on the respective lakes were carefully chosen to ensure that when the weather fell right for one it wouldn’t be right for the other and vice versa.

Before I started my serious fishing I’d been flitting around several waters and had been putting my favourite sk3 rods through their paces with plenty of hard fighting carp to low 30’s …but I had bigger plans. It was around this time that things started to go awry!

The reserve pit that I’d done so well on the previous spring was starting to receive some angling attention.  I guess I only have myself to blame for this as I’d written about my exploits in depth in a two-parter for Carpworld.  Other “anglers” had decided they wanted a piece of the lake, but rather than think for themselves it was obvious they simply read the article and jumped straight into the areas I was fishing and basically copied everything, which made continuing impossble as every time I turned up to fish it was obvious that the swim had recently been fished….sheep, I hate em!

Baiting twice a week with big hits of bait only for someone else to capitalize on my hard work is not my idea of fun, so I shelved the baiting and decided to walk away from the lake for the time being. This focused my attentions on the big pit, but within a week the bank I was baiting was bought by new owners, who erected new fences making access very difficult, so this lake has also been put on the back burner for now.

Despondent, I went to a huge lake I have a ticket for to spend a few days to think about my options. The lake is well over one hundred acres with a low stock, probably in the region of twenty fish, which obviously makes the fishing very difficult.
As soon as I was back I fell in love with the place and straght away started to really get into the angling. As if to tempt me back, the lake gave me a few chances over the few days I spent on its banks and I landed two fish and lost a third. As you can see from the pictures, these fish are very special indeed, so I will be concentrating my efforts on this water for the remainder of the spring and into the summer, fingers crossed I’m rewarded for my efforts on this challenging water.

• Carp Fishing