M
Martin Scullion
Guest
First off let me say that I am not a serious carp fisherman unless you call local carp puddles serious that is !! and to be honest I am not very keen on the hi-tech approach so when I went into my local tackle store asking for advice on a nearby carp water and recieved a set of instructions which made about as much sense as the Tibetan book of the dead I was a bit worried, fluoro pop-ups, stringers, funnel-web (aren't they poisonous ??).
Anyway I decided to have a wander round the lake one evening to get a feel for the place. I noticed that fish could be seen bubbling and feeding no more than 2-3 ft from the bank, however most of the regulars were fishing to featutes out in the main body of the lake, this looked like an ideal opportunity to try out some margin fishing.
So the plan was this arrive after work, bait up 4-5 likely areas with Hemp, corn, meat, no fluro pop-ups foe me, set up my hyper sophisticated bite detection system (H.S.B.D.S) small lump of quill, float rubber, 1 AAA, size 10 hook, 2 grains of corn, fishing a 'lift-float' intricate stuff eh !!!.
Swim one - 30 mins nothing, however there were fish about as I could see the float being pushed about by the wash from their tails, but no take.
Swim two - Crept up to the swim, there was nothing immediately obvious, however I had a bit of a thought what if the fish were being put off by having the float standing in the water so I reset the float 6ins overdepth so that it lay flat on the water, recast and waited. Then the bubbling started and the float started to get pushed about by the wash from the carps tail, then the float started to twitch and bob and move off gently into open water, I struck and fish no1 was on, now bear in mind my previous best carp was 6 1/2lbs, suddenly finding myself attached to what was obviously a good double in 18ins of water was quite something, anyway I managed to land it despite its attempts to investigate every tree root & reed bed on the way. Just as I left I dumped another load of hemp, corn, & meat.
My best guess put it at somewhere between 12-15lbs, anyway off to swim 3, I was really hopeful here cos I had seen many fish piled into this area towards evening, but it was not to be as the bailiff took objection to me fishing in a non-designated swim.
and promptly made me move on.
So I thought I'd have one more go at the swim where I had taken my first fish, so I crept back and recast to the same spot, some 2 mins later a small stream of bubbles erupted directly under my float and ever so gently my float started to move across the water, I struck, this was bigger I thought as the fish attempted to make friends with the tree roots, I turned it and it decided to head towards the middle of the lake, 'well at least it's in open water' I thought, a further 10mins of heated debate ensued which ended up with with a 15-20lber on the bank, hmmmm 2 pb's in one day I could get to like this carp fishing stuff.
Well I guess it goes to show that you don't alway's have to have the latest gear, cast towards the horizon, or even use fluro-pop-ups to get that one big fish. I must also get some scales then at least I'll have more of an idea of big the fish are. So don't neglect those margins !!!
Tight lines.
Anyway I decided to have a wander round the lake one evening to get a feel for the place. I noticed that fish could be seen bubbling and feeding no more than 2-3 ft from the bank, however most of the regulars were fishing to featutes out in the main body of the lake, this looked like an ideal opportunity to try out some margin fishing.
So the plan was this arrive after work, bait up 4-5 likely areas with Hemp, corn, meat, no fluro pop-ups foe me, set up my hyper sophisticated bite detection system (H.S.B.D.S) small lump of quill, float rubber, 1 AAA, size 10 hook, 2 grains of corn, fishing a 'lift-float' intricate stuff eh !!!.
Swim one - 30 mins nothing, however there were fish about as I could see the float being pushed about by the wash from their tails, but no take.
Swim two - Crept up to the swim, there was nothing immediately obvious, however I had a bit of a thought what if the fish were being put off by having the float standing in the water so I reset the float 6ins overdepth so that it lay flat on the water, recast and waited. Then the bubbling started and the float started to get pushed about by the wash from the carps tail, then the float started to twitch and bob and move off gently into open water, I struck and fish no1 was on, now bear in mind my previous best carp was 6 1/2lbs, suddenly finding myself attached to what was obviously a good double in 18ins of water was quite something, anyway I managed to land it despite its attempts to investigate every tree root & reed bed on the way. Just as I left I dumped another load of hemp, corn, & meat.
My best guess put it at somewhere between 12-15lbs, anyway off to swim 3, I was really hopeful here cos I had seen many fish piled into this area towards evening, but it was not to be as the bailiff took objection to me fishing in a non-designated swim.
and promptly made me move on.
So I thought I'd have one more go at the swim where I had taken my first fish, so I crept back and recast to the same spot, some 2 mins later a small stream of bubbles erupted directly under my float and ever so gently my float started to move across the water, I struck, this was bigger I thought as the fish attempted to make friends with the tree roots, I turned it and it decided to head towards the middle of the lake, 'well at least it's in open water' I thought, a further 10mins of heated debate ensued which ended up with with a 15-20lber on the bank, hmmmm 2 pb's in one day I could get to like this carp fishing stuff.
Well I guess it goes to show that you don't alway's have to have the latest gear, cast towards the horizon, or even use fluro-pop-ups to get that one big fish. I must also get some scales then at least I'll have more of an idea of big the fish are. So don't neglect those margins !!!
Tight lines.