28lb 5oz - First Carp 2013

With a slight change in the weather - temperatures not down to freezing every night and actually hitting highs of 8 degrees during the days, I decided to have a go on my local water for a bit of carp action. Pulling into the car park I think that everyone else had the same idea as was met by 6 cars. Having a look around I was quite glad to find that most people were only going to be doing the day and that everyone seemed to be fishing the shallower end of the lake. 

The lake is only 3-4 foot deep at best with a huge amount of silt, so I opted to fish right in the centre where the deeper water was and the least amount of lines.

Locating some harder patches of silt I positioned KD rigs with small white pop ups pinched with small shot to just hold the bottom. Both rigs were made with super natural straight through and a PVA golf ball of blitzed bread, salt and chilli flakes attached completed the traps.

 My fishing buddy Nigel joined me later in the afternoon and fishing alongside me as I was fishing a double swim and he also believed that fishing this deeper water was the right approach for this session.

I had two quick bream on the same rod and thought that this was going to continue as I had obviously hit a shoal but to my disbelief I had nothing for the rest of the night. Nigel had a few beeps but nothing else happened for the rest of the lake.

Waking up early I decided to recast and put a few balls of bread around my baited area to try and encourage some fish back in the swim. Straight away I got the bream feeding and was getting bite after bite.  5 bream had graced the net before Nigel greeted me with a cup of tea and the encouraging words of “you massive noddy, leave those slimers alone”!!!! 

I was quite happy with catching something rather than nothing and if the bream were feeding it might encourage competition between the carp and get them on the feed too.

I was on bream number 12 and it seemed as though I could carry on catching all day but we both had other commitments and so started to pack up. By 12 o’clock I was all packed up apart from the rods were still out and Nigel had convinced me that another cup of tea was due before we had to leave.

The tea was still brewing and my right hand rod bobbin pulled tight “bream on”, but as I walked over line started peeling away at a steady rate and I bent into my first carp, not only of the session but of 2013.

The fish hugged the bottom and plodded away, not really like the carp that I have previously caught from the lake that normally come to the surface quickly and bolt off every which way. 10 minutes in and I starting to think that it might be foul hooked but breaking the surface I could see that it was well hooked and one of the larger fish in the lake.

Nigel did the honour of netting the fish and slid the fish into the sling for weighing. Dropping the scales at 28lb 5oz it was a personal PB and the biggest fish out of the lake in a few years.

Completely over the moon and a great start of carp fishing in 2013. Just shows that catching the bream had encouraged some carp to start feeding alongside.

Tight lines and be lucky.