As the title suggests, success continued over the weekend at my local urban carp water! Sunday afternoon was yet again spent down the lake from 5pm until 9pm. The session was one of the most hectic I've had there to date! I arrived to find a fair amount of the swims free so opted to fish just to the left of the swim I had fished the prior night.
Rigs and baiting approach were kept the same with just hooks replaced with my hand sharpened curve shanks in a size 6.
The hookbaits being my trusty new Nutty Bait Wafters with the top cut off and a 'hat' orange pop up on top. The baits were poled out to the money spots with just a helping of bait in each cup. It was about half an hour before my first enquiry and a nice mirror of around 14lbs found the spreader block.
I rebaited the right hand rod and whilst talking to two mates I shipped the bait back into position.
As the pole was going out it started to curve in the middle as often happens past 35M. As I was pushing it into position a rather nice common rolled right next to the pole!
I turned the pole over to release the bait into the swim and clipped the bobbin onto the line. I then started to recover the pole. As I started the return process the bobbin on the recently positioned rod slammed to the top.....
Was I still attached to the rig somehow? I stopped retrieving. No, it's a take!!!! 10 seconds in the water and I'm into another fish already! Totally unreal fishing....A nice 19lb 14oz common banked! I got the rod back on the spot and returned to conversation with the guys only to have another take on the left hand rod minutes later and yet another nice common of just over 17lbs found the net.
I then had another run and that came off mid battle due to a poor hook hold. My next chance came around 15 minutes later on the right hand rod again and this time I netted one of the newest residents, a stunning zip linear of 14lbs!
I couldn't believe how well the session was going and I still had an hours fishing time left! I then lost another to a hook pull and then the left hand rod was away again with yet another common of 14lbs! Pics were taken, abuse given from 'friends' and she went back to fight another day. I thought the session couldn't honestly go much better when my final fish of the evening took off on the right hand rod.
The fight was spectacular and the fish ran me ragged around the swim for a good ten minutes before succumbing to the net. I lifted the mesh for a quick peak and was really surprised to see a rather large framed common! Another one of the A-listers, a fish known as the 'Tank' and for obvious reasons!
A proper chunky unit of a common! On the scales she went 25lb 2oz and my biggest from the venue to date! I ended the evening after that fish as I was due to get up at 5am to fish Grange Springs with Simon on Monday.
Mondays trip was to be honest pretty pathetic and more than disappointing in many ways. We were told on the phone that other anglers had swims booked and the owner would be there to make sure we chose the correct swims at 7am.
We arrived just before 7am and stood around till 7.50am awaiting her arrival.
I eventually rang the owner for some sort of conformation, only to be told we should have just gone down to fish! We chose two quiet pegs mid lake and set about tackling it with floats in the margin and feeders on a further out line.
We tried everything in the armoury only to catch a handful of very small rudd and perch and plagued by small bream to 2lbs. Most just ounces in weight! The fishing was incredibly slow all round the venue and echoed a previous trip I had paid to the venue last year. Needless to say we wont be going back and packed away at 2pm to head home.
As I came down the motorway I had a few hours still left in the day....Could I cram an hour in back at the urban club water to save the day? Yeah course I could! I drove past my junction of the M4 and continued the extra 10 miles to the venue.
On arrival it was pretty busy and just one spot amongst others was available. I dropped into the spot and proceeded to pole out 2 hook baits into rather tricky little spots with a bit of a side wind making things a bit tough.
It didn't matter though as within 20 minutes the first fish was banked....a stunning leather of 15lbs!
This was followed up with a fish that suffered a hook pull and then another common of 12lbs. Things went quiet for half an hour before another small fish of about 10lbs took the left hand hook bait. As the fish went back I had a take on the right hand rod and then landed a common of 18lb 12oz!
What a few days I had had there! A great response to my tactical approach and a proper rally of fish one after another. I packed away before dark and headed home to get ready for work on Tuesday morning.
