A cheeky common!

 Hi all! Well, yet another week of un-summery conditions for the best part and then the weekend arrived and it steadily got worse! I was on lates this week so fishing after work had to take a back seat till today (Sunday). So last weekend I was on the back of feeling very poorly with Covid symptoms albeit did a negative test and didn't feel well enough to leave the house until Sunday. I'd been looking for many years at some little pools not far from my house on google maps and wondered if any of them were at all accessible or even contained fish at all? 

We'll after some debate and a bit of info from a friend, I ventured down for a little look at one of these said pools. On arrival it became apparent that the place had literally been left to its own devices for many many years! Over grown, razor wire everywhere and broken gates. No no fishing signs or private land etc signs visible though which filled me with some hope. It was a bit of a trek from the car to the lake and I knew it was going to be a case of fishing very light if I was going to chance a go on there. It took me half an hour of crashing through mud, bushes and undergrowth before I finally found the pond. What a pretty little lake it was too.... but was there anything in there? I sat in a couple of spots for about 2 hours and saw absolutely nothing! 

Sod it! I walked back to the car and drove home to get my kit. I grabbed just essential bits in a rucksack and a couple of 10ft Scopes, net, mat and some bait. Off I went and just over an hour later at 6pm I was setting up very quietly in the corner of the pool out the was and unseen. 

I set up 3 rods with very basic blow back rigs on and a small PVA bag of pellets and broken boilies in and put them around the swim, taking advantage of a lovely looking nearside over hanging bush to my left. 

I sat for about an hour watching the lake, seeing no life whatsoever.....Was there a fish of any kind in there or not? I was questioning my sanity when all of a sudden the left hand rod to the bush let out a double bleep. I sat patiently and watched the bobbing gently fall towards the floor as the Siren gave out a further 2 more bleeps. The lead had moved so I felt I needed to strike....

Well, it turns out there are fish in there as all of a sudden I was attached to a very leary fish that held deep and headed out towards the centre of the lake. The fight was utterly epic! This thing was on bloody steroids! It was honestly one of the hardest fighting carp I've caught to date! What a scrap! Around 10 minutes passed before I finally slipped the net under a fantastic, seriously long common of 17lb 2oz! This thing had the length of a very big fish but felt hollow, which was obviously down to it's life of feeding on naturals. I was really surprised the fish had responded to a boilie and pellet approach but clearly it was very hungry! 

I got some pics of the fish and slipped it back to it's very deep hole. I popped another rig out and pinched myself on finding a virgin pond with some carp in it that had clearly never been caught! Time passed by and the light started to fade away. I started to pack my kit up when the left hand rod was once again doing the drop back! I struck into a solid resistance same as before and yet another very hard fighting fish bent the rod double. The fight was unfortunately very short as I suffered a hook pull just a minute or so in. 

I packed up and headed for home feeling very pleased with the results of just 3 hours down there. I will be back soon.....Back to this weekend and with just a short afternoon session to utilise, I decided to get back down my local urban club lake for a few hours. I've still got 4 left in there to catch and today felt like it was the day for one of them to fall foul! I dropped in a peg above my buddy Tom who had had a couple of nice fish in the morning and by 1.30pm I had a rod positioned tight up against the far bank under some over hanging trees. Using the pole at 40M to my advantage and placing the rig, 3oz lead and a good helping of Infusion boilies, pellets and Mulberry particle coated in Salmon Oil into the swim quietly. 

I dropped said rig into a place and retrieved the pole to set up rod no 2. I was just putting a boilie on the hair when off went the first rod. An absolute belter of a take. All the stuff went flying off my lap and I lent into a nice double figure common. A great start....I then got the other rod out only to have the exact same thing happen with that one! I couldn't get both rods out at the same time! This went on most of the afternoon with 12 takes occurring and landing 10 of them! A couple of rather chunky commons and mid shift on the left hand rod I had an absolute screamer of a take! I lent into what felt like a much better fish. It felt slower and heavier than all the other fish of the day so far. 

The battle ensued for about 10 minutes before I finally netted  very nice looking leather carp. Could it be one of the four I was after? Surely not! I got the scales set and camera and mat at the ready. I reached into the net to unhook her and as I moved the net mesh aside I caught a glimpse of the fish. I was sure it was 'Angel'. One of the final four! I was so excited!!!! Unhooked, I moved her over to the mat for weighing and pics. She went 20lb 5oz and after looking through some online pics, I realised it was Angel! What a result......Just 3 to go now then and then I can move on to fresh new pastures! This week is early shifts so I may pop down to the secret pond for a few hours post work.