From Fishing Magic: We are delighted to have Atomic Tackle on board as sponsors of our new carp diary feature and every month we will have a blog from Rob Marsh looking back at his exploits during the previous four weeks – and with Rob’s habit of putting carp on the bank – that could be one busy feature! Rob will occasionally be joined by top carper Lee Merritt, another carp catching ‘machine’, but to start us off Rob is on his own and looking back at his September sessions.
August had been a really busy time for me. I had loads of different things going on with work and tutorials so I had been only doing a couple of overnighters a week on Brooklands Lake on the Medway Valley ticket.
I was nicking a few fish here and there fishing solid Grenade Bags at range and it didn’t take me long to notice that fish were regularly showing in an area of the lake that gets less attention from anglers – due to it being the only part of the lake you have to walk to the swims!
I had planned a weekend session and was surprised on arrival that although the lake was very busy, the swim I fancied was free. I had a great weekend’s sport, receiving eight takes and landing seven fish to 35lb 8oz which I was over the moon with but I knew that I had planned my new campaign to start at a Southern Park Lake in September so, despite the fish, I would have to put Brooklands on the backburner for now!
The Park Lake is around 13 acres and, as the name suggests, is set in a park – a country park to be precise. It can be very challenging due to the busy social side of things such as the hundreds of dogs running around loose, joggers, screaming kids and then, generally, the local nutters that patrol the lake.
You are probably asking yourself why I bother but when you see some of the carp swimming around the lake you will know why; it has a large head of 30lb plus fish and at the right time of year, early to late September, six to eight forties. Like any campaign you have to have a plan; September last year I had some success with large beds of bait, even on overnighters, so I thought this method would probably work again.
I planned to use Hinders Salamiz hemp in my spod mix with crushed hemp and Hinders Salamiz Multimix and with this Mainline New Grange boilies. Last year I had done well on large baits and these helped me to avoid the very large bream in the lake so I had ordered 100kg of 22mm baits.
Tackle-wise I chose my 13ft Hi S 3.5lb test rods which are a pleasure to play carp with and, although they can chuck a big pva bag, they are soft enough to play some of the hardest fighting carp I have ever fished for. My terminal tackle though was to be different from my solid bag approach on Brooklands and whilst looking around the Atomic Tackle factory I noticed some interesting leads; a new invention called bag leads.
These clever leads have a loop at the bottom of the lead to tie pva mesh bags to and used correctly this can give you a tangle proof system that casts well and gives perfect presentation.
So, my set up consisted of Atomic Tungsten tubing and the Bombz Away safety clip system with a 2.5oz bag lead. A ten inch hooklink of 25lb Jel-E-Wyre hooklink and a size 4 Haula hook fished with a large snowman presentation on a sliding ring.
Hookbaits were 22mm bottom baits soaked in Mainline New Grange dip with a 16mm orange fluoro pop up. I would make up some large sticks of the mix and tie directly to the bag lead and then simply nick the hook into the side of the bag.
During the week I had a walk around the lake with my dog just to get a feel for the lake; it was not that busy. After chatting to several anglers I discovered the lake had been fishing poorly so a lot of anglers had drifted off to other lakes!
My trip was planned for the weekend and I arrived at the lake at around 6pm on the Friday night. After a quick walk around and no signs of any fish I opted for a swim called The Highbank and I got the marker rod out and soon found a very nice smooth, silty area at around 60m range. I pulled the marker float down to the lead and then clipped up my marker rod and walked it out along the grass bank and then walked out my Free Spirit Spomb rod and clipped up at exactly the same distance.
I then repeated the process with my two fishing rods allowing a rod length extra to allow the rig to fall as I felt the lead down. This is important in deeper water and is something people forget to do and can mean you are fishing your baits well off the baited area! I mark my lines with No. 3 pole elastic the match men use: I find it is very visible, does not slip and is easy to remove without damaging the line. I got two rods positioned on the spot and then Spombed out 20 loads of mix with five boilies in each Spomb.
With the rods out and it getting dark the park was finally quiet, except for the hundreds of ducks and geese that spend their time at the lake. The night passed without any action and no signs of any fish; I kept one rod on the baited area and then roved a naked chod rig around the swim during the day. It was to no avail and although there were no signs of fish I decided to stay put and repeated the baiting the following evening. It was a beautiful evening and once again the park emptied, no more dogs running through rods or peeing up my bivvy…
Just before light my left hand rod was away and after a typically hard battle I slid the net under a Park Lake mirror. On the scales she went 21lb 12oz and saved me from a blank. After photos and a little bit of filming I slipped her back and as I walked back up the bank to my bivvy the other rod was away! After it found several weed beds I finally landed a cracking mirror which weighed in at 27lb 12oz so an excellent start to my campaign.
Wednesday night and I was back on the lake for an overnighter. The same swim, the same tactics and the same outcome! At first light two more cracking carp: 23lb 1oz and 33lb 8oz, quick photos and off to work.
The rest of the week I could not stop thinking about getting back. After sweet talking the Mrs I arranged a quick overnighter on Friday night but I would have to be home early to take my boy to football.
I arrived at the lake to find the swim I had received all my recent action taken the carp grapevine is always buzzing and word had clearly got out about my success so I decided to fish a couple of swims to the right in a swim called the Long Chuck.
I fished two spots, both at 60m range, into soft silt and put 20 Spombs of feed onto each spot. That night I got plagued by bream but I persisted, Spombing through the night, topping the swim up so when the carp moved in there would still be some bait present. The tactic paid off as yet again at first light I landed two cracking looking: mirrors 36lb 6oz and 28lb 1oz. I was buzzing and packing up was a breeze and I was soon back watching the boy play football.
Monday saw me at Linear Fisheries doing a charity event which was a great and over the next couple of weeks I managed four overnighters on the park, all ending in blanks and even with a lovely southerly wind the fish just did not turn up.
On my next visit I felt I really needed to find some fish so I had a good walk around, Adam was fishing in the shallows and had seen a couple of fish and this helped me narrow down my choices and I decided on two swims: either The Pissing Tree or The Scud. I sat in between both looking for any signs and when a carp leapt out in front of The Scud that was it, decision made.
I quickly got set up, one rod towards the island in a deeper channel, the other straight out in front with 20 Spombs on each rod just before dark.
After a couple of cups of tea I saw a good fish roll over my right hand rod. I got my head down but was woken at 2.30am by a very angry carp. I had to wade out to net the fish and it was a cracking mirror which went 29lb 1oz on the scales. I got some quick photos taken and slipped her back, the rod back out and back in the bag.
It was just getting light when I received my next take. After an awesome battle I landed another big mirror which went 38lb 3oz. I slipped her in the water in the recovery sling to sort out the camera when the other rod was away. After another epic battle I slid the net under another big mirror, this one went 41lb 6oz. As you can imagine I was buzzing!
I got photos and video of the bigger fish done and then heard a large splash by the sling. I released the forty and when I got to the other sling I found the 38lb carp had escaped; I was gutted as I did not know which fish it was but it was a very good session anyway.
I have been back to the lake on three more overnighters since that memorable session but to no avail.
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