new challenge

The New Challenge

Its been a long while since I have had any time to do a write up or go fishing. As I have been studying for my A levels and designing and copy writing the juggernaut barrow.

I dropped of Black Swan as the ticket was just too expensive for me this year. now the A levels are all out the way I can get back on the bank and attempt to catch some large carp.

I've been fishing a new water for two weeks, which I was told about by a few local anglers,

after doing a few laps of the lake I felt it would be my best bet at a price I can afford. I began to learn it was a fairly quiet water and around the 20 acres mark and fairly overgrown it felt like a ideal place to find some large carp.

The first 48hrs I done on the lake I had a gentle south-Westerly wind and after doing a few

laps I could see the fish were pretty much all around the lake, but I saw a shoal of around six fish ranging from lower double to high twenties so I edged my bets and set up in in front of them but had made a vital mistake not bringing any waders so it was a case of rolling up the trousers and walking out as the over hanging trees made it hard work to cast accurate let alone have any distance. When I first spotted the shoal of fish it was at the rough range of 30yrds so I fished two rods on singles as I didn’t want to plum about and spook any fish. When I cast out the rods I had felt two solid drops off a bar which I could see from climbing a tree, and fish were cruising near by so I felt confident. I fish slack lines and no back leads as the zebra mussels would be a cause for concern if the line was to rub on them. The third rod I felt I’d do something different so I was fishing a small 10mm Celtic bait pop up and use and solid bag and cast at range to open water. I was all set up and the fish began to show a little less as the light dropped, during the night I had two liners on the rods fishing the bar at 30yrds.

I set my alarm for first light to see if I could see any fish showing but nothing much this was probably due to the fact it was opening night and there was a lot of pressure on the water. Retreating back to bed I then woke up at 7 and the swim had gone dead as the temperatures soared to 27degrees so I decided to real in around 10am and see what the gossip was around the lake.

Around 12pm I returned to my swim after spotting a few fish cruising around the margins

in one of the snagie bays and with only two fish out that night things were not looking

amazing. After speaking to the anglers that caught they said they had them on particles, so

as I returned to the swim I picked up some zebra muscles in the margin and opened one

up and used it on the hair and solid bagged it out at range to showing fish.

Here is the rig I was using for my solid bagging, a size 6 kurve shank hook and then a

1.5oz lead onto a TFG clear leader.

The chosen hook bait was a zebra muscle fresh from the lake. 

Here is the finished item, a compact solid bag it was smaller than the lighter shown in the image and due to its aero dynamic shape it allows me to cast it large distances.

After preparing the rods and fishing slack lines again the swim was still looking rather quiet again but there were still fish showing at range and early the next morning I was lucky enough to have a run on the bag using a zebra muscle and landed the fish being excited for the first bite as the dark fish slipped over the cord of the net I got between look it was a really dark tench although it wasn’t what I was after it was more than welcome at 5lb 2oz. I then had work later that day so this was the end of my first 48hr on the new water and will keep everyone updated.