Traps set
November 1st and I had decided enough was enough. I have been fishing my syndicate for a number of years and have caught nearly all the fish in the lake apart from two and these two were the fish everyone wanted. So did my bait have to change, time i fish or my rigs etc…. I have never really targeted individual fish before so I was really looking forward to the challenge.
I decided on making my way to the lake on a Monday morning as I new it would be empty with no one fishing it so I could have a walk around and decide how I would tackle catching these two fish.
With alot of the fish having a smiler routine which consisted off patrolling the far margin and heading in and out of the tower. So fishing tight to the far margin was the norm and where alot off my fish were caught. I walked around to the tower and sat there for over 2 hours just watching and waiting for the target fish to arrive .
I have found Some fish have far more of a routine than others and can almost seem easy to target, falling foul to the same areas time and time again. If this is the case then great, it’s something I can work from and this will often lead you in the right direction. After another 20 minutes or so one of the targets turned up, and I was glued to her like sticky Blackpool rock. She swam in and out of the tower for around 5 minutes with out a trouble in the world. Then she did something different from the other carp, instead of swimming right or left of the tower tight to the margin and just of the tower she she swam out from the tower towards open water turned and swam back slowly diving down wards. She repeated this a couple times, each time on her own too.
My book was out and everything was recorded in it. WRITE ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING DOWN – I DON’T WANT TO FORGET A SINGLE PIECE OF INFO, YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU MIGHT NEED IT. I’ve had so many people laugh at me when recording things down. From the colour of my bait to how my line was lying in the water. The other thing i had noticed was that a lot of the fish I had caught were around the time of 8am to 11am then it would go really quite. So with this in mind I decide to fish from 12pm onwards and just bait up the morning, may be the target fish feed at different times.
So, a plan was hatched and all I had to do now was think about bait. My approach before was working fine. Bait up the night before with 50 boilies on each spot then the same again in the morning. I decided to keep to the same baiting pattern just for now and opted to change my hook bait.
A session was planned and the gear was sorted, but then I had the txt from a friend that you kinda dread but are happy at the same time too. “I’ve caught her”……… my heart sank and I had to ask the question of which fish it was. It seemed like a life time before he txt back. My phone binged and it was the moment of truth, it wasn’t either of the two. But still a very impressive common carp, half gold and silver which I had already caught.
I could once again breathe and focus on my session tomorrow. With my friend fishing the day before me I decided not put any bait in that night as I know he would top it up just before he leaves.
Morning had arrived my car was packed and all I had to now was work my morning shift and then it was straight to the lake. DONE and I was at the lake in no time. The lake was empty which put a little smile on my face and I slowly walked my gear to my peg. So with my new information I had occurred the other day I know where I would be placing my rigs, each one spread out about 3 metres apart on the route I seen it take.
My rigs – the rig I would be using on all three rods would be a hinged stiff rig fixed to a helicopter leader.
- Pb products Extra safe heli-chod readymade leader
- Pb products Jelly wire coated hook link
- Pb products chod mono hook link
- Pb products size 4 curved hook
- Downforce tungsten putty
- Easy on oval hook beads
- Hit and run flex speed swivel
I had decided to change my pop up as well from a light brown to a of white home made size 18mm spaze jam pop up.
All three rods were set up the same and were casted out into my new area 3 metres apart from each other. So the rods where out and it was time to get the bivvy up and make a coffee. Coffee drank and the sun was shining down which was keeping me warm as I stood there watching the waiting seagulls for me to pick up my throwing stick….. I started to walked back to my bivvy when my delkim let out a signal beep followed by a one toner. I pick up the rod and it doubled over and it started to take line. I was into the first carp of the session and it felt ok, not massive but half decent. It made a quick run to the right and then stayed heavy and deep looking for one of many snags. It moved and turned from right to left and slowly I started gaining line and it was making its way ever closer and closer to me. With the fish now right in front of me but still deep down I had her under control and was just waiting for her to rise up to see what carp it was.
Then I saw her,, I had one of the target fish thrashing around in front of me and I started to shake as I reached for my net. I lowered my net and for the first time of asking she went straight into the net.
She was mine. THE SCAR COMMON.
I couldn’t believe it, my first session of targeting her and I had caught her. I let out the biggest get in you could imagine
THE SCAR COMMON AT 23LBS
Part 2 coming soon
Elliott Laming
