Click images above to enlarge
As an all-rounder it will soon be time to say good-bye to
certain species, as the onset of winter means that others will be coming to the
fore. So with that in mind I wanted to get out and do a few carp sessions
before the water temperatures start to fall. Doing an overnighter on trip one,
I headed for a lake hoping to persuade some of the inhabitants to join me for a
photo session. It was a lovely evening as I set up my gear and I almost stayed
in my polo shirt right through till morning. I say almost because I did put my
fleece on once the sun set.
I go through my bait approach in the accompanying video so there’s no need to repeat
myself here. Fishing at about 50 metres I sat back and waited. That sums up
this type of fishing. Whilst other times I may be re-casting, putting out bait
or whatever, this time once the trap was laid and I was happy with the
positioning of the baits, the waiting game began. I can only do that though
once I know everything is as it should be. If I’m not 100% at peace with
anything then I will put that right. Once I do then I am confident and
expectant.
As the sun set I observed three creatures of the night: common pipistrelle bats,
white-clawed crayfish and brown rats. The latter are part and parcel of the
night angler’s life really, there’s nothing you can do about them unless you
take a dog with you to keep them away. As you can see from the video I managed
to capture some footage of the crayfish in the shallow, crystal clear margins.
Our native species, they are quite rare, and so consequently are highly
protected. I filmed them in their natural environment for a few seconds and
then left them alone.
Also in the video you can see some amazing film of an adult and juvenile great
crested grebe. The adult bird brought a fish to the younger one, who really
struggled to get it down as it was so big. Working on a ‘waste-not-want-not’
basis, the adult grebe then downed the fish itself. As you can see, it went in
one. As a lover of British wildlife, I really enjoy watching stuff like this. I
don’t for one moment think ‘That’s my fish you’re eating’. I know what many
anglers think of cormorants and otters but in reality they aren’t the only ones
gobbling up the fish. The problem is of course the quantity that they eat, or
in the case of the otter, the quality as it can easily polish off a specimen
fish.
Birds like grebes and kingfishers have been around on our waterways for years and
there’s a natural balance. So although I may not have the same feelings of
animosity towards the two previously mentioned invaders, I can certainly see
where other anglers are coming from. I suppose I just see the big picture
that’s all. I can understand all sides of the argument. The other nature clip
in my video is totally non-controversial – a shot of a water mint in flower
that I spotted growing by the side of the lake.
Back to the fishing though, and as the sun set I was hopeful. However, there wasn’t
much in the way of fish activity. Apart from one reasonable fish that crashed a
few pegs away, the only breaking of the surface was done by small fish as in
roach or rudd. But although the external signs of carp were minimal I was
confident that there would be some action beneath the surface. Hence when my
lobworm boilie rod came alive at 5.30am I wasn’t shocked or surprised. I lifted
into the fish and began the process of drawing it in to the waiting landing
net.
That’s the fish in photo 1 above. It proved to be the only one of the session which
again highlights the thin line between ‘success’ and ‘failure’. I have lost
count of the great sessions I have had where it was just one fish that made
them so. That’s the reality of specimen angling really, you are by nature
targeting a tiny percentage of the fish present in any venue. And that’s why
it’s great when it all comes together. Session two saw me heading for a venue
where the carp truly are elusive – the Staffs/Worcs Canal.
Arriving at dusk I baited up with a small amount of Nitro Mix and because I was throwing
it underarm and just a few metres, I mixed it quite sloppy so that it fell over
a wider area as opposed to the hard balls of session one that plummeted to the
bed of the lake in seconds. On one spot I fished a 12mm M1 pop-up over boilies
and CSL pellets and on the other 14mm Phaze boilie over Phaze pellets and
boilies. Although the stretch I fished has a very low head of carp I was
confident of a fish. And a couple of hours into dark as I had two bream on the
Phaze boilie I knew that the fish had moved in.
A carp wouldn’t be far behind. Instead the surface of the canal was broken only
by a boat racing along with a lighting display that wouldn’t have been out of
place at Blackpool illuminations. Needless to say it killed the swim and
although I carried on until midnight, the rest of the evening was as dead as
can be. My next two sessions were also on the canal and although I didn’t blank
I failed to connect with any carp. But often I’m fishing swims where I don’t
even know if there are carp in front of me or not. Some anglers may think
that’s an odd thing to do, but I’m not saying I go to places to carp fish where
they simply aren’t there. That would be daft. I don’t know if they are present,
that’s the difference. They might be. Or they might not. But pioneering over
the years has thrown up some real gems for me.
I did catch bream though and that’s one in photo 2 that I had just taken from the
water, with the M2 boilie still intact. The funny thing was I caught on just
Phaze or just M2, there were no mixing of baits during the individual session.
Nature-wide the trips to the canal were highlighted by hundreds of noisy
corvids passing over at dusk as they made their way to a nearby roost. There
were also several common pipistrelle bats feeding, in flight at the same time
as the birds. I also noticed movement in the grass which led me to the
discovery of a tiny common frog (photo 3). I sat him on my chair, took a quick
photograph and then released him.
The highlight of my next session was also wildlife, as a carp blank was compensated
by numerous white-clawed crayfish feeding in the margins. This was an into-dark
visit to the lake that I fished at the head of the article. My fish so far have
all come early hours and beyond, so there till only 10.30pm didn’t put me in
prime feeding spell. But you don’t catch sitting at home, and if that’s the
only available time for you to get out then you take it. I dropped a broken
boilie in the margins and it was fascinating watching the crayfish feeding. At
one stage I had 23 of them in area the size of a dustbin lid.
With my carp head well and truly fixed I decided to round the week off by heading
for a venue on the Kinver Freeliners ticket, Seggy Pool. With no night fishing
on this particular place, I had an afternoon. I’ve only fished it once before
when I gave it a go for perch. On that occasion I did catch a double-figure
carp and have been wanting to get back and target the species specifically.
It’s a shallow lake and pretty standard so with a lot of fish present of all
species I used a lot more bait than I normally do. The plan was quite simple –
draw the fish in and keep them feeding. I fished two spots, both around 2.5
lengths out. I didn’t want to fish too close in to spook them every time I moved
but not too far out as that was unnecessary. As I was laying the buffet table
it was up to me where it went.
I put out regular balls of nitro method vitaflake mix in both spots; this was the
bait foundation. Then as I was fishing a Phaze 14mm boilie on the left rod I
added Phaze pellets and boilies to that area. The right rod was a 14mm lobworm
pop-up and so along with the pellets went some loose boilies. The pellet mix I
fished was a new one (for me) – multimix proactive. Made up of CSL, hemp,
betain, spicy red along with standard pellets, that’s a pretty impressive mix
if you ask me. And it certainly worked as a number of carp made their way to
the bank. That’s a couple of them in the final photographs above. I really
enjoyed my day and I think for my next carp Angling Journal entry I will do the
video part at Seggy. It’s a lovely place and will make for an entertaining 10
minutes or so.