After landing almost all of my target fish in the lake I was on I decided to fish a new venue. With this in mind I did some research on a lake I knew held some decent fish, in fact I did lots of research.
I arrived at the day only venue with my long range gear. Now I'm not the best caster in the world but I can make 110 yards. I can fish comfortably to a spot at 100 yards and that was what was required at this venue.
There are lots of bream in this venue so I had only prepared boilies, no particle. I prepared 6kg of Rod Hutchinson's KMG and 2kg of Ballistic B. Glugged in their respective glugs and soaked in lake water on arrival.
On arrival I measured 100 yards on my distance sticks and put out 2kg of KMG with a few ballistic B mixed in for high vis. I then measured 100 yards on my two 3.5 TC Hutchy carp coupled with Daiwa emblem 5000t reels.
Knowing there was a lot of bream in this lake I decided my hookbaits were going to be KMG pop ups, I really rate KMG. They were attached to Scorpion curved hooks on a Ronnie rig.
After about an hour my left hand rod flew off. After a good fight a lean fit mid double common slid into the net. I then continued to catch through the day resulting in 6 x mid to high doubles to 17lb and two lovely mid twenty scaley mirrors of 25.04 and 25.00. One of the 25's came as part of a double take.
All in all 8 good carp in 8 hours. I'll take that !! 🙂
So, with day 1 over what can I say, I am blown away. The bait worked well and the Scorpion Curved hooks performed perfectly!
Day 2
My alarm clock sounded at 6am to tell me it was time to get up for day two on the big water. The morning was really cold and the forecast was bright and sunny, not ideal conditions but you can't choose your days off when you work for a living.
After the hour long journey I arrived and was fortunate to get the swim I had yesterday. My spod rod was already set at 100 yards so I delivered 2kg of KMG and Ballistic B boilies at 100 yards to a chosen tree line marker.
The KMG boilies had been glugged in KMG liquid carp food overnight and had been soaking in some lake water too. This really softens up the bait and releases the pungent smell and flavours of the KMG, I did the same with the Ballistic B.
I put two pop up baits on Ronnie rigs tied using Scorpion curved size 6 hooks and sent thm the 100 yards landing bang on the spot.
After about an hour I had a lovely 18lb common which was a great start. Then I had a bite from something a bit special. The fight at 100 yards was deep, heavy and slow, I knew I was playing something special, we have all had that feling, those deep, slow lunges. After what felt like a lifetime, my arms aching, I landed a brute of a carp. A thick set 27lb linear mirror which gave me a real hard time.
As the day went on the sun was beating down but I eventually hooked and landed a lovely scaley mirror of 26lb which was a very long fish with a massive tail. A couple more doubles followed and very late in the afternoon I had a screamer of a bite resulting in again a slow long fight, finally a lovely golden common hit the spreadr block of my landing net. On the scales she pulled the needle round to just over 26lb.
This was certainly a session to remember, a perfect days carping.
Day 3
My alarm went off again at 0545 to signal it was time for day 3 and the final day on the big water. I was quite tired from the two previous early starts, the long range spodding and the hot sun but I got showered and headed off to the water.
The forecast was another hot day with clear sunny skies, once again not really good weather for carp fishing. So given I was on a high from the two previous days and I felt I had already more than achieved what I set out to do I decided to make some changes. Be creative, take a risk and think outside the box.
On my arrival I was fortunate enough to get the same swim again. This time instead of spodding out 2kg of boilies I decided on a more radical move. I spodded out 4kg of mixed spod containing The Force, KMG and Ballistic B boilies. All had been prepared in their respective liquid carp food and soaked in lake water. The spod mix also contained hutchy chilli hemp, molasses, hemp oil, maize and a few other bits, it was a right smelly concoction. I thought, "Thats Carpy". What I wanted to achieve was draw them in to feed even if the conditions weren't perfect. The risk factor was that I might also attract lots of bream.
After the spods hitting the water I had two quick fire bites about an hour later. A hard fighting 12lb common followed by a magnificent 24.08 common.
KMG pop ups doing the business again to scorpion curved size 6 hooks on Ronnie rigs.
Then the sun rose on a scorching day the whole lake switched off. No one caught all day.
Then at 5pm a carp showed on the baited area. I had only finished re spodding the area about an hour before. This gave me real confidence. Then I had a drop back on my right hand rod and struck into a heavy carp at range. After an epic battle a lovely 23lb 4oz common was landed. I was well pleased.
To sum up the last three days, using my long range tactics I had landed some 17 carp including 7 twenties, 5 of which were over 25lb. To say I was pleased would be an understatement!