I have always been told through my life that I seen to carry a fair amount of luck. Im not sure this is true however the story below is one which may add fuel to such comments.

After a year of not fishing much at all in suddenly got the bug back for some action, I only had a day a week for a month to go before other commitments would end my rekindled enthusiasm.

The time of year was late October and with such limited time I didn’t really see the point of heading to a hard lake in search of some big girls. So for the first few days I had available I headed across the border to the dark side and fished at Weybread fisheries. This is a super little water and I soon had a bend in my rod.

The two sessions I did on the place resulted in 17 carp and 10 of these being doubles. However not that I am complaining but I was craving something bigger, as I said I had done much fishing that year and really wanted something above 20lbs under my belt. after the second session on Weybread I decided to head down up to Taswood lakes.

I’ve heard so much about this complex over the years, and although I live 12 miles away I had never even seen the place!! On my arrival I was pleasantly pleased with what I saw, the lakes looked well kept and to my delight were almost completely empty, just what I like.

I had decided from what I had heard about the complex that Heron lake would probably be the best for me. The lake contains a very large head of carp for such a small amount of water, many of which are around the 30lb mark. However after a good look round the lake I was completely uninspired. The lake looked dead, nothing was moving. Time for a rethink. Up the path I went and there was Broadwing lake, the jewel in the crown of the complex. Straight away it looked so much more appealing, its without doubt one of the best lakes I’ve seen. It just looked like it was prime for the taking. After a good look round I stumbled across a group of around 10 fish holed up tight to a water inlet. They were actually cruising on the surface, and the date was 3rd of November!!

I couldn’t fish for the next couple of days so I decided to foil a plan. I went back to the car and made up about 40 grounbaits sticks with a piece of pepperami at each end. These were then baited into the spot along with about another 3 pepperami chopped up. I then did the same the following day, the fish were still about and looked like they were responding to the bait, I had to fish, and soon.

I went home and un arranged everything I had to do the next day, there was no way I wasn’t fishing. Taswood has a rule that day ticket anglers cannot enter the site until 7am, however season ticket anglers can come as they please. I got to the lake at around 6.00am as to beat all the other day tickets, but in the time I was there 4 season ticket anglers went passed and proceeded down to the lake. I crossed my fingers and preyed they wouldn’t jump into my swim, I just had a feeling that something special was going to happen that day. 6.45am came and I was let in early, I think the owner could see how keen I was to get there. Maybe it was the bald patch I had now acquired after pulling large chunks of my hair out after each season ticket angler strolled on by me that gave it away.

As soon as I was let in I was like a greyhound chasing a rabbit, I drove to the top car park and could see that all the cars were parked here, this meant that all the anglers had to be on Heron or Broadwing. I grabbed my water bottle and ran past Heron and onto Broadwing, the trees obscured my view so I just kept running. Finally I came round the last corner, and to my utter delight the swim was free. In fact the whole lake was, those carp didn’t stand a chance now!!

Off back to the car park with my swim saver in place, collected the gear and got set up.

Once set up I walked back to the spot where I had seen the fish over the last two days. They were still there, nice one. I trickled a little hemp onto their heads to semi spook them, the idea being that they would drift of the spots for enough time to let me cast and bait up.

Once the baiting up had taken place it was time to cast. The problem was the cast was a very tight one, and the 20mph+ wind didn’t help matters either. Anyone who has fished Broadwing will know where I am talking about and how tight it is. I needed to be as close to the lilies as I could. Anyway to cut a long story short, about 20 casts and 2 sets of end tackle later I was in place. I decided after all the commotion that one rod in the area would have to do, I couldn’t afford anymore disturbance.

It was now sitting on my hands time, I wasn’t sure if id blown my chance with all the disturbance I had caused, however it was too late now. Over the next 4 hours fish were showing them selves everywhere aprt from the spot I was fishing. There was no way I was moving the rod now though as the wind had picked up and I felt I would never get it back in there again.

My decision was rewarded at 12.00 noon, I had a drop back. I hit the rod staright away although I felt no resistance, for that split second I thought I had blown my chance. But I hadn’t, after some frantic winding I felt the comforting thud of a carp on the other end of my line, game on!!

The fish didn’t do much at distance, it just came straight in. once under the tips it wouldn’t give up, my heart was in my mouth the whole time as I hadn’t used a barbless hook for years and I have no faith in them.

The hook held though and after a 10minute spirited fight a good common slid over the net. At first glance I thought it was a good 20, maybe around 25lb so I was over the moon. I set about getting everything reading for the beaching. Once I was sorted I lifted the fish out and straight away realised that I had misjudged the weight, there was no way this fish was a mid twenty. It was without a doubt a thirty, and a decent one at that.

Trio with a 32lb 5oz Common, Taswood Lakes

The old knees started to shake as I arranged my gear to weigh the fish, and what a stunning fish it was. Absolutely immaculate, scale perfect and it had a beautiful colour to it too. On the scales the fish easily passed 30lb and cruised past my old pb of 30lb 8oz. After a while I managed to stop shaking enough to finally settle on a weight of 32lb 5oz, I was gob smacked.

Taswood lakes don’t allow you to sack carp but after a polite phone call to the owner he allowed me to hold it in the net for photos to be taken. There was only one person I was going to phone for the photo shot, the original Essex boy Basil, top man with a camera.

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur, basil came down and took some ace photos as usual.. I then fished for a while before heading to basils to collect the photos. On arrival, to my delight, the boy had been shopping, pizza and several bottles of red capped a brilliant day, cheers Basil.

So maybe I am a lucky boy, but I like to think that some people just have it!!

Grass Carp Facts

(Ctenopharyngodon idella)

Grass carp are a large member of the minnow family and are related to common carp and goldfish. However, their appearance is quite unlike other carp, aside from their large scales. Grass carp are generally a dark colour on the back that ranges from gray to green, dark olive, golden brown or bronze. The colour fades to a light brown-yellow or silver on the side before becoming white on the belly. Fins are clear to dark in colour.

They have a long, torpedo shaped body that resembles that of the chub, only much larger. The body is covered with large scales, of which 40 to 42 make up the lateral line. The upper-side scales have a dark fringe and black spot that often give the grass carp a checkered look.

Grass carp have a broad, rounded head with a short snout
Compared with other carp, the large eyes are set relatively low on the head. The mouth is located at the end of the head and has thin, rounded lips. Their mouths are clearly smaller than those of other carp. For easy identification purposes, grass carp do not have the barbels found around the mouths of other carp.

The common name of the grass carp is "white amur", which comes from the Amur River in Asia, where it is believed that grass carp originated from.
Because of their unique spawning habitat requirements, grass carp can only spawn naturally in few areas outside their native range. As a result, where they have been introduced, stocking programs are critical to maintaining their numbers.

They were first exported out of Asia in an effort to exploit their feeding habits for weed control purposes in selected waters.

Grass carp are exclusively a freshwater species that inhabits primarily temperate lakes, ponds, and large river backwater areas. They prefer areas with slow current or standing water that is teeming with vegetation.

They are very adaptable and can endure variations in temperature, salinity and low oxygen levels. In relation to water temperature, they are known to be able to adapt to water ranging from 32 to 100 F.

Grass carp are very particular about their spawning areas and habits. The eggs of the grass carp are heavier than water and thus require a relatively strong current in order to hatch. As a result, they are unable to spawn in lakes, ponds, and even many of the rivers in which they are introduced.

Grass carp are almost exclusively vegetarian. As a result of this vegetarian nature, they almost never compete with popular game fish or commercial fish for food sources.

Their name comes from their almost exclusive diet of aquatic grasses and weeds. Occasionally they will eat small insects, and invertebrates. Grass carp are capable of eating several times their own weight in vegetation each day.

Those who fish for grass carp are generally rewarded because they are strong fish that can put up quite a fight. They are even known to occasionally jump when hooked, make repeated runs and seem willing to do whatever they can muster to prevent being landed. Fishing methods are similar to those used for any carp.

Spodding Doesn't Work - A Session on Sandhurst Lake - by Nathan "Bumpy" Highly

Bumpy with a 27lb 10oz Sandhurst Common

It was roughly 9 years ago that I last fished over at Sandhurst lake in Yateley, It's a lovely pit of about 11 acres or so. Average depth is around 4 foot going down to about 9 foot at the deepest. When I last fished over there 9 years ago it was nicely weeded in most places giving the fish plenty of cover, I really loved the place.

When Kishy decided he was going to hold his stag weekend on there I just had to jump at the chance of fishing it again. So I arranged to go down a couple of days earlier on the Wednesday with Basil to try and get a rough idea where I wanted to be on the weekend.

I arranged to meet Basil at Yateley Angling Centre on the Wednesday at around lunch time to get our tickets and any last minute pieces of tackle. After meeting up and getting everything sorted we set off for the lake at around 2ish in the afternoon. On arriving at Sandhurst we were gutted to see how many cars were in the car park, it was rammed! We spent the next couple of hours walking round the lake to try and see if we could spot anything. On walking round we could see only 5-6 pegs were free.

Another mint common at 25lb 8oz

We decided on pegs 13 and 14 with me going in 13 and Basil in 14, these two swims had quite allot of water in front of them compared to the rest of the free swims, so was a obvious first choice. After getting all the gear in the swim I got out the marker and had a feel about. The first thing that shocked me when having a feel through the swim was the lack of weed, in fact I couldn't find anything but gravel. Apparently they had treated the weed about 2-3 years ago due to people complaining about it. Anyway I continued to have a feel about to try and find something. I finally found a small silt patch at about 80 yards out that I could just fit 3 rods onto. Now going from past experience on here they love their bait, I used to catch on maize over hemp and groats. So I'd prepared 15 kilos of hemp and 7 kilos of groats ready for the session. I mixed up roughly 4 kilos of hemp, 1 kilo of groats, a tin of sweetcorn and put in about a quarter of a bottle of hemp oil. For the next half an hour I spodded that lot out and proceeded to cover myself and bivvy in a nice creamy juice...

Rig wise I kept it very simple, 1 metre of leadcore, lead-clip, 10 inches of ESP Stripteaze, Kamazan carp maxx size 7 and a small piece of silicone to create a blow-back effect and to keep the bait in place. On the hair I put on two yellow bastards(fake corn) soaked in a special dip, 1 bottom and 1 pop-up to create a wafting bait.

A clonking 31lb 4oz common to Bumpy

I got all the rods out onto the spot by about 9ish that night, it was then time for pizza and a couple of beers. Me and Basil both hit the sack at about 12ish and set the alarm clock early as we knew a lot of people were going, so if we had no action through the night could move if we wanted to. I woke up at about 5ish and took Basil round the usual cup of tea. At about 7 that morning I had an absolute one toner and on lifting into it I couldn't believe how hard it was fighting, it was heading towards the island so I had to put some pressure on to try and turn it, as soon as I did the hook pulled, I was proper gutted. I put the kettle back on and rolled up a smoke to calm down a bit. I got the rod back out at about 9ish as I thought recasting it straight away may disturb the area if the fish were there. I received another screamer at about 10am, this one did the same as the last and I had to put a lot of pressure on it to try and turn it again. Fortunately it turned and I had it coming in, the fight was a real good one with it going on long runs as the water is so shallow. After about 15 minutes I finally got it into the net, up on the scales it went 27lb 10oz (first photo), a real nice common and a great way to start the session. I received another 2 takes on that Thursday resulting in a scaly 17+ and another one lost.

25lb 12oz Sandhurst Common Carp

I brought the rods in for a couple of hours that evening to go and have some dinner and a couple of beers with Basil as he had moved swims. I got back to my swim at about 5ish and put another 5 kilos of spod mix out. By 7pm that night I had all the rods back out onto the spot and settled down with a smoke and a beer. A chap came in next door to set up for the night. I went round for a chat as you do, just being polite and he preceded to tell me I'd "ruined everyone's chances of catching as I'd been spodding". I laughed it off and went back to my swim to settle down for the night. Well throughout the night the chap next door turned out to be my photographer! By 5am I'd had another four fish and lost three, he apologised for being a bit rude the evening before and wanted to know what I was using etc, (they do make you laugh). The highlight of the four fish was a stunning 30lb+ common at 4 that morning, as you can imagine I really was on a high now.

Everybody was due down to fish the stag weekend at about 15:00 and we were drawing for swims at 4pm. I obviously knew where I wanted to be, so hopefully lady luck would be on my side and I was hoping for a good draw. The draw couldn't of gone better and I came out 3rd, so obviously opted to go back into peg 13.

On getting back to the swim I put out about 5 kilos of spod mix again and got the rods out by 6pm. AJB was set up next door in peg 12 so I went round his swim to nick his beer and get him to cook some dinner as you do, I hit the sack at about 1am that morning.

View a video featuring Bumpy's captures from Sandhurst Lake

I was woken up at 4am to a Nev screaming out, after hooking into the fish it went on a long run. I was shouting to Andy to say it was going to take out his rods but I got no reply, I kept the pressure on but the fish was down the margins and knew that it would take out one of Andy's rods soon. About 30 seconds later I heard Andy's alarm going and knew I had crossed him, He didn't wake straight away and his alarm must of gone for about 10 seconds before he got up (That lad could sleep through anything lol), anyway after shouting to him that it was me he dipped his rods and about a minute later the fish freed itself from his lines. I had it plodding up and down the margins for another 5 minutes before going into the net. On looking down into the mesh I could see it was another good fish. On the scales it went 33+, a real fat common and one of the known ones, I was really buzzing now.

I had another one that morning, a stunning 25+ common and also had another one in the afternoon, a 24+ mirror and that turned out to be my last one of a fantastic session. I celebrated with Andy that night as you would do and packed up the next day a very happy angler.

Well what a week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a three hour drive down to Linear Fisheries, Oxford, we were well happy, when we found there were swims available on St Johns lake.

As we had squashed all our gear into one car we did not have a trolley (bad move). we had to carry all our gear to the other side of the lake!!! (Gas bottle, sacks of hemp, beer, sacks of pellets and all the rest of the gear)

As the swim was all set up we began to bait up the water, spodding out to a gravel bar at 80 yards with hemp, pellet and boilies with a few maggots thrown in.

We were now ready to catch so we settled down with a few beers and a cheeky T-bone for dinner!

Feeling confident as we had good swims and big fish had been visiting the bank from our swims, I had the first run that evening feeling rather exited on the first run i struck into it and landed a 8-9 lb tench, not what we were looking for but it was a confidence boost, fish were feeding out there!!!!!

No more runs that night and no sign of any fish near us. After a few more beers and more luxury fayre, the next night came and went, no more fish ?? On the third day we decided we would have a walk up to the shallow end of the lake, on our arrival we found fish were topping and one guy landed a nice mirror while we were there. We thought that a move was on the cards and when one of the other anglers told us that all the fish were at this end of the lake we decided it was definitely time for a move.

The only trouble being we had to carry all that bloody gear again, so off we went!!!!!!

On arrival in our new swims we got baited up and started again, feeling a lot more confident with fish topping all over the place.

After this move the rest is history, we had some great fish between us all, starting with Bumpy if i remember. I managed to catch 20lb m,13lb m,17lb m,25lb 12 m and the fish of the week, the long common at 37lb 4oz.
Paul Marsden

I have had my sights on a stunning common in a Norfolk stillwater for over 3 years now, it's just one of those fish I had to have my name on.

I knew that she normally came out at the end of February, so a phone call was made to Bob the fishery manager and a 4 night session was planned on the 20th February 2008.

I set the alarm for 02:30 on the Wednesday, I got up had a coffee and a fag, got the car loaded and headed off on my journey at 03:00.

After a lovely three and half drive round the M25 and M11 (NOT), I finally arrived at the lake at around 06:40. Scottee was already set up in the Beach, so a quick chat, cuppa and another fag was in order.

Scottee had lost one on the Tuesday night so at least the fish were moving. I got all sorted and set up for about 8ish in the snags. In front I had a gravel bar running across the swim at about 15 yards. The first rod was put on the bar, the second was just behind it in the silt and the third was about 5 yards past it in deeper silt. I put around a kilo of boilies over all rods and sat back and chilled out with a cuppa and a fag.

During the day I had a couple of liners but nothing else. The night produced a few more liners with some being really savage and making me get out of the bag to take a closer look.

I decided to leave the rods in position till the second afternoon as I had loads of liners throughout the night and morning and didn't want to upset the swim, as there was obviously fish mooching about. I redone the rods at about 3 in the afternoon, all 3 went back out but half a rod length shorter to try and pick one of the fish up that had given me the liners. I decided to put another kilo of boilie out for the night as the rods were staying out again for another 24 hours.

Throughout the night I only received two liners and was a tad disappointed not to receive any action. My brother turned up that morning at 07:00 as he was joining me and Scottee for two nights. I got the kettle on and made me and him a brew, rolled a fag a sat talking to him about all the liners I had been getting but no takes. I think the time was about 07:30 when the middle Delkim absolutely melted away. I was on the rod in a flash and pulled into whatever was on the other end. The fight was very strong and from a minute into the fight knew that it was a good fish that didn't want to come up. I didn't see the fish for the first 10 minutes as it held deep, then I got a glimpse of a golden tail. It was another 5 minutes before she came up and took her first gulp of air, she had one more try of getting away but knew she was defeated and rolled on the surface and went into the net first time.

Scottee, Bob (Cobbleacre Fishery Manager), and my brother were on hand to take control, we though it may be a fish called cartoon at first, but on looking didn't have the googly eye's of cartoon. There was only one other fish it could be. My dream, my goal, a fish that I had wanted so much for 3 years lay in the bottom of my net. We soon had her up on the scales and the Reuben's shot past 30 and settled on 35-08, what a fish and a dream of mine had come true. I had another two fish as well the next day, first one being 19-12 and the second 20-04.

Cheers Scottee, Bob, and Adam for all your help with the photos and calming me down lol...

That night I had my first taste of Magners cider and boy did it go down well, the next morning I had a bit of a headache from the night before, but that fish just needed to be celebrated in style.
All the best
Nathan

Back in 2005 I found myself redundant and with a bit of cash in the bank I found myself driving to Cambridgeshire to look at a weedy, noisy lake that ran about 40 yards from the A14… Yes I know. Hardly the overgrown, peaceful surroundings that most of us crave when looking for a water to spend most of the spring fishing.

But after finding out there were four 40lb+ (Mr Grey, The Simmo, The Common and the only foreigner in the lake, the big girl who was named The Sheriff) carp swimming around in there and with the job centre off my back for another week or so. I went for a snout about..

The lake itself is a bit barren and although well stocked it is by know means easy. I had fished and really enjoy fishing weedy waters, but even I was surprised by how weedy it was. The margins were covered in kelp weed (the light coloured, candy floss stuff) and 3 foot out it was caked in the Canadian stuff.. The shallows were 6ft deep and it rose to the top and at the deeper end it was 18ft deep and yep the weed was 16ft deep.

I saw a couple show and saw one on the bank a 25lb mirror. I watched while the bloke re-did the rod and while chatting to him noticed he just drove his boat out and dropped it half way. The only baits that were allowed were boilies, pellet, ground bait and maggot. Things like hemp and sweetcorn were banned, but after chatting to the bailiff and seeing the photos I paid my money and as I left said ill see him next week to “have em”, laughing he replied with “that’s what they all say”..

Well 2 days later and 36 hours spent in the kitchen painfully rolling 12mm and 16mm matrix. I was burning the tyres of my champagne super nova (my very old Vauxhall Nova) heading for Cambridgeshire.

After a good look round I settled into a swim known as “The Board”, two casts with the marker rod saw that launched into the bushes behind me. A quick lead about I had three baits with two crumbed baits in a PVA bag chucked out onto three clearer spots. Beer open and fag rolled I turned round to give every car and lorry driver behind me stuck in the 6pm rush hour traffic a “cheers !!”. Only to get the finger and a few beeping horns back. The night passed, but keen as mustard (new lake) I woke to find no fish. quick cuppa and half a dozen roll ups later I started seeing fish in the Dog Walkers swim.

This swim was the only swim on this bank and as it was public right of way along the back and the longest walk from the car park it is very under fished. Rods reeled in and a pocket full of baits and pva foam I trotted round there and chucked two rods at showing fish about 30 yard off the near margin, rods laid on the deck and before I had a chance to light it one of the rods roared off. A twenty something mirror and a right result for my 1st night.

I noticed that they started to move round the bank and then disappeared I moved all my gear round to the Dog Walker pulted out a couple of kilos spread along the margin and went for a wander with a rod and some bait. Had a couple of beers and enjoyed the purple smoke with “Derby” who went on to become a good mate over that year.

Rods back out that night, and I was soon waking the bailiff who I spoke to only 4 days ago asking if he could do some pics. He asked “how big” to which I replied “which one?” the photos of the high twenty and 31lb’er were returned and I left very happy.

Over the spring the swim wasn’t fished much but a caught well out of it. Baiting up with loads of boilies spread over the near margin. People did fish it and I wasn’t hiding what I was doing but people still took there baits out in boats and dropped pellet and boilie over them. And blanked. I did fish other swims but in the morning they would always be in the Dog Walkers. I would fish till about 11am then chase them round the lake chucking baits at them all day what was a great tactic on this and any water, there is a lot of perch in there and while wandering round I would often get some spinners out for them having them up to 2.10lb.

I ended that spring and then returned in the winter doing about 35 nights in total and finishing off with 39 fish. 10 x 30lb+ fish, 4 x doubles, 24 x 20lb+, and the sheriff at 45.15lb. It was a great year and with Derby doing a lot more time than me and catching 11 more fish than me he finish top rod with me in second.

Be lucky and enjoy your time on the bank.
Russ

I'm fairly privileged to get most of December and January off work so decided to walk the walk instead of talking the talk and get out and do some winter fishing. I'd also been through a very lean spell fish wise having my last 5 pick ups drop off whilst fishing A1 pits 'Pit 6' in the summer, meaning I'd not had a Carp on the Bank since April!! I'd been down to Linear and fished St Johns and Manor in November and December without success and I'd also been down to Cobbleacre's Mario's lake for a few sessions at the start of January also without a touch.

The weather forecast was looking decent with low pressure and strong winds forecast for the Monday 19th of January so with Cobbleacre having known winter form a quick call to Bob the bailiff and my mate and I were booked on.

We both live in Lincolnshire so left home around 4am to beat the traffic. The weather forecast was spot on and it was raining...lovely. We had a little mooch about my mate went in The Snags and I decided to drop in The Beach as all my lines were marked up and I was able to get angling again on the spots I'd fished the previous week.

I like to have a marker about but knew that on Mario's it wouldn't do me any favours. I was set up with my usual 1metre of leadcore with Armaled Lead Clips and a 3oz lead, 15 lb Korda IQ and a size 8 Gamagatsu Widegape hook with a knotless knot and a bit of shrink tube to help turn the hook if I got a take. Bait wise I had a 10mm Premier Baits Mini Cooper tipped off with a whittled down Tutti-Fruiti pop up snowman style which helps the bait waft around so to speak. Each rod was baited with a handful of hemp, a few crushed boilies and 2 handfuls of maggots.

I had a bit of a kip during the day as I'd had an early start. I had no action so I re did the rods just before dark. The spots I was fishing were a silty spot just off the gravel 10 yards to the left and 10yards short of a small island out in front of the swim. I then had my second rod out towards the small Island maybe 15 yards short where the lake bed levels out. The 3rd was dropped close to the large island to my right near a snag bush in 6ft of water, known to produce the odd fish. I had some grub and was probably in my bag by 7:30pm listening to the radio.

I must have drifted off and was awoken by a one toner on the left hand rod to the left of the small island at around 130am, I lifted into the fish and was met with a solid resistance... Fish on! Now I had to land it. I tried to shout my mate Jase but he was catching some serious Z's. The fight was fairly hairy as the fish went mental when I got it under the rod tips and bolted off to my right towards a snag on the island it then kited into the reeds by my feet. The lead came of the clip at this point and the fish just wallowed on the surface so I teased him out the reeds and into the net.

RESULT I'd landed a Common which looked like it might push 20 I'd done nearly 20 nights without landing a fish so was well pleased, on the scales he went 19-13. Perfect.

I'd woken Jase to do a few pics and back she went, I got the rod back out and got back in my bag. I had no further action during the night.

The following morning I had a bit of a sleep in and left the rods out till about 3pm. The wind had died right down and the sun had come out just after lunch.

I wasn't happy with my middle rod so I allowed myself 2 casts with the marker into the channel between the small and large islands to try and find a little gravel spot Bumpy had told me about on the phone earlier in the day (cheers Nath). I didn't find the spot but I did come across a slightly harder spot in the silt in 11ft of water so that was my middle rod sorted.

The other 2 rods were put back on the same spots. I sat out a little until well into dark chatting with Jase and we could feel the chill in the air, the sky was clear with not a breath of wind. My unhooking mat had a layer of frost on it by 7:30pm luckily Bob had the Aerators on which tends to help keep part of the lake clear of ice if it gets real cold. The cold got too much so I got in the bag and drifted off. At around 9pm I had a few bleeps on my middle rod in the channel. I got up to check the rod and the bobbin was tight to the butt, the line pinged out of the clip and I was in again. This fish didn't really know it was hooked until it got under the rods the it went mental and wiped out my right hand rod.

Jase slipped the net under another Common and I unclipped the hook link leaving Jase watching the fish in the net in the margins. I sorted the tangle out and wound in my right hand rod as I was sure I had moved the lead. I sorted the Fish and it went 18lb exactly.

I was stoked as it was my 2nd fish of the session and also on a new spot! I re did the middle rod and then also the right hand rod, I put this into the channel 10 yards to the right of the spot I'd had the 18lb common from. I was back in the bag very quickly too warm up as it was bitterly cold with frost forming on everything. I had a feeling the lake would be at least partially frozen over in the morning!

I woke up around 8am and could see the lake was frozen solid in front of my swim so I dragged myself out of my bag and broke the ice around my rod tips with my landing net handle just in case. I got back in the bag and dropped off for an hour so then got up and slowly started packing up as Jase had to be back home for work on the Thursday. The sun had come out and was melting all the frost on the Bivvy and Rods. There was still a lot of ice out in front of me but the ice had started to recede from my margin with the sun melting it. I was just about to start packing the bivvy down when at around 10:30am my right hand rod gave a few bleeps and the bobbin was tight up against the rod again. The line didn't pull out of the clip but I could see the rod tip bouncing, it had to be worth hitting! I lifted into a solid resistance but had to be really careful and keep my rod to the side so the mainline avoided the edge of the ice about a rod length out. The fight was awkward as I had to keep the rod to the side until I got him in the margins then it was fairly straight forward. Jase did the honours with the net and in went another Common. We weighed him at 19-12 and Jase took some decent pictures in the morning sunshine. We then slipped him back. Lovely.

I was stoked as I'd had 3 fish in January after a 9 month blank including 1 from under the ice. I was maybe a tad unlucky not to get a 20 with Mario's stock but you have to be happy with any fish at this time of year. It just proves that you have to keep at it and motivated when your struggling. I could have easily changed my rigs and gone through the motions getting all paranoid about what I was doing wrong but I didn't I kept at it, sooner or later you'll get it right.

By Kevin Fargher

A week long session gave me ample time to hopefully locate and move onto the fish in the Norfolk Gravel Pit. And with that in mind, a social night in the "Pub Swim" with my old friend Geezer seemed in order.

And so, after a decidedly wobbly start to the session it was time to get to work. At 8 or 9 acres, it was not hard work to walk around the pit a few times in a day, but with deep water and unhelpful fish, it is not always easy to find them on those wanders. However, with hot weather forecast, that would hopefully make location trips a bit more fruitful.

It was whilst on one of these trips I found a group of fish underneath a snag next to the "Table Tops" swim, after watching them for a while, I felt sure they would be up for a floater, they chomped everything that drifted over their heads on the gentle breeze. I reasoned that the best course of action would be to continue my walk round the lake to get some stalking bits and pieces and get back on them. The route back took me past the "Bush" and "Helens" swims, and past an old unused swim called "The Bomb Crater".

Essentially The Bomb Crater is a small Norfolk reed lined bay, with a pair of willows on the right and the reeds forming a natural point on the left hand opening. Further past the willows to the right of the Bomb Crater sits Helens.

As the Bomb Crater swim had not been used for a couple of years, it was fairly overgrown with the reeds virtually blocking the view into the bay. After picking my way down through the nettles and brambles, I reached the back of the reed line and gently opened a gap through to peek at the water, the sight I saw took my breath away.

In a lake with a stock of roughly eighty fish, it appeared that three quarters of the population where in or around the small bay, I was looking into! Fish were everywhere. Mooching under the surface, with some feeding on the surface scum. I now had a (somewhat healthy) problem. Which ones to go at.

Returning to the Pub Swim I told Gary that with the wind pushing over the other side of the lake I’d give it a few hours over there to see, just in case, on the off chance, if I can spot anything. (We’ve all done it).

I returned to the original group of fish I saw, but for some reason (I think I’d probably spooked them in hindsight) they were acting far cagier. I then saw a couple of heads appear near the Bomb Crater, Gary had suspected I’d seen something and walked the other way around the lake, picking up Leighton on the way. The game was up.

My decision made for me, if I didn’t move into Helens, one of the other lads would before me. So I high-tailed it over there with the gear I had, then went back for the rest of the kit. The fish were there still, and showed no sign of moving.

It was a waiting game to get the rods out, a marker rod was well out of the equation though. So two rods were eventually placed on the gravel bar that comes out from between the twin willow trees to the left of the swim, one fairly close in, the other around 15 yards out. The right had rod was cast to the right of the swim, onto another bar area. By then it was early evening, and time to retire to bench on the bank above the swim, that gives a good view of the main body of the lake.

After the odd sighting in the vicinity at dusk, it was soon time to turn in. The night itself was uneventful on the indicators, but dawn was a different matter!With a fine summers dawn sun burning into the fresh morning mist, the middle alarm went straight into a slow running unbroken tone. I slowed the spool with a finger whilst lifting the rod into a solid resisting fish. The fish had swum the correct side of the bar from my point of view and was by now starting to exert a nice bit of pressure on the rod.

In the deep margins the fish used its bulk against the resistance of rod, and gave a healthy account of itself, without causing too many problems, and eventually I was able to move the fish into the upper layers.

As if the towel had been thrown in the great mass of fish rolled over the landing net cord, whilst taking in a single mouth of air. Opening out the net, I caught sight of a scaled flank of a large mirror carp. With Gary on hand to help with the weighing, we first thought she had come up an ounce short, but he persuaded me to weigh again and the needle settled just over the 30lb mark, so the average was taken, 30lb of classic English mirror carp.

By Paul Atherton

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