Carp Caviar

Last week saw me staying local and fishing three matches at my local Gwinear, the lakes are fishing really well at the moment and the plus side is that I only had to drive around 4 miles to bag up! The first visit saw the bag of dreams dictate that I reside on peg 28 on Phase Three, as soon as I drew the pressure was applied by Chris Hancock and Northern visitor Andy Dargue ‘The last two matches have seen a ton come from that peg’ Great, just what I wanted to hear, I was looking forward to it! I knew the peg from old and really fancied it. The peg has a  bit of everything, a bar at around 16m, a good 5m line and a great margin that I hoped was going to give me an edge if you will excuse the pun!

When I got to the peg there were carp everywhere at this end of the lake, cruising around on the surface and they looked to be feeding. Tackle selection was simple it was going to be pole only. Two .30gram J13 rigs were assembled for fishing up in the water. A 4 x 14 J8 for fishing at 5m and two J1 4 x 10 for fishing the margins, bait was pellet with a back up of more pellets! I had plenty of micros some 4mm and 6mm plus a few 8mm pellets and some Dendrabenas for the hook, in fact my tackle and bait tray didn’t change over the three visits.

And the starter is……………

Starting the match at 5m on the slope saw a few fish come early which is always nice as it settles me down to enjoy the match. But with fish topping I was keen to fish for them shallow, so started pinging the odd pellet. After 30 minutes or so went on the long pole expecting a fish first put in, I wasn’t disappointed as a Common obliged but it came off just before I netted it, not what you want! The next one took a little longer to hook but at least I got that one in. After that I just could not get a bite despite loads of fish on the surface, but frustratingly they were backing off from the pole! I was back on the 5m line and with 10 minutes the fish were back on my long pole line! I had another go for them but the same thing happened! They were definitely feeding as I could see them slurping on the surface, they were also having a look at any little bit of debris floating their way, shame they were so shy. It was later that evening at home when it dawned on me that the carp were enjoying gorging on their hor dourves of fish eggs! The Carp had been spawning earlier that morning and I guessed that some of the eggs had detached from the weed and was floating on the surface.

On my last visit I figured that I had not gone down the edge early enough, so I was not making that mistake again. Shortly after I fed a large pot of micros to my right, I noticed that they were on the feed, kicking up the silt as they rummaged around for their main course. That was it for the rest of the match I was down the edge on both sides, I had a great days fishing catching in the region of 60 carp which went around 110lb Harry Billing had a few pounds more than me winning the lake but Andy Dargue won the match with 125lb from peg 40 on phase Two.

A Cornish Yam Yam

I enjoyed the match so much I booked on for next day’s Sunday open and was pleased with my draw of peg 25 just around the corner from Saturday. I was not going to spend so much time fishing up in the water today, I figured it would end up the same as the day before. Tony Williams had drawn my previous days peg and he was up for it, judging by the amount of banter. He made me giggle as he was proclaiming to all and sundry that he was Cornish, sounded a bit strange to me as there was no mistaking his ’ Yam Yam ‘ accent!

Starting on the 5m line I had a bite after a minute or so, a small F1 was the culprit. As I put the net under it I couldn’t resist calling over to Tony and asking if we had a quid on the first fish. I’m afraid his Cornish accent got the better of me and I could not understand the reply, but I just guessed it was no! A few minutes later I noticed that Tony was playing a better carp and he shouted that we did have a pound on the first proper carp, at that moment my float dipped and I also was attached to a proper one, quickly accepting his bet I shipped back to my top kit and put the pole in the air, the carp was no match for my J Range Black hollow and was in the net pronto, Tony still carefully playing his. I obviously claimed the pound of the realm; at least I had picked up something today!

It was a little harder today to settle the fish down but plenty were there, a few came to the net from 5m but that soon died. I had a look shallow and had a couple, but they were again difficult. I managed a few dobbing a pellet in front them as they cruised by but couldn’t get them to settle. The bites were something else as elastic just ripped from the pole! The margins were again the key and I did have some by working both sides. Foul hooked fish were a problem; the margins on this peg are shallow and the fish kept coming closer and closer to the bank, despite feeding well away from the edge. As a result they were getting bank side of my rig, as they moved away they swam into my line and ended up with a hook in their fin. Changing to a SPRO Blob float and pushing this tight to the bank was much better, I now managed to hook them properly.

Again it was an enjoyable match I finished up with around 75lb good enough for a section win, default payment but frankly I don’t mind! My mate Andy Partridge fished a great match a couple of pegs down from me catching close in on corn for around 85lb which was good enough for third on the day. Chris Hancock winning the match from peg 17 with over a ton caught mainly from the margins on pellet.

Cracking draw

My third visit was for the Tuesday open and with 40 booked on a good draw was essential, I was over the moon when I drew Sunday’s winning peg 17 and was looking for three pickups on the trot. Alas that didn’t happen but it was fun trying. The wind had changed direction and was now blowing out from my bank, not that I am making excuses you understand! The fish were slow to respond to the baits that I presented to them and I struggled to catch at 5m. Andy Partridge was also struggling on peg 18 to my left. I was left fishing the margin to my right at 13m and picked a few fish up from there during the match. I think I finished had around 14 fish which was the same as Andy only mine went 35lb to his 46lb, it just shows the power of corn on a harder day, it certainly picked out the better fish.

1st Gary Prestige  79lb 12oz Phase 3 peg 28
2nd Adam JONES 61lb 14 Phase 2 peg 40
3rd Mac COX 56lb 12oz Phase 3 peg 34
4th Howard STOCKER 53lb Phase 3 peg 31
5th Simon JONES 52lb Phase 3 peg 24
6th Mark Turner Phase 49lb 1 peg  1

Even though this was a harder match it was very fair with weights coming from around the complex and it probably could be won from any of the lakes. I’m looking forward to getting back to Gwinear in a couple of weeks time

Flaming June

My last match of the week was at Bake Lakes near Plymouth, it was a Carp match on Flamingo Lake a 20 peg lake that I have not seen before. The day was not looking good weather wise, when Wrong Lake Wayne arrived to pick me up at 7ish it was absolutely bucketing down and it never stopped all day! When we arrived the chat was about pegs 3 and 4 as they are apparently the flyers, obviously I was hoping to draw one of those. When it was time to have a dip, the bag of dreams was held out to the assembled company but nobody stepped forward. So I started the proceedings I had my dip and looked at peg 13 in my hand, as a joke I asked if peg 4 was any good! You should have heard the groans from everybody! I actually had to convince the guy recording the numbers that I was only joking and I had drawn 13, that peg 4 is obviously very good!

Pretty as a picture

The lake looked really nice, I just wish it could have been a better day. To make matters worse the wind was quite strong right to left, I decided that an umbrella was the better part of valour and promptly hid behind it! Even though I restricted myself to one margin swim I just could not face that driving rain unlike the poor two anglers who drew the bank with the wind and rain straight in their faces. My tackle was similar to the gear I used at Gwinear; once again I restricted myself to pole only picking lines at 5 and 13m there was very little difference between the two swims depth wise, marking the depth on my pole with tipex meant I could cut down on the number of rigs.

Not the best of starts

At the start I fed a few pellets on my pole lines and started with a 6mm pellet at 5m I had a bite within a few minutes and it was a nice carp of around 6lb but unfortunately I lost it! I’m not 100% sure but it looked like it was hooked in the mouth, so I have no idea how it came off. It was then slow for me as I watched anglers to my left catching Carp on paste. I do not know why but I cannot ‘embrace the paste’ occasionally I fish it but 99 out of a 100 times I just refuse to use it, silly really as it does catch a load of fish! I did however start to catch a few fish on both of my lines but felt I was falling behind.

Later in the afternoon I had a nice run of fish and was slowly catching up with the others, my margin swim was starting to work. I was losing a few fish, I just could not get tight into the bank due to the vegetation, which meant I was foul hooking lots! With an hour or so to go I realised that I needed two edge swims and I had to be brave and take the brolly down! Fish were soon on that line taking 8mm pellet. I had quite a good end to the match probably putting 15 – 20lb into the net in the last 30 minutes all taken on 8mm pellet over soaked micros. Oh Man, I should have been a bigger man and took that brolly down earlier! Despite the weather I enjoyed the match, I ended up with just short of 60lb for fourth place which I was pleased with that for a first visit. The match was won from peg 4 by Rodney Stoker with 92lb and second was Barry Wesley with 65lb. To be honest I think my peg was worth a lot more than I caught, but on this occasion I am going to blame the weather rather than myself!

That is the second visit I have made to Bake Lakes and I personally think it is a fantastic venue, it is well worth a visit if you are in the area, it really does offer some diverse fishing on some well stocked lakes. What’s more I have enjoyed the company of the anglers; I’m looking forward to my next trip in a couple of weeks to sample one of the other lakes, Treasure Island. I did have a walk around it and it looks fantastic, I just hope the weather is better so that I can take some photographs.

I have four matches at White Acres next week, I’m fishing the Preston Pairs with partner Harry Billing, the matches are on Trewaters and Twin Oaks, judging by the weights coming out on these lakes at the moment it should be a great weeks fishing for the 38 anglers.