Jan 2007

One Last Carp for 2006, 1st Jan

The weather had warmed up a little over the last couple of days and I had seen some Carp activity in the shallows this morning when I was feeding the lake. It looked as if it was going to be a dry day and I couldn’t resist having a dabble. I shot back to the workshop and got my rods, tackle and bait and dashed back to the lake.

By the time I got set up, it was 11.30am and the sky was black and I couldn’t see any sign of the Carp that were there earlier. I decided to stick it out for a few hours and see if I couldn’t winkle one out.

I put three rods out, all in the margins up against reeds with Quest’s Fruity Trifle boilies combined with pop-up fake corn on the hair to act as a visual beacon for the bait. I also scraped the entire surface off the boilies to reduce them to around 13mm and release a bit more scent in the cold water.

Around each hookbait I put only four or five broken boilies for additional attraction - bear in mind I am competing with 8kg of high protein feed going in the lake every day in the winter just to make the fishing that bit harder!

By 2.30pm, I was sitting miserably in a hurricane with torrential rain, already thinking about packing up, when I noticed the line had gone slack on my third rod. This was when I realised I hadn’t turned the buzzer on! I reeled in the slack and struck it to find after a nice 15 minute scrap, a beautiful peachy 27lb 9oz mirror on the other end.

Well worth sitting out in the storm for. The last three sessions on the lake have also confirmed that the weight of the fish is well and truly on the up with many of them at least 4lbs heavier than last recorded, some as much as 7lbs over and we expect the weights to continue to rise further through to the spring.

Happy new year to all at Angling Lines and all of our customers, Lee and Tracy

Jan 2007

First Fish of 2007 Sets New Lake Record, 1st Jan

On the 6th of Jan, I went down to the lake to try a bit of testing on rig presentation and had me a nice surprise.

I put 5 rods out in regular hot spots all with differently presented end tackle i.e. some popped-up baits, stiff rigs, long hairs, light leads etc. After getting all rods in the water I only had about a 15 minute wait and the first and only run of the day came (it had to be on the furthest rod away, about a 100 yard run to strike it!).

It took about 5 minutes to get it to the bank, at this point I saw how big the fish was and then it decided it wanted a real fight, it hung on for another 10 minutes with my heart banging out of my chest before I managed to get it in the net. I really wasn’t expecting a result like this while experimenting, not only a new PB for me but also a new lake record at 40lb 2oz!

Incidentally, the set-up that caught the fish was a 22mm boilie cut in half with a pop-up grain of plastic corn on a 10cm soft braid rig with a long hair and light lead. Pop-ups don’t seem to produce many fish on our lake but they do seem to produce the bigger ones for some reason.

I am fairly convinced this record won’t stand for long as I know of at least 2 other mirrors which I suspect are bigger, and recently I have seen a common feeding in the deep margins which looked a fair bit bigger than the 40 I’ve just caught.

Good luck to all our guests in 2007

Lee

Nov 2006

Quest Baits Testing causes Lake Eruption, 1st Nov

Having recently spoken with Shaun Harrison at Quest Baits, we decided to try out a few of their boillie flavours in the lake to see which had the best results. I always think of spicy baits for catching Barbel and Chub and as far as I know, no one had tried any in our lake, so first on the list was Rahja Spice.

On the 27th of October I set up for a 3 hour session as the sun was coming up, the first run came within 15 minutes and turned out to be a 24lb 14oz mirror, great start. Half an hour later came the second fish of 25lb 8oz.

By 10 o’clock I was into my third and biggest fish of the session a gorgeous Mirror of 29lb 9oz, and finally at around 10:45 I finished with an 18 pounder. I absolutely cannot wait to give this flavour a go on a river.

Two days later, again as the sun was rising I was set up in pretty much the same spot and ready to give Special Crab a go. As with both of these flavours I had been trickling a hand full of boillies in all around the lake each day for about a week before hand to make sure the fish recognised them as a food source.

This time I barely had a chance to put my third rod out when the first one screamed off, 23lb 4oz again a good start, however ten minutes later there were two rods going at once. I managed to land one of these at 24lb 6oz as the other managed to shake the hook out before I could get to it.

Still, I got all three rods back in the water and sat down thinking I’ve probably ruined the swim for a while with all that commotion, but it wasn’t long till my left rod tore off and gave me another good mirror of 26lb 6oz. The short session’s final run came at 11:00 and I knew this was a decent fish as soon as I struck in to it, I was proven right when I weighed the two toned Leather in at 32lb 2oz.

All of these fish were caught just 15 feet from the bank on 18mm sized boillies and were fished over a bed of 7mm Halibut and 5mm Carp Pellet with a hand full of whole and broken boillies around the hookbait. I was astounded by the effect of the Rahja and didn’t think the Special Crab would be able to match it, but the results speak for themselves.

I have come to the conclusion that Shaun Harrison must have been a Carp in a previous life to develop baits so attuned to their taste! We will definitely be stocking these flavours in 18 and 22mm for sale to our customers.

I have yet to try Fruity Trifle and will keep you informed of the results.

Lee