Arezue Wright- Patience is a Virtue

This entry was posted on 2nd July, 2019

With the warmer months now upon us, the extra few hours in the morning that we are gifted as it becomes light earlier and the promise of extended daylight hours during the evening, there’s no place I’d rather be than sat lakeside in the hope of catching a nice fat, summer carp!

Keen to get my summer carping campaign well and truly underway and with the prospect of 48 hours on the bank I set my alarm for stupid o’clock, something which I’d struggle with ordinarily but for fishing I make the exception!

Arriving at my chosen venue nice and early has always helped me to put a few extra fish on the bank as ultimately location is key, so keep quiet, don’t forget your Polaroid’s and as dawn breaks fish more often than not drop their guard and give away their presence.

This is one aspect I can’t stress enough, location, location, location.

With the lake being a relatively weedy water and with one end being considerably shallower than the other leading up to a dam wall and ultimately deeper water I spent a good hour walking the banks in an attempt to find the fish.

Now ordinarily with the warmer temperatures you would expect the majority of the fish to be up the shallows, backs out of the water sunning themselves, however, with the recent Great British weather bringing us truly biblical rainstorms and plummeting pressure the fish hadn’t read the rule book!

After drawing a blank in the shallows, seeing little to no fish activity I made my way back towards the depths where after a short time I spotted 3 modest sized carp underneath a far bank tree line, this was all the encouragement I needed.

Now having a good knowledge and understanding of the lake contours I know than on average depths can go to over 10ft but rapidly come up to a shallow shelf, directly under the tree line where it appeared the carp had been seeking sanctuary from the heavy rains.

In addition to this a strong south westerly was now pushing hard against the dam and bringing with it a flotilla of scum which was being snared by the trailing branches.

Continuing to watch the fish it was evident that they weren’t for moving and with the threat of further heavy downpours anticipated I knew I’d have to ditch my usual approach of a favoured running lead set up and PVA bags and opt for single bait at range, shorter hook links and a heavy drop off lead set up cast hard and low in order to bomb low under the tree canopy to ultimately stand any chance of a snaring one.

With summer ultimately comes weed and knowing this lake to be weedy in parts and with the addition of fishing so close to snags you must always ensure that your tackle is up to the job as fish safety is paramount. Not only this but also you want to ensure that of course you land your prize! With this in mind I opted for as heavy a line as I could get away with attached to an abrasion resistance leader to help deal with any underwater snags and obstructions should a carp dive for cover.

Normally at this time of year the carp are usually on the feed and generally welcome a bit of bait but having observed the carp it was obvious that they weren’t “having it” and so I chose to fish sparingly and fish for a bite first of all until I could gauge how ravenous they were and ultimately how many fish there may be in the swim. At the end of the day you can always put more bait in as required but you can’t take it out.

Rods out and spots primed I baited sparingly, I suppose adopting a similar approach to what I’d be more used to in winter and cold water tactics, but with the weather and the rain starting to come down heavy once more despite fairer weather being forecast I decided it was the only way to go.

Temperatures remained high and the warm summer night was a welcome change to being wrapped up in multiple layers, however, the alarms remained silent.

As the early morning light crept into my bivvy it brought with it the promise of fairer conditions and with the warm air kissing the cool surface water a ghostly mist enveloped the lake. There’s nothing quite like waking up on the bank at first light.

Suddenly my left-hand rod was away and as my line cut through the lingering mist I was soon doing battle with an angry estate mirror.



Safely in the net I was soon cradling an immaculate mirror of 19lb 7oz with dark chocolate flanks and darkened shoulders, what a stunner and what a way to get my summer carping under way.

Single baits and minimal baiting seemed the way forward and so back out went the rods.

With pressure still low the sun intermittently shone through a darkened and overcast sky and everything looked right for another but as morning turned into afternoon and then evening my alarms once more fell silent.

At times it can be frustrating and hard to know what to do in order to get a bite but at times it pays to sit on your hands rather than overthink things, tip out the rig and tackle box and try every trick in the book especially when you know deep down that what your doing is right. Sometimes patience is all that’s needed and in this case,  I was convinced that everything I was doing was right and that the carp were feeding in small windows and all I had to do is wait.

Sure enough as the early morning sun shone through the trees my alarm sounded once more, an exact replica of the first bite only this time the fish was not stopping and headed for the overhanging tree canopy like a steam train!

Sensing danger and knowing I was already on a tight clutch I walked back wards taking the stretch out of the mono.

Sure enough my lead ejected forcing the fish to the surface at which point seeing it was a better fish I brought the rod parallel to the bank causing the fish to turn and roll.

Now into open water the fish dived into a heavy weed bed and momentarily went solid but with steady pressure I managed to coax it out.

Pumping steadily back towards me the fish was now covered in weed and fearful of the hook pulling I gingerly eased it over the cord of an awaiting net, fish number two only this one looked bigger!



As I unfolded my prize I could see that yet again it was another stunning, dark estate mirror and at 21lb 2oz I was over the moon.

With two stunning estate lake mirrors under my belt and taken during difficult circumstances it was more than I could have asked for and just goes to show how patience and perseverance pays off.

Have confidence in what you do and trust yourself as far often than not fishing is a battle of the mind and the hardest person to convince is always going to be you and you alone.

Fish will never adhere to the rule book and sometimes we need to rip it up and go with what we trust and be led by our gut.

It certainly served me well on this occasion.