Cambs Carp Character - Michael Stewart

This entry was posted on 22nd June, 2015

Since I last wrote It's all been very quiet, with just one repeat capture to my name. The last two trips have both been blanks; one down to poor swim selection on my behalf and the second due to a very busy lake, with limited swim choice. In fact on the last session not even a bit of naked reed removal and a wet swim move could inspire a bite!

With some of the syndicate members tagging me "Mr Consistent", I was having consistency issues!

This week saw me arrive to a much quieter lake and swim choice was easy, I opted for an area that had produced the goods for me a few weeks previous.

Two rods went out to usual marks but the third I decided to fish on a little spot to my right margin, under a canopy of a willow tree. I’d been baiting the area every week with a mix of particle, pellet and 10mm crave boilies but was yet to but a hookbait on the area.



The spot is only 6 feet from the bank in four feet of water and with the overhangs a 12ft rod is far too long, so it was time for the 6ft Wychwood Extractor! Hookbait was a piece off fake corn and a 10mm crave boilie on a 6 inch Korda soft N-trap hooklink in gravel brown tied with a ESP size 7 longshanx hook fished blowback style with a small shrink tube kicker. This was fished  on my usual helicopter arrangement with three feet of ESP sandy/Gravel leadcore and a 3oz flat pear lead. I added a piece of PVA foam to the rig and gently swung  it out on the spot, once the foam had melted and the rig had settled, I then, with a baiting spoon, dropped in three scoops of my usual bait mix over the top.

I was sitting enjoying a brew and a chat with Tony, another syndicate member, when the ATTsx receiver screamed out, I looked at my rods and it took a couple of seconds to register that it was the margin rod to the right !

I was soon on the rod and clamped down on the spool, desperately trying to keep the fish away from the branches of the over hanging willow. It was difficult to tell how big the carp was as it was the first I'd hooked on this set-up!



After five minutes the fish was back under the branches and doing its best not to get any closer, I didn’t think it looked that big, but Tony ’helpfully’ pointed out that it looked a good 30! After a few more hairy moments I eventually had the big girl under control and safely in the folds of my landing net. On closer inspection she was also bigger than I'd first thought and with a prominent lump on one side, was easily recognisable as “Lumpy” a mid to upper 30 mirror.

We secured her in the net and set about sorting the weighing gear and camera, I was buzzing having, it's not everyday you manage a fish of that proportions on your stalking tackle just a few feet from the bank!

The scales registered 35lb 5oz and you can see she's definitely more beast than beauty and I think the correct term is  “character fish”!

After a few quick snaps I safely returned her to her watery home and enjoyed a celebratory brew before getting the rod back on the spot.

Unfortunately the rest of the session passed without incident and Lumpy was to be my only bite... not that I’m complaining!