Carp Fishing Diary… Rob Shanks

This entry was posted on 5th June, 2014

Rob Shanks Carp Fishing Diary

Picking up from last time, after getting a couple of fish under my belt I was full of confidence as we edged into April and the weather was edging closer to resembling something similar to spring. We had some lovely warm days and it really got the fish moving and it was great to get a good look at what was on offer as they slowly mooched around in the shallow’s feeding and fizzing on the first flurry’s of natural food with the sun warming their backs. The out of bounds area really did give the opportunity to watch them and over the coming weeks the amount of fish visiting the margins of the snaggy dot islands was increasing along with the leaves. Not being one to miss an opportunity I made sure that they were finding a plentiful supply of free bait and they were showing their appreciation by lapping it up. I for one can’t emphasize enough how important giving the fish a regular supply of your chosen bait without a hook in it is.



I like to choose a bait that’s not only got an instant appeal but one that just gets better the more and more you put in and for that reason only I choose the Vortex from Sticky baits in freezer form. I spent a couple of nights pursuing another project with no success whilst I continued to keep the bait trickling in and on one particular Sunday afternoon, on arrival the area was absolutely crawling with carp looking for their regular free meal. The weather forecast for that particular evening couldn’t have been any better with double figure night time temperatures, a warm, strong southerly breeze and some fine rain thrown in for safe measure. I opted to fish an area of the lake which is not only close to the out of bounds but also covers a small channel which links the area to another big section of open water.

Opting to fish two rods into the main body of the lake and one in this narrow channel to intercept any fishing moving between the two lakes. My good friend Chris soon arrived and decided to fish opposite me, again to try and intercept fish moving in and out of the safe area. I kept things simple on all three rods fishing my usual helicopter set up with one of the newly released Sticky Baits Krill White pop-ups on a hinge stiff rig. My hinge rigs are constructed with a very short section of Fox Rigidity in 25lb creating the stiff pop up section connected via a small swivel to a section of semi stiff Fox Coretex matt brown for the boom which is looped at each end. A large gaped size 5 Fox SR hook completes the set up. I use the coretex hooklength for my boom’s these days because it gives enough rigidity to push the rig out straight and too re-set itself but also allows enough suppleness to sit nicely over any bottom debris or stones.



I was a little bit torn trying to decide on how much bait to put out, we’d been told from a lot of the old members that the fish didn’t respond to large quantities but the amount of fish I’d watched feeding in the out of bounds and with the weather looking so good I opted to do the complete opposite and introduce what was probably about a kilo or more of bait split between the three rods. It started to rain so I chucked the house up for the night and decided to sit back and suck up the atmosphere whilst sipping on a few steaming mugs of hot tea. The swim is a lovely area to sit back and enjoy being out there, being encapsulated in a canopy of tree’s.

Chris’s evening proved to be a little more hectic, as he quickly managed to bank a couple of mid-doubles before dark. He was on pest control which made a nice change as the previous year it had been the other way round with him seemingly only having to turn up to catch a thirty pounder. I didn’t chuckle to myself, honestly. The swim he was fishing resembled a cliff with a rather steep clamber down to rods in the event of a take which made excellent viewing.



As it was a work night and I had to be gone by 6.30am I decided to hit the bag early to make sure I wasn’t resembling the undead at work the following day. I was woken by a stuttering take on the rod fished into the small channel during the early hours. I picked the rod up expecting a Tench to be hanging on the end and initially once lifting into the fish nothing changed that opinion, what every was on the end was swimming toward me shaking it’s head violently. Once in the margins it turned into a carp quite quickly, with slow heavy lunges under the rod tip sending up big vortex’s of water on the black inky surface. A huge set of shoulders appeared and I quickly dragged whatever was on the end over the waiting net cord and engulfed it, somewhat dazed having been dragged from a deep sleep by what I thought was a tinka. As I gazed into the net the large frame of a mirror carp peered back at me in the light of my head torch and at that point I realised that I had one of the lakes largest residents resting in the folds of the mesh.



In the half light of dawn the magnificent beast was weighed at 34.12 and Chris kindly reeled his rods in to come over and take some shots for me, it gave him a break from catching double figure commons anyway as he’d been up all night. Over the next few hours I was lucky enough to catch another two fish, a double figure common that didn’t fancy Chris’s rigs and a lovely mirror with a big black back and red patches all over his belly that weighed a few ounces over 25lb. I also manage to lose a forth which dropped off almost as soon as I struck into it.



The pack up for work in the hammering rain didn’t bother me that grey morning. I was over the moon and before I had to dash I made sure I gave the fish a good five or six kilos of free bait before ambling passed Chris with my laden barrow whilst thanking him for keeping all the little ones in his swim for me. The day at work was a breeze with the buzz from the night’s events keeping me going all day although the wet nets that had been festering in my Van all day made the journey home rather unpleasant on the nostrils.

The Tackle Box Daiwa Tournament Reels Fox Horizon Rods 12’ 6” – 3.5lb TC Fox Coretex Brown 20lb Fox SR Hooks size 5 Sticky Baits Vortex Boilies Sticky Baits Vortex 16mm Pop-ups