Another One Off The List… Michael Stewart

This entry was posted on 1st September, 2015

I arrived at a very quiet looking lake for my usual two night session, there was only one other angler on and when I arrived he was already in the process of packing up. Now an empty lake sounds great, but sometimes it can make swim choice much, much harder as you simply cannot rule out any area’s for angling pressure.

With the warm weather and settled conditions I had a rough idea of where I needed to be, so I soon had the barrow loaded and found myself on the way round to the said area. I sat watching the water looking for any signs of a crusing or showing fish, but nothing happened. After a further 10-15 minutes of inactivity I wandered on, stopping in the swim I’d fished the previous week, an area that had produced 13 takes for me over the past two sessions. The water was shallower for the carp and there was a shaded area for me! I made a quick call and to my conscience AKA Mr Birch, who said “answered your own question there mucker “, so that was that!

Rods went out to the same marks as the previous weekend and rigs were kept fairly similar, Short Chods and Crave Pop-ups were the order of the day. All three spots got a good 20 or so Spombs of my favourite mix; Crave Boilie Crumb, whole 10mm Crave Boilies, mixed particle, mixed pellet and a good glug of the Crave and CSL Krill liquids.



I didn’t have to wait long before my first bit of action of the session. As at 8pm that evening, after a spirited fight a chunky looking 29b 12oz Mirror was soon in the net, proving I had indeed opted for the right swim. After a few self takes the rod was soon back out on the spot and another 20 Spombs of bait followed, the areas were primed just before the cover of darkness.

Up at first light, after a very quiet night, I was sat watching the water, the fish were showing over all three spots and I was confident of another bite or two.

9am and the left hand rod locked up again, soon on it I was guiding the fish in to open water when all of a sudden I had another take on the middle rod! There wasn’t much I could do, so as soon as I saw the size of the fish I was connected too, a Common of around 15lb, I quickly bundled it unceremoniously into the net and picked up the second rod! Unfortunately it was too late as the fish had made its way into a near by weedbed and I just couldn’t move it. After a little bit of gentle too-ing and fro-ing my leader eventually gave way, frayed by the abundant mussel beds on whenever the fish had buried itself into. At least the fish would only have the short Chod rig left in its mouth if anything, because the leader had been cut just below the top bead. In hindsight I should have ditched the rod with the little common on and moved the other fish into open water, but that’s why it’s called hindsight !



I unhooked the smaller Common and sent ‘Little White Tips’ as he’s known, on his way and started to sort out the carnage in my swim, all three rods were re-baited with fresh hook baits and more Spombs of bait followed. Around 5pm I received an indication on the left hand rod… vicious liner or maybe I’d been done? Either way I wasn’t content so another ‘freshen up’ occurred.

Another quiet night passed and I must admit I wasn’t up for first light but rather 7am, I made a brew and a bit of breakfast and started to slowly pack down before the forecast heat for the day started to rise. A couple of other members walked into my swim about 8.45 and asked if I’d had any more action, I replied “not a beep, but it is coming up to bite time “. With that the left hand rod pulled up tight and it was a case of fish on!

The fish held its ground on the shelf and initially it didn’t feel of any size, I was convinced it was a small one, until it rolled 20 yards out… it wasn’t as small as I thought! All was going well until a few powerful runs saw the fish pick up my other line, everything was in a bit of a mess and despite some help from the other lads in my swim, there was some really hairy moments. The fish eventually got caught up in some dense weed just 10 yards out in front of me, I just grabbed the net and scooped everything up, tackle, line weed and most importantly the fish!



After the sorting the mess and getting rid of the weed a stunning big framed Carp lay in the bottom of the landing net, she was a definite A-Team member!

I gathered all the weighing and camera gear before carefully bringing her to the mat, she was close to 40 but eventually the needle on the scales settled at 37lb 15oz, I wasn’t complaining!

She was identified as ‘Brushstrokes’, very dark , very long and very gnarly, a proper beast of a carp. We had our photo taken together before I let her swim off back into the depths, a punch of the air and another one crossed off the “list”.

Until next time, be lucky like me!