A Nice Way To Sign Off... Scott Kingsley

This entry was posted on 9th July, 2015

After a rather frustrating run of bad luck on my syndicate water - loosing four fish on the trot, over four different nights, I was desperate to get another carp on the bank, especially before the fish started to spawn.

On a recent session I tried my hardest to break this ‘loosing fish’ trend and was keen and eager to do everything I could to put a nice scaly in my net, the main thing being location. As they say 5 minutes in the right spot is better than 5 hours in the wrong spot. With this in mind I spent nearly all day searching for them, before they finally gave themselves away. A good number of fish had tucked themselves away in a large weedbed in a relatively quiet area of the lake, enabling me to get right on them!

The carp basked in the weed during the day and then seemed to venture out into open water during the evening. Carp love weedy area’s at this time of year, before and during spawning, so it’s always worth a look, especially if the suns up.



I chose to fish the rods tight to the weed bed, a few inches from the edge of it, hoping to pick one or two fish up as they ventured out. The area was baited with 1kg of the CC Moore Equinox boiles and was topped up every hour or so with another 30 to 40 baits. I knew that tench were also present in the area and feeding, so I wanted to ensure there was always some bait on the spot, if and when the carp did decide to feed.

My usual stiff hinged rig, constructed from 15lb Gardner Disruption Skin, 25b Tripwire and a size 5 Covert Chod hook was the set up and the bait was a Equinox Pop-up.



During the 48 hour session I managed two bites and thankfully two fish, both being landed around the same time of day, 5.30 in the evening. Fishing so tight to the weed bed led to some hairy, knee trembling moments during the fight, but thankfully with the good quality end tackle components and the new Pro XM Light Blend mainline I was able to steer both fish into open water and into the folds of my waiting landing net.

I left happy, happy that I’d broken my ‘lost fish’ voodoo and happy that I’d managed a nice brace of twenties, 22lb and 25lb 14oz. With the fish ready to spawn and with the rivers now open it was also a nice way to sign off, as I know probably won’t return until the autumn.



It’s now time for a new campaign to start, time for me to leave the still waters for a few months and concentrate my efforts on the flowing water; the river carp are calling me! Searching out the mystical, nomadic carp that live on a lengthy stretch of river near my home is something that always draws me in and at this time of year, I just can’t help it, once I get the bug, get focused and in the zone I simply cannot think about anything else!

Fingers crossed over the next few weeks some of the rivers mystical creatues will grace my presence and I’ll seek, what I’m searching for, but until then… tight lines.

Scott Kingsley.