Rob Shanks’s Carp Fishing Diary – April 2013

This entry was posted on 29th April, 2013

Rob Shanks’s Carp Fishing Diary – November 2012 Rob Shanks’s Carp Fishing Diary – February 2013 Rob Shanks's Carp Fishing Diary - April 2013

February was soon over and I headed into March full of renewed confidence after catching two February 30’s. I had booked the first week of March off in anticipation of some warmer spring like weather and I wasn’t disappointed when a few days before my planned trip Weather Pro was forecasting some sunny mild days with temperatures rising as high as 14 degrees.

I spent a good few evenings getting ready, I needed to make sure I was prepared for whatever situation may present it’s self with all the floater gear chucked in the van for the first time in 2013 just in case. You just need to be ready to adapt at this time of year, one day can be warm and the fish can be up in the surface layers, the next day can be sub zero and the fish lying deep and dormant. Another reason I choose the particular week was due to the fact the 40lb common I am targeting has a history of making a bank side appearance during the first few weeks of March and if I’ve learnt one thing over the years biggun’s can be creatures of habit. I’d planned to return to the same swim I’d caught from only weeks previous and I’d managed to get a few kilos of Sticky Baits Vortex into the area a few days before my planned trip. I arrived early on the Sunday morning and as I drove down the track with butterfly’s in my stomach I was pleased to see no cars in the car park so after a few walks round with no signs of any carpy activity I decided to hit the swim I’d pre-baited a few days before, in the back of my mind I had a niggle and for no reason at all I wasn’t entirely sure I was making the right decision but with nothing else too go on I had to give the pre baited area a few days.

The weather that day really did warm up to the point where I could comfortably sit outside in a T-shirt and absorb some overdue rays from the lovely spring sunshine, as I gazed out watching the water I fully expected to see signs of a few carp in the surface layers. My eyes were fixated, scanning for a visual sign, a dark shape or a line of bubbles but It wasn’t long before I could feel the bite of the dropping temperature with the sun setting behind the tall tree’s and be honest I was a little bit surprised having not seen a single sign of carp all afternoon. A few people had also arrived for a nights fishing and with all anglers well spaced out it would be a great opportunity to find out whether anyone saw anything of  worth to give me a clue for the rest of my session.

The night was cold, bitterly cold and I quickly had ice forming on the inside of the Trakker Cayman so I was glad of the Hot Water Bottle that was keeping my feet warm tucked in the bottom of my sleeping bag. It was a long night as I’m sure on dark I’d seen a few faint signs of carp down the other end of the lake where the other anglers had set up so I stirred all night wondering whether I might be missing out on the action and on day light I was soon on the phone to one of the other members and good friend Chris, who confirmed that he’d had a few liners throughout the night but no bites.

With the area stitched up I had no choice but to stay put and see whether anything turned up on the baited areas but 24hrs later, with still no action and no further signs when the area had become free I was soon on the move into one of the vacant swims, my end of the lake had become increasingly busier with a few pikes anglers turning up hurling massive dead baits around so it made the decision to move even easier and no sooner had I stopped with the barrow in the new area too scan the water I noticed a large line of bubbles which was clearly a carp moving up in the water in the warming temperatures. If only I’d followed my instincts and set up there 48hrs previous, hopefully lesson learned. I clearly had fish in the swim so I stuck to my tried and tested simple approach. I spread three Rigs at varying distances to try and find the fish. All three rods where set up with chod rigs incorporating ESP Size 5 stiff riggers, 25lb Bristle Filament and ESP camo Lead core. Baits where 16mm Sticky Baits white chocolate pop-ups fished over a light scattering of a dozen or so 16mm Vortex boilies deposited from the Korda throwing stick.

To cut a long story short over the next 36hrs I managed to catch two lovely cold water carp and leathery mirror of 25.06 and a cracking 25.08 linear with big plate like scales. Going over the session in my mind on the way home I was a little bit disappointed with myself for getting it wrong too start with it just proves sometimes you have to ignore you head and follow your instincts and I’m sure if I had on this occasion I perhaps could have put a few more fish on the bank but equally I was happy and relieved to have caught a lovely couple of mid twenty mirrors in difficult conditions so we live a learn, it’s all part of this wonderful sport.

It was a good few weeks before I managed to get back down the lake again with work and family commitments eating up two consecutive weekends. I had a couple of days off planned in over the run up to the Easter bank holiday and I’d planned in a 48hr trip. As you’re probably all too aware the weather was atrocious, with day time temp’s struggling to hit two or three degrees but with the extended daylight hours I thought it would be worth a go anyway. Those who dare and all that.

The first 24hrs went without any significance worth talking about other than the lake starting to freeze again and a nice dusting of snow on my Trakker Cayman so with no sightings or captures I decided to call the session short and went home with my very cold tail between my legs to enjoy some Easter festivities with the family. The lake was busy for the next week as the new season had started and they were all super keen to get there first night in but very little was caught, the weather remained unsociable with cold easterly winds and when the weather man forecast a drastic change in weather with temperatures climbing almost ten degree’s and strong warm south westerly winds I quickly booked a couple of days off to try and be there at the right time, the big common was due out any day and I was expecting a text message any day reporting it’s capture.

I’d booked the Wednesday and Thursday off work so I decided to take a trip over to the lake on the Sunday after what had been a very warm day to see if I could work out what the fish were up to. The lake looked completely different in the late afternoon sunshine with warm oranges and reds reflecting off the still water’s surface. There was plenty of sludge floating around on the surface where the weather had warmed the bottom of the lake causing it to gas up and more evidently the amount of insect activity had gone mental, clearly the warm weather had caused some kind of fly hatch.

After only a few minutes watching I saw two carp top out simultaneously in front of me and then a very big common, certainly one of the big girls pushed out of the water and slid across the surface before dive back down to the depths too my right in front of one of my favourite swims on the lake. The Swim is tucked away in a corner with a snaggy tree line to it’s left and on occasions in the past had produce the lakes big common as well as several good fish for myself too 30lb the previous summer.

I decided with my return trip planned for later that week to bait the area where I’d seen the big fish show and then another swim that receives the south westerly winds down the opposite end of the lake to give myself a few options depending on the reliable of the weather man. I split about a kilo of Sticky Baits Vortex 16mm boilies between the two areas. With the Wednesday and Thursday booked off I spent a couple of days keeping my head down at work whilst anxiously keeping an eye on the weather forecast that was changing daily and by Tuesday evening the predicted south westerly had decided to do it’s best impression of a brisk Easterly.

When I finished work on the Tuesday I went straight to the lake and engulfing a large portion of sausage and chips on route and on arrival was greeted with the pleasant surprise of only two cars in the car park, the only problem being there was an angler set up in the swim I’d pre-baited a few days previously. I did a few circuits of the lake and the other area I’d baited in the south westerly corner just looked lifeless so I set up in an area of the lake where I’d seen the fish showing on the Sunday evening, it gave me a good view of the area I’d baited and the opportunity to observe whether anything would give it’s presence away as the easterly wind lapped into the swim.

On dark a big fish pushed itself clear of the snag in the far corner and then again only a few seconds later, I could make out the big white ripples in the dying light even from a hundred and forty or so yards away. I was down the right end of the lake but still a long way away from the fish and wasn’t surprised when I awoke a first light with very little action on the buzzers to report upon. I spent a few hours watching the water in the hope that something would show in front of me but by 9.30am I hadn’t seen a thing and I wasn’t surprised shortly after to see the angler over in the corner snags swim with a rod in hand bent double. I decided to reel in and go and help out assuming that he’d had a bit of action during the night. For his efforts he was rewarded with a lovely 21lb leather carp and I was surprised to hear that it was the only fish he’d caught. After a brief chat he mentioned that he’d seen a fare bit of activity in the area just on dark and was a little disappointed to have to be leaving shortly. This was music to my ears to be honestly so I quickly asked if  he’d mind me dropping in after he left, which he didn’t and I quickly popped back to my swim, packed up the gear and was quickly back with my barrow parked a little way along the bank to secure the swim. I left the lad to it not wanting to disturb his fishing and went and had a brew with another member who’d arrived that morning. By about midday the swim became vacant and I set about getting the rods out. My left hand rod was flicked into the corner just off a marginal snag and baited with two handfuls of vortex 16mm boilies, the rigs were simple ESP Ghost fluorocarbon bottom rigs couple with a ESP long-shanx size 7 hook, the bait was mounted on a straight through stiff knotless knotted hair which helped avoid problems with the big roach the lake holds and finished off nicely with a small shrink tube kicker. The hook bait was a standard Vortex 16mm boilie which had been glugged in a mixture of Sticky Baits Krill liquid and rock salt. The middle rod was cast further out toward a snag at about 40 yards in some nice deep silty margin area, the same rig and again baited with two good handfuls of boilies. The left hand rod was cast further out into the lake straight in front of the swim to a nice flat silty area I’d caught fish from in the summer, a soft thud on the dropped confirmed I was bang on with the cast. On this rod I fished a Sticky Baits pineapple pop-up on my ever faith ESP chod rig running on the leadcore. This was baited up the same as the other rods but with the bait being slightly more spread out, perhaps over the size of half a tennis court. The reason I’d changed to a yellow pineapple hook bait was after a bit of research I realised that in previous years the big common had shown a preference early season to yellow pop-ups and although I normally prefer white, I had to give a try.

The day was extremely warm and I even managed to sit outside in nothing a T-shirt and get some well required sun into my skin. I got a massive boost in the middle of the afternoon when I caught sight of a low twenty common swim through the shallow water, making the most of the warm sunshine at the front of the swim, it was my first proper sighting of a fish for a long while and if there was one around I was more than content that a few of his scaly friends wouldn’t be too far away either.

As the afternoon ebbed away, probably around 4pm a fish threw itself clear of the water over my rod fish in the silt just as a friend Richard popped in for a chat, he commented on seeing the fish just to confirm I wasn’t seeing things and decided after a nice little catch up to fish a few swims round to my right. Around 6pm the weather changed drastically, the wind swung Easterly, what had been blue sky’s filled with grey clouds and there was a hint of drizzle in the air. As I sat cooking myself some tea I started hearing fish turning gentle in the waves that were lapping into the bank and it wasn’t long before the cold wind had me hidden away in the Fox TS sleeping bag. I woken at 11.30pm when my left hand rod fished into the corner snag let out half a dozen bleeps into the dark breezy night. I slipped the boots on to investigate the rod and the line was held up tight so I quickly cranked the spool on the reel and struck into what ever was on the end. I was meet with resistance, clearly a carp before it started swimming straight toward me, to be honest the fight lasted only a few short minutes, plodding in front of the swim before finding itself in the bottom of my landing net. On the scales she went 23.08lb and was my first fish of the new season, a lovely golden common. I quickly did some self takes, slipped her back and got the rod back into position. All the time I could hear fish sloshing in the waves so I stood a very good chance of catching another.

The next thing I knew was the right hand rod was shrieking at me, again just pulling up tight and almost bouncing. I ran out into the cold wind a drizzle and struck into the sea serpent on the end and was a bit surprised as it felt like I’d hooked the bottom with nothing move, then the bottom started moving and became a very slow and heavy feeling fish. For a while I just pumped it toward me but then what ever it was decided to but a few yards between me and it and slowly but powerfully strip line from the spool heading out into the lake. At this point my mind started to wonder, had I hooked one of the lakes big commons. This procedure repeated itself another three or four times, neither of us wanting to give an inch. My hand were freezing but after about 15 minutes I felt the fish come up the marginal shelf and I saw a big pale shape ghost past me in the shallow margins. From that point I knew it was the lakes big common and it huge shoulders broke surface. I jumped into the margins and scooped with my ESP sniper net and engulfed my prize. I quickly grabbed the tail too check the top lobe which is missing and although it was clear from the bulk of the carp it I had to convince myself I’d done it. With the help of another member the fish was weighed in the trakker retention sling at 40.00lb exactly and photographed in all her fine winter colours, big gold scales and a glowing red belly. My quest for my first 40lb common was over and after giving her a big sloppy kiss I reluctantly slipped her back into her cold watery home to make some body else’s dream come true.



Robs Tackle Box:

Daiwa Basia QD Trakker Cayman Bivvy ESP Stiff Rigger Hooks Trakker Armo Retention Sling ESP Bulk Leadcore