CARPING ON
For a bloke who doesn't do a lot of carp fishing, I have an awful lot of carp rods. These days, the lighter versions serve me well for tench and barbel but just for once I decided to attempt a carp or two at Jubilee pools.
Pete and I have a favourite swim for roach and hybrid fishing on float rod and pole. It is just large enough to share which makes for a more social morning when the fish aren't biting. Every time I have fished it, carp have rolled along the treeline 40 yds away to the left. It always feels like a challenge to me. Today I decided to accept that challenge.
Fishing 8lbs hooklengths on a 10lbs mainline, I attached a six inch, hair-rigged size 8 to a loosely fixed in-line lead of an ounce. Both rods were rigged the same. A JB Walker Mk IV and a Mitchell 300 were utilized on the left casting to the treeline, while an Alcock's carp superb and 300 served to fish a spot 30 yards out in open water.
I do like a stringer so both rigs sported them, boilies in the margin and 14mm pellet out in the lake. A handful of baits over each and by 6.45 I was sitting back watching the world go by. It was a cold and rainy start, so cold in fact I nearly went back to the car for a jumper. A heatwave, 29 degrees, was expected by late morning so I stuck it out. I'm so glad I did, by 10 o clock it was sweltering hot.
My temper was not much helped by losing the first fish, hooked along the treeline, to some tree roots. I hate losing fish like that but it was a good sign that fish might feed there. They did as it happens, the same rod producing a brace of mirrors of around eleven pounds. A nice tench, just shy of four pounds added to the haul from that rod but it was marred at the end by the loss of a second carp to the roots.
A lesson learned here then, from now on I shall use my stepped up carp rod and 12lbs line for fishing close to cover. It's not as though they took any line to get to the snags, simply kiting into them but less give in the rod and thicker nylon may just resist the branches better. Out in the lake, an avon rod would suffice really. The other rod fished out in the open water was less productive however, a lot of early indications and a 6oz roach giving way to long periods of inactivity broken, just once, by the arrival, out of the blue, of a 9lbs common.
All in all, a fair mornings sport with no monsters banked but some more lessons learned. In fact following on from this, I fancy the lighter carp rods fitted with delmatics and 8lbs line on friday for the tench at the pool. I have some pellets in smaller sizes to try. You never know, it might just work as a way to sort out some of the bigger silvers and to that end, I may give it a go back at Jubilee. I have had some nice roach there pushing a pound and a half but never really established a way to catch them consistently. I prefer to float fish but any success might prove helpful.
Pete and I have a favourite swim for roach and hybrid fishing on float rod and pole. It is just large enough to share which makes for a more social morning when the fish aren't biting. Every time I have fished it, carp have rolled along the treeline 40 yds away to the left. It always feels like a challenge to me. Today I decided to accept that challenge.
Fishing 8lbs hooklengths on a 10lbs mainline, I attached a six inch, hair-rigged size 8 to a loosely fixed in-line lead of an ounce. Both rods were rigged the same. A JB Walker Mk IV and a Mitchell 300 were utilized on the left casting to the treeline, while an Alcock's carp superb and 300 served to fish a spot 30 yards out in open water.
I do like a stringer so both rigs sported them, boilies in the margin and 14mm pellet out in the lake. A handful of baits over each and by 6.45 I was sitting back watching the world go by. It was a cold and rainy start, so cold in fact I nearly went back to the car for a jumper. A heatwave, 29 degrees, was expected by late morning so I stuck it out. I'm so glad I did, by 10 o clock it was sweltering hot.
My temper was not much helped by losing the first fish, hooked along the treeline, to some tree roots. I hate losing fish like that but it was a good sign that fish might feed there. They did as it happens, the same rod producing a brace of mirrors of around eleven pounds. A nice tench, just shy of four pounds added to the haul from that rod but it was marred at the end by the loss of a second carp to the roots.
A lesson learned here then, from now on I shall use my stepped up carp rod and 12lbs line for fishing close to cover. It's not as though they took any line to get to the snags, simply kiting into them but less give in the rod and thicker nylon may just resist the branches better. Out in the lake, an avon rod would suffice really. The other rod fished out in the open water was less productive however, a lot of early indications and a 6oz roach giving way to long periods of inactivity broken, just once, by the arrival, out of the blue, of a 9lbs common.
All in all, a fair mornings sport with no monsters banked but some more lessons learned. In fact following on from this, I fancy the lighter carp rods fitted with delmatics and 8lbs line on friday for the tench at the pool. I have some pellets in smaller sizes to try. You never know, it might just work as a way to sort out some of the bigger silvers and to that end, I may give it a go back at Jubilee. I have had some nice roach there pushing a pound and a half but never really established a way to catch them consistently. I prefer to float fish but any success might prove helpful.
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