Catching Up With The Monkeys Part I
Tom Clark
Well, what can I say about April, apart from it’s produced some of the best fishing I have had for along time and I feel that is down to the awesome bait SC25.The weather has been in the mid teens for most of the month, and the Carp have been cruising, turning their noses up at every mixer and zig I could throw at them. I have landed something like six carp this month, which is a excellent result for some of these old pits up north, landing one of my target fish from a local pit at 20lb 3oz.
The fish came at mid-day in unbelievable heat, off of a gravel bar in 4ft of water, on a SC25 14mm pop-up fished 1 inch off the deck with a Withy pool type styled rig. The rig incorporated a size 8, Korda wide gape B, 15lb E.S.P Striptease and E.S.P shrink tube. I would never dream of fishing a pop-up in such shallow/clear water in a normal fishing situation, but it was necessary as the fish were in an aggressive mood, and I felt a curiosity take was on the cards. This was the only fish that fell to my rods in a 4-day session and was one of 4 fish to come out of the pit in 2 weeks.
Since the carp have started moving, I’ve fished 4 blank nights in a row. I just couldn’t get a take no matter what I did, which is common on this water. There’s a lot of natural food in the lake at this time of the year and with the mega tricky residents it is difficult.
Any sort of pressure and the fish just go in to a shut-down mode, I remember one week, there were 8 of us on the 10 acre pit and not one came out. I think something like 4 fish have come out in the past 4 weeks. The lake is hard enough to fish when you have it to yourself, never mind sharing it with at least 6 other anglers.
I woke in the early hours of the morning to the sound of several large fish crashing in the bay to the right of me. I switched on my head-torch and stepped out into the warm night, looked across into the bay and was amazed by the amount of fish cruising through, into the open water. I looked to the right of my swim, along the bank known as the shelf, and was met with the sight of around 14 carp cruising open water.
I sat down. Suddenly things clicked, the reason behind the lack of takes! We were all fishing on the bottom, but fish simply weren’t at that depth. The rods had bottom baits on, and even if they had pop-ups, they weren’t fished more than 2-inches off the deck. It was all becoming clear, I needed to be fishing just under the surface. I was sure that zigs would land me a few fish whilst the others were struggling on the bottom.
The rigs consisted of 10lb Daiwa Sensor clear straight through to a size 8 Korda wide-gape B, finished with a 14mm SC25 pop-up, two 10mm OCM pop-ups or a bunch of Enterprise nite-glow fake grubs, fished on a Korda maggot clip (absolutely fantastic for night-zig fishing). My lead set-up was very simple, just a 3oz pear lead, very loosely attached to a safety clip. I prefer heavy pear leads for zig work, as it gives a great bolt effect once the Carp feels it. It also has the added bonus of coming free “mid-fight”, which makes playing the fish a lot easier.
I quickly reeled the rods in from the baited spots and tied up three zigs at different depths. I started with 12, 14 and 16 foot, as I knew the water in front of me was around 19 feet deep. I cast the first 12ft zig into the open water I’d first seen fish move into from the bay. The second 14ft zig was cast straight in front of me at about 60 yards range, in to roughly 20ft of water, and the third just off the shelf where I’d also caught a glimpse fish moving.
At first light, the solar quiver-lock pulled tight then dropped back on the right-hand rod. It was my first take after so many blank nights, I can’t tell you how good it felt! I hit into a solid resistance, that started to kite left back into the bay. I had to put a lot of side strain on the rod to turn the fish. In no time I had it in open water 10 yards in front of me. I felt the fish was mine, when suddenly all went slack. My heart dropped. I reeled franticly to take up the slack, just in case the fish had swum towards me. I felt nothing though, and placed the rod on the floor, convinced it had fallen off.
I sat down and reached for the kettle as I needed a cuppa to calm the nerves. I looked at my rod tip, just for a split second and noticed the tip bouncing. I picked the rod up and felt a strong resistance on the end. I couldn’t believe it, the fish was on!! I played the carp safely into the net and let out a sigh of relief. I just don’t know what had happened earlier in the fight. I was 100% sure the fish had slipped the hook, but when the carp gods are smiling anything can happen!! With the fish still in the deep margins safely in the net recovering, I rang Nick who was fishing 4 pegs down and said “Get the camera gear mate”. He was at my swim within minutes, and I lifted the fish on to the un-hooking mat. It definitely was a good’un, and by the looks of it an original too.
The stunning mirror went 24lb 13oz, not my biggest carp, but I felt it was by far the hardest I had worked for, and my god it felt good!! When the news spread everyone on the lake came round to ask how, and where, as they usually do!!
After I’d landed a few more fish from the pit on the zigs, I got my night permit through for a cracking little 8acre gravel pit with some tricky, but cracking looking residents! A good friend of mine, Luke Berzins, had been doing particularly well on this pit, so I felt it was time to give it a go with Luke, and start introducing the SC25 to these old warriors. After a few pre-baiting sessions, Luke decided to get down there and nailed a few of the cracking mirrors on the SC25 pop-ups (awesome). Having heard the news, I had to get down there.
On my first night I got bombed by the bream taking 14 altogether, all on snowman rigs consisting of 18mm bottom baits fished with 14mm pop-ups. I managed my first Carp from there the morning after, in the form of a corking little Common. It was taken from a very hairy swim which involved fishing locked up, with strong gear!
We are continuing to introduce the SC25 on our spots, and hopefully it won’t be long before one of the big girls is sitting in my or Luke’s hands, smiling for the camera. My usual fishing partner, Nick Williams, has stayed on rainbow and it won’t be long before he gets amongst the originals now that he is also on the sc25!
I will let you no how us northern monkeys get on soon.
All the best
Tom Clark
Now Read part II HERE |
