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During
past seasons whilst fishing the Fenland Drains, I
have been lucky enough to land many good Carp. With
the drains I fish being quite small, locating the
Carp isn't a problem, although not spooking them can
be! Having never Carp fished the Fenland Rivers
before, I really fancied a crack at them; location
on these however was going to be a lot more
difficult.
The
first decision I had to make was where I was going
to fish. The whole River looked the part with
overgrown banks and endless lily pad lined margins.
With weed on the riverbed being a huge problem, I
decided that raking a couple of swims a good week
prior to actually fishing them was called for. I
chose to rake two marginal spots and aimed to fish
two ledgers literally under the rod tips in both.
After the spots were raked, for the following week I
visited the spot every other night and baited with
Tiger Nuts and Particle Mix. I was confident that
the particles would get the Bream rooting around,
helping to clear the bottom weed further, whilst the
Tigers would remain to keep the Carp returning to
the spot.
After
a week, it was very apparent that the Bream had
moved in, but there was no sign of Carp
what-so-ever! Not to be undeterred, I set up two
bolt rigs with single Tigers, and got ready for my
first night river Carping. The night went by very
quietly, until I was woken around 2am by a couple of
bleeps and the bobbin stopping as it slowly hit the
rod - Bream I thought! As I slowly walked over to the
rod and picked it up, cursing the Bream which had
eaten my 'Bream Proof' bait, all of the sudden
only the free spool on the reel saved my rod from being
pulled from hands! Straight away it was quite
apparent I had hooked a Carp, and after a spirited
fight, my first River Carp was safely landed. At
15lb, it was hardly a monster, but an hour later it
was joined by a fish a little over 17, making it a
very nice start to my mini campaign.
After
the success of the first night, things just kept
getting better, with me going on to land my first
'20' River Common at 21lb 4oz. This was then beaten
a week later with a real fat fish of 22lb 12oz. All
in all I ended with around 10 fish, all of which
were immaculate double figure Commons. I only saw
one Mirror, but that story will wait for another
time. After about 3 weeks of great fishing, bites
soon started drying up, and other species started
calling, I soon decided it was time to target some
of the other occupants in my swim.... |
