Jake's Blog - Part One

Hello Crafty Readers
Welcome to the first of my online blogs.

This last month has been busy both on and off the bank. What with work, fishing and a girlfriend, I don’t have much spare time, but I’m loving life. In the summer I was luckily enough to help out at a couple of Korda’s Carpfest events, which was a great opportunity to meet some nice people, I really enjoyed showing people a few tricks and also learning a few myself, so if you get the chance next year, it’s definitely worth attending. And who knows, I might just be there; if I am, make sure you come over and have a chinwag, and ask me any questions on stuff you are not 100% sure about.

With winter now here, I tend to fish a couple of lakes. I am lucky enough to have a winter ticket on a low-stocked 30-acre gravel pit in Oxford, which has some great people on there. We have had some good socials and have seen some proper old English carp; they sure do love the Baitworks range, and more than half the members are using it. I have had two takes and lost both of them, but next time I am going there with a plan, and hopefully I’ll have one out. The lake can only be fished from October until March, so I must start putting in some hard work – as we all know, effort equals rewards. I also fish some local club waters, to get a bend in the rods and make sure what I am using actually works, and sometimes I head to Linear Fisheries if I am meeting up with a few mates for a social. This is where I ended up recently, when a good friend of mine, Oz Buchan, rang me up and asked the old man and me if we wanted to do a session with him and his daughter Amy on Friday 18th November until 20th November. He also asked if I would give Amy some tuition because she doesn’t listen to her dad! With no hesitation I said yes, and what a good time we had. I have met Amy a few times at BYCAC events; she is always there for the week with Oz and is always making brews for everyone, and fair play to her, she is getting good at it. Oz has been a marshal from the start of the BYCAC event, so I was more than happy to go and do a session with them and do a bit of tuition with Amy. This is something I have been thinking of doing for a couple of years now, so it would give me a chance to see if it was for me or not. I really enjoyed teaching Amy and will hopefully be doing tuitions next year, so if you’re interested, get in contact with me via Facebook. When we arrived at Brasenose One at Linear to do the session, the wind was blowing a hoolie and some things were difficult to do, but a lovely scaly mirror of 15lb 4oz saved a blank for Amy, which was a bonus with the lake fishing really hard. My old man went camping again and blanked, and Oz lost one, but I was lucky enough to winkle four out to 23lb, so not bad. Brasenose usually fishes better at this time of year, but we couldn’t really complain about the result.

I have also been on the bank with an old school mate of mine, Jordan Sweet, who has just started getting into carp fishing. So, with a couple of hours of me teaching him about rigs and how to tie them, we decided to go and put them to the test on a local club water. Let’s just say he was more than happy with his newfound skills, and we landed a total of seven carp and lost two, and he broke his personal best twice. The first time it was a 19lb 4oz mirror, and then shortly after that he beat it again, with his new personal best of a 23lb 12oz mirror carp. This encouraged Jordan even more. On the way home we treated ourselves to KFC, and as we were eating, we decided to go back there asap because we really enjoyed ourselves. After all, that’s what fishing is all about. We decided we were going to tie some more rigs one night in the week, and decided to go back to the local club water on the following Saturday (which was the first hard frost that we have had), armed with some new pop-ups from Baitworks; they are white and pink 10mms and are called Sent from Heaven, and will be released soon. You must have a pot of these with you at all times; they are something else and have saved me from blanks on so many occasions this year! The fish just couldn’t resist the white 10mms; eight fish fell to me and Jordan, with the biggest being a 17lb 9oz mirror. There was only one other carp out to the geezer next to us, and that was caught on the new pop-ups as well; I had given him a couple to try out. We really have been enjoying it out there, and our target is to catch 100 fish from there before February, which is going to be tough! This is just what you need to keep you going through the winter. It’s a mega-buzz with the rods going off in the cold conditions, and it gives you loads of confidence.

I hope you all have a good Christmas and a great new year.

Until next month, tight lines,
Jake Taylor.

Winner Stays On - The Battle Of Naseby

Currently with Alexei, Harry, Lewis Read and Tom Oliver they're competing for the winner stays on title on Naseby Res in Northampton. It's cold and it's wet. To top it off it's muddy as hell. You'll find out how the match went in the February issue of Crafty Carper.

Tight lines.

James - Team CC

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A day at the races

On Thursday 15th December it was time for the annual Angling Publications Christmas day out. Southwell races was the venue and a good day was had by all. Some better than others when it came to having a couple of quid on the gee gee's. By 2pm the meal had ended, though the drinks were still flowing and the horses still racing. To be honest I think there may still be a couple yet to cross the line!!

By no later than 2.15pm the first casualty had been accounted for and as ever it was Tim Jnr. He also slept all the way back home on the mini bus. I'm sure there'll be a few more blog posts coming from others with regards to the do so i'll leave the full version of events in their capable hands.

Until next time.

James - Team CC

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The Abbey Lakes Bailiff's Blog - Part One.

Crafty Carper have secured the services of Ru Whiteman to send us a monthly blog from the banks of the famous French carp fishery - Abbey Lakes. This is the first installment of The Abbey Lakes Bailiff's Blog and with things easing off slightly, in the run up to the Xmas period, Ru actually manages to get some fishing of his own in!

While waiting for the infamous Point swim on Heron lake, I decided to settle into Peg 6 on Fox Lake mainly because all the going swims were sewn up but also so I didn't have too far to move my gear when the chance to switch lakes arose! Peg 6 commands a nice area of water where you can see what's occuring across the whole lake but the centre of Fox is relatively bare at this time of year and is basically an incredibly wide strip of (sand and) silt, maybe 80yds across and about 300 yds long. It's been a very mild Winter so far but with the recent dip in temperatures, the Carp seem to have searched for and settled into any remaining weed beds where I believe the water is slightly warmer at present?! With this in mind I decided to bait my barren section of the lake quite heavily, and see whether I could tempt the fish back out into open water? This turned out to be easier said than done once a strong south westerly blew up (and stayed for the next 10 days) and drove down the lake towards the 'holding' weedbeds about 200 yards away!!

Plotted up on Fox Lake waiting for a move to Heron Lake.

I found three spots which had nothing more to offer than minor changes in depth, all at a range of between 65-120 yards. I then sticked out around 2-3kg of 18mm Cell boilies and Spombed around 5kg of mix containing matching Response pellets, Hemp, Jolly green giant, Tuna and good ole' Salmon Whiskas to each, sat back and waited.

During the first night I had a run on my right hand rod which was on the 120yd mark, after a short tussle I managed to bank a lovely scaley 30+ Mirror. No more action was forthcoming and I reeled in the following morning, sticked another kilo or so of boilies over the swim and rested it for the day.

On day 3, I had a screaming take on the long range rod again at dawn but couldn't stop the fish, it took maybe 100 yards of line on it's first run and if you asked me again now, I'd still swear it was a 100lb+ Catfish.. Only problem being, there are NONE in Fox lake! This tug of war went on for about 20 minutes, every time I pulled, it just pulled back harder and added a few more precious yards between us until after a while, everything just locked up solid. I now had big problems as I didn't want to put the rod down or ease off the pressure on the fish so was stuck in the swim with the rod held high and on a (fairly) tight line for over 3 hours waiting for someone to wake up and come to my rescue! Once we had a boat in the swim, I donned a life jacket and set about dealing with whatever was attached to the end of my line?! I had to row over 200 yds just to get to the fish, only to discover to my horror that it wasn't there, it had simply used a thick clump of silkweed like a roundabout, pivoted on it and was actually some way off down the lake, back the way I'd just come!

As darkness fell is was time to settle the score!

To cut a long story short, after a further 45 minutes of pissing around, hanging off the side of the boat up to my armpits in water, I retrieved the rig from a weed bed no more than 25 yards out from the front of my swim.... Sick as a Parrot.. (Doesn't even come close!) as we have a Carp called Cheeky that's long over due a visit to the bank, it probably weighs way in excess of 75-80lbs now and it's probably the only one big enough to have that much power in reserve? In hindsight, not once did I feel like I had the upper hand or was even remotely in control of the fight!!

During the day I again chose to rest the swim, sticking out another helping of Cell in the vicinity and sat back to wonder what might've been? Just after dark I had the chance to make amends, this time it was the left hand rod fished close in that let out a couple of bleeps, I was on it in a flash as I didn't want this one building up a head of steam again! I knew the fish was a nice one, just a few long but slow lunges against a tight clutch were a telltale sign and after a short fight I had a really chunky, wide fish in the bottom of the net, happy days! On the scales, it went 51lb exactly, I was made up, as after such a long period of time on the banks of Abbey, it was only my 3rd ever Carp over the magical mark!!

At 51lb exactly it made the effort all seem worhwhile.

The 4th day proved pretty uneventful, I had the rods out all day as at long last I had a few fish rolling in the area and the odd one appeared to be heading my way from the far end of the lake as well, so things should've been looking up but nothing of note happened bar a little common mid-afternoon!

Winter has arrived!

 Early on day 5 and I had a fast take on the long range rod, this one had ideas to put as much distance between us as possible and felt like another good 'un from the off! It had been raining hard during the night and I was having difficulty staying on my feet in my flip flops as the combined effects of a steep bank, wet grass, dodgy footwear and an angry carp tugging away made getting a firm footing impossible! After 20 minutes I had what appeared to be another chunk on a short line close in, after a few last minute bids for freedom in the marginal weed, the fish rolled and I shot forward to net it.. In doing so, I finally lost my footing and slid straight up to my knees in the lake!! Anyway, the Carp was safely in the folds of the net so I sat there and smiled to myself that it was nothing a towel and a swift change of clothes wouldn't put right.. Wrong! As I stood up, I lost all traction again and proceeded to go straight back in the lake, up to my nuts this time!! Despite the mild Winter so far, I can assure you that this isn't something I'd encourage in December, choir boy springs to mind!

A hot shower, warm clothes and then pic with a 49-pounder!

I then did something I don't normally condone and made the fish safe for the night in a recovery sling as I really needed to get back to the Clubhouse, take a nice warm shower and thaw out a bit! At first light I made my way back to the swim and got everything ready for the photos, the carp was indeed another cracker and the needle swung around to 49lb 10oz, well worth the grief of the previous night!

My rigs as ever, were made of 8" lengths of RigMarole's Hydrolink, these have a hinge 2" from the hook with a Korda sinker just before it, a size 4 Fox SSSP Hook, a Fox Line Aligna Adaptor tidies the business end up and they're attached to an Avid in-line groove 4.5oz lead and 4' of Fox's new adaptive camo leadcore via a quick link, which I always fish 'drop off' style to combat the notorious weed here!

Since then, the weather has taken a serious turn for the worse and we're experiencing the winds and rain that have been bothering England over the past week or two so I haven't got the rods back out. It just goes to show what can be achieved in the colder months though. After five days, I had banked four fish, not enough to set the world alight admittedly but given the choice over being stuck indoors or here, I know what I'd have chosen every time!

Hans sees the weight confirmed at a collosal 83lb 11oz.

As a footnote, the six guys who'd had the foresight to get in swims at the windward end of the lakes had an incredible run of big fish, I/they didn't keep full details on all their captures but they still notched up over 30x 20kg (44lb) Carp, 12 different 50's and one lucky sod, Hans, banked Shoulders at an amazing weight of 83lb 11oz.

Shoulders the King of Heron Lake!

Until next time

Ru.

The Session at Larford

just finished shooting the session at Larford lakes in Worcester with Kev and Bart where they have adopted the popular match fishing approach of the flat-bed method feeder to fish for carp. To find out how they got on make sure you pick up the February issue of Crafty Carper.

James - Team CC

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Confessions of a Rainbow virgin – day 7.

Friday was a good day – I’d landed my personal best mirror late into the hours of big fish Thursday and despite having not slept a wink on the Thursday night I felt great! The weather didn’t show signs of improving today and eventually the lack of sleep caught up on me – I was ruined by 7am in the morning!

Slipping back the chunk after the photos.

 Just after first light with the pictures done of my new PB, I redid the rod fished over the bars in 9ft of water with exactly the same rig that had nobbled the 57-pounder – double tiger nut with an Enterprise Immortal plastic boilie 10mm in the middle – spaced out a bit like a kebab rig. 

The rig that nobbled the 57-pounder - the only difference was the Immortal boilie was white!

From the start of this trip I’d set my stall to try and winkle a bite off of each spot so with 2 nights remaining I needed to speed things along a little and try and tempt another bite off this spot but with sensible bait application. The biggun’ had crapped out in the recovery sling exactly what I needed to see – a mix of hemp, tiger and boilie poo – exactly what I’d previously baited the spot with! She must have been having it away munching her way down a 60yd baited stretch in the deep water, between the bars, enjoying her free meal before, BANG - I’d hooked her! I just love it when a plan comes together!

The 40lb Power Pro mainline braid and my aging Shimano Aerlex reels performed without fault - this combo was awesome in fact!

For the record the rig that nailed the 57-pounder had been out there in position for the best part of 4 days – so you kinda see where I’m coming from when I say I needed to speed things along as I only 2 nights left to get another bite from that spot! I was so confident with the baiting and rig positioning previously that I really couldn’t have done anything any better, so it was just a case of waiting until a chunk came along – which she did! In the back of my mind the longer the rig was out there – the better the chance of a biggie and that’s the way it worked.

On re-doing the rod, I dispensed with any form of PVA bag and just trickled in ½ pint of hemp and crushed tigers, 10 brazil nuts halved, two handfuls of pellets and 20 halved boilies all scattered in a 10yd area – that was it. With this plan sorted and the rod re-done my mind moved to which rod might go next – that was two rods I’d had bites from and I had two to go!

To the left of the ducks is a small island with an overhanging tree - the spot was just underneath this branch.

My banker rod going into Friday night was my left-hander. I’d hatched another plan earlier in the week on a tasty little spot that I’d been told about by a mate. On Tuesday morning I’d been out in the boat and investigated an overhanging tree that just looked like a really likely ambush point. After tying the boat into the tree I had a good feel around with the prodding stick and the bottom in one particular tight spot close to the edge of the tree was 7ft deep and rock hard – that’s the feeding spot then! I baited with 2kg of chopped boilies along with a good mix of hemp, crushed tigers, Tuna amino liquid and mixed pellets. In total I baited with 5kg of wet mix – all of which I poured straight down onto this little hard dinner plate I’d previously found.  With the spot baited I decided to leave this as my fifth spot and come onto it later in the week if one of my other four spots wasn’t looking likely for a bite! This move to bait and leave was to become a decisive move but I’ll get to that in a minute as to why!

On Thursday morning I decided to move one of rod that I was fishing out over the bars (the other rod on the bars eventually produced the 57) onto this left-hand spot. This new spot was only 40 yards down to my left but it required a bit of careful positioning with the boat and generally it was an awkward trap to set but after 20 minutes of faffing around in the boat and another kilo of my hemp/ pellet/tiger/boilie mix over the top my hookbait was positioned and the trap was set.

Life jacket at the ready closest to the rod I thought my go next - I was right!

As darkness descended on Friday evening I was absolutely dead on my feet and decided to half zip the bivvy door down to keep the damp evening air out of the bivvy and try and catch up on some much-needed sleep. I crashed out a 6.30pm only to awake an hour later feeling like it was 6am in the morning. I resigned myself that sleep just wasn’t going to happen, got the kettle on for a strong coffee and sit there in the semi-darkness of my bivvy and listen for fish. As I was supping on my brew I heard a fish roll over the spot down to my left – game on they had finally found the bait! Suddenly I wasn’t tired as the plan hatched on the Tuesday was starting to come together. 

 

8pm and whack the left-hand rod alarm went into spasm-mode and I’m doing battle once again. With the clever use of a bankstick placed on a shallow bar opposite the actual spot my plan was to crank from my end and pull the fish away from any danger and out into open water and then go and deal with it in the boat. The plan worked perfectly - I made 10 turns on the reel and with Tim’s help I manoeuvred the boat through the shallow gap between the islands and off I disappeared into the evening mist for another open-water boat battle. As I approached the area I could see that my float was well away from the overhanging tree and the fish was just plodding around deep down in 9ft of water. I lifted the line from around the bankstick and was then in direct contact with the fish – she felt a pretty decent one too. A couple of lunges later and a few efforts to spin the boat I caught my first glimpse of a battle-scarred common in my headtorch. She had a distinctive mark on one side of her flank and seemed pretty peeved that I’d managed to extract her from her feeding spot. Two deep lunges later and up she came and into the net first time. I was elated – my baiting tactic had worked, the rig positioning must have been bang-on and the simple use of a bankstick had given me the line angle to pull the fish away from the snag and out into open water!

I beached the boat on one of the shallow small islands and took a closer look - she looked at least 40lb but I was faced with a dilemma of how to get me and the fish back to the bank. The shallow bar between the two islands directly in front of my left-hand rod was too shallow to get through with the fish held by the side of the boat. Decision time…what to do? Then I figured it – unhook her in the net, roll down the net and place her on top of the unhooking mat that I’d laid in the front of the boat. Well it worked a treat and I was able to get enough speed up with the motor to lift the engine as I got to the shallow bar to drift into my mooring point – I must be a dead jammy git as it worked first time with a little assistance from a bankstick as an oar!

Tim presumed I’d lost the fish but I soon explained that the carp was secured inside the boat inside the mat, he laughed and congratulated me on my improvisation to get around a fairly tricky problem. After letting the fish recover in the sling for a few minutes we weighed her and the needle spun past 45lb and came to rest at 49lb exactly! Holy sh*t I’d just landed a PB common too, less than 24hours after landing a PB mirror – what a trip this was turning into, a red-letter one for sure!

Second personal best in less than 24 hours - this time it was a 49lb common!

Tim did the honours with the photos once again and nailed em’ - the fish was a real old warrior with well-healed battle scars on both flanks, certainly a distinctive carp moe than a pretty one! She behaved perfectly for me as we did the pictures and with her returned to her home I shuffled back to bed a very happy carp angler indeed!

Well this entry concludes my confessions of a Rainbow virgin blog! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my ramblings as much as I have putting them together sat on my laptop in my bivvy on the banks of one of the most amazing carp lakes in the world. This blog was all about what was going on in my mind as it happened, when it happened, blow-by-blow written at the place it was all going on. I can’t really sum up this trip in one poignant sentence so I’ve decided not to even bother trying – the way I see it, I fished well, I had a plan, I stuck to it and it eventually paid off for me. The best bit for me isn’t about the PB’s it’s that this Rainbow virgin ain’t a virgin no more – now I’m a Rainbow angler – job done, can’t wait to go back! Thanks for reading, Jerry Team CC.

Home time - but this time by plane!

Special thanks to Pascal & Nadine Jousseaume, Tim Paisley, Frank Warwick, Lewis Porter, Scott Day, Martin Locke, George Csonka, John Lilley, Matt Rand, Andy Pethick, Paul Musson, John Walker, Dave Chilton and Lewis Read for all your help and support before and during the trip!

Confessions of a Rainbow virgin – day 6.

The weather was on the change - it felt freezing!

Thursday turned out to be a cold, cold late November day, totally unlike the incredible warm sunny days we’d experienced during the early part of the week. It was almost as though a switch had been flicked from summer to winter during one phase of never-ending darkness. Following the captures of Tim’s 65 and Tom’s 82, our spirits were so high and there was a real buzz around the whole lake as we entered big-fish Thursday. Something I’ve witnessed this so many times on overseas trips that do a roll-on, roll-off system on a Saturday. Basically imagine this – you arrive at the lake Saturday, you’re knackered and generally it’s carnage as everyone gets into their swims and generally causes loads of disturbance. At Rainbow it’s been no different – Saturday was slow, Sunday the odd fish were getting picked off and then as things started to settle down, so naturally do the carp as well. By Monday, bait has been on the spots for three days and the fish seem to respond by being slightly less cautious. By Wednesday / Thursday things are getting even better – the fish are accustomed to where they can feast around the lake and as the bait starts to be gorged those biggun’s start to get confortable, they trip up and get caught.

Motor at the ready!

 For me Thursday was great day, witnessing an 80-pounder on the bank is an experience I’ll never forget as long as I live but for me personally it was soon to get even better. Back in swim 21, nothing had changed dramatically except for the large banks of mist and fog that were drifting in just before dusk. It was cold, damp and generally pretty gloomy, BUT, and a big but, it was big-fish Thursday and Thursday wasn’t done just yet! By 10pm I was pretty fed up of the mist drifting into my bivvy and everything, including me felt damp. My crocs had been replaced by my winter thermal boots and the new Fox winter suit was cracked on as I huddled over the stove, perched on the edge of my bedchair trying to keep warm. After trying to upload yesterday’s blog several times and failing, I resigned myself to getting my head down and crashing out. I think I’d only just dozed off when my middle right rod let out a series of short, sharp bleeps. I jumped up, boots on, glasses on (steamed up) and went to investigate. The rod tip rocked again in my headtorch light and Tim who was by this time by my side said the same thing as I was thinking – “that’s on boy”! I retracted the rod from the butt rests, hit it and sure enough there was indeed something attached to the end – game on! 

Darkness descended - little did I know what the evening would bring in my direction!

 Life jacket on, into the boat and the old heart was pumping again and the reliable right leg doing it’s shaking thing again! I gradually wound myself over the first bar 30yds out, carefully navigating under my other two rods and then I had a clear run out to the fish. At this point the mist was savage and my headtorch for all its power was bouncing back off the fog and I was forced to drop it down a power notch just to be able to see where the hell I was heading. Before long I passed a landmark white post that was about half way between the bank and the spot, good I was getting there. As I gradually kept making line I caught glimpse of my float and a massive swirl erupted behind it. As soon as the fish saw me coming it tried to bolt away and shifted some serious water in doing so, but it couldn’t move because the line was trapped under something. By this point I was only 20ft away from the fish but a shallow bar no more than 2ft deep separated me from the fish. I couldn’t go over it and there was no way this fish wanted to come over it - stalemate. At that point I was slightly overwhelmed – there were just too many things to consider and they were all going on at the same time – it was just too much for my small brain! I caught another glimpse of the fish as it rolled up onto its side to try and get over the bar and possibly away to freedom – it was big, very big and bigger than anything I’d ever hooked before. By this time both of my legs were shaking and because I was totally pumped with adrenaline it was making me feel physically sick.

Sickness aside my first issue to overcome was to get the line that was trapped under something free because it was stopping me from making any line on the fish and it was still a stalemate situation. I had the fish to my left, the float to my right and I was somewhere in between. I rocked the boat off the bar and moved with the motor in reverse over to my right. “Get your head together boy – this is a biggun” I kept saying to myself over and over. I dropped the rod into the boat and hand lined myself over to where the line was trapped. I could see my float bobbing about, so carefully I used a long bankstick with a rod rest on the end to run down the line under the water and try and ping it free. It worked a treat (thanks for the advice Andy) and the first hang-up came free. I was by now getting ever closer but the fish was still visible off to my left hand side swirling and trying to surge away. By this point I was totally disorientated and had no clue at all where I was in the lake. Still feeling sick I knew that I needed to worry about where exactly I was once the fish was in the net!

I refocused my mind on the fish and less about my whereabouts and slowly pulled the braid closer to the boat in my hands. I found the next hang up and literally managed to rip off the top of a tuft of sandy grass on top of the submerged bar and suddenly the line was free. Immediately the fish felt the line go slack and powered off back into the deeper water. I wound furiously to keep in contact and ‘bang’ I was hooped over again with direct contact with the fish in sensible water-depth.  I kept pumping and winding until my float and leader were at the tip rig – come on son, she’s nearly yours!  One more surge and she came up in the water and up popped a massive head – geez, this was it, do or die and waste the whole incredible experience with a hookpull or net her and get the hell out of there!

 I pulled the rod slowly back behind me and with my left arm fully outstretched I somehow managed to pull her massive head over the net cord. It seemed like time stopped when the fish was half in and half out but with one last pull this time she was mine! YES – GET IN, I’d done it, she was mine. I felt for that split second sat there in boat, cold, soaked to the skin, disorientated  that my whole fishing life had prepared me for that battle and my fishing experiences through my life had got me through it! It was an incredible feeling I can tell you.

It’s difficult to estimate fish weights from the water but from what I’d seen of the fish in the water this was a definite mid-50! Fish secured, motor down and I’m heading towards the only light I can see which I correctly presumed was Tim’s headtorch.  Once ashore we did the weighing straight away…I was praying for the needle to go over 50lb for the first time and I was overjoyed when the Reuben’s confirmed a colossal carp weight of 57lb 8oz! A milestone had been reached and if I’d grinned any wider I would have given myself a Chelsea smile – what a result!

Job done - 57lb 8oz of Rainbow carp - buzzing!

By now it was midnight and I was still completely buzzed! Tim described the pre-described events as “totally epic” and in my small world for that moment I really can’t disagree. People will catch bigger fish than me this week but for me it was truly special - it was an amazing battle, from a massive fish on an incredible lake. I was shattered …mentally and physically done in!  What a night – roll on the next one eh!

Until tomorrow, Jerry Team CC.

Confessions of a Rainbow virgin – day 5.

The remainder of yesterday (Wednesday) passed without incident, there was no more action on any of the rods during the morning feeding spell for either myself or Tim so I made a quick dash to the shops to top up our dwindling supplies. Once I was back in the swim I decided to move one of my rods down to my left underneath a snag tree and with that mission completed I sat and did a bit of keyboard tapping and caught up on some phone calls. Later that afternoon Tom Duncan-Dunlop popped by for afternoon tea which lasted until just before dusk. Before we knew it the sun was making its evening descent behind the trees and another 14 hours of darkness was a fast-approaching reality. It seems that when it gets dark here at Rainbow the whole lake comes alive; fish started boshing on two of Tim's spots and the Coypu seemed to make a beeline for our swim to polish off the old bait that I was using to keep them away from my bivvy! I stayed up listening into the early hours and eventually crashed out about 1am. The next thing I recall is hearing a commotion coming from Tim's side of the swim; he'd only gone and bagged one! I pulled on my boots, navigated through Tim's rods to see a massive common in his landing net, a big smile on his face and him completely soaked to the skin. We both went to lift the fish out of the water in the net but it just wasn't happening & this fish was too big! I went and grabbed the weigh sling and slid it underneath the chunky common that was still inside the net. After hoisting her up on the scales the needle came to rest at 65lb exactly! Tim was thrilled and I was honoured to have shared the moment of such a mega capture. Word of captures soon spreads around the lake here and Martin Locke put it perfectly after I'd texted him about Tim's capture -The godfather has spoken, damn right!

Due to technical issues I'd planned to post this blog yesterday but my interweb connection has just disappeared &

 perhaps the misty / foggy weather is affecting my dongle speed (well quite). The weather turned totally overnight and the fog hung in the air all morning, so for the first time during this session t-shirt weather was forgotten and the winter clobber was needed for the morning fish-scanning session. Just before 11am, with little chance of the fog lifting, I'd just about given up on the fish spotting when Colin Richards (over on the island swim) rang to tell me that Tom Duncan-Dunlop had landed a chunk and I should get down there pronto to have a look. Well this carp was so large it was partially sticking out of the retainer sling - it was obviously of humungous proportions and had already been weighed in at an incredible 82lb! With my camera in hand I captured the whole moment with both digi vid and photos and the fish just looked like nothing I'd ever seen before; it was a carp, but just too big to really be a carp & it was collosal! So yeah what a day! I returned back to my swim shattered, I'd not slept much during the previous night and adrenaline of two monster fish had kept me fuelled. I sat down had a strong coffee and recalled what had just occurred during the past 24 hours. I'd caught my first Rainbow carp, Tim had nailed a 65lb common and Tom had landed the biggest common carp I'll probably ever lay eyes on in my life. What a great day in the office, it doesn't get much better than that. Until tomorrow, Jerry Team CC.

Confessions of a Rainbow virgin - day 4.

Day 4 Blues!

Doesn’t time just roll on so fast when you’re out fishing…days in the office never seem to past this fast! As I’m writing this I’m just through the half-way point of the trip and on one hand it seems like I’ve been here for ever – caught up in the Rainbow bubble, and then, in terms of days – it’s but a blink of an eye! Last night felt cold, really cold and the resident coypu paid me several visits during the night. Somehow they managed to savage some boilies that were air-drying in the tree on a make-shift washing line. I deliberately put some decoy baits (leftovers from last weeks’ anglers) on the lowest point of the line and soon after dark my long-tailed friends were feasting. They’ve become more tame as time has gone on this week but they still aren’t tame enough to get their photo taken properly - yet!

Tricky to see but there is a large greedy rodent-creature here!

Fishing wise I’ve still not been seeing much fish activity and last night (Tuesday night) passed without so much as a bleep on the alarms. At 8.30pm last night I was seriously starting to flag. I’d been up most of the previous night listening and trying to figure out if the carp were coming through into my side of the swim under the cover of darkness. By 9pm I was ready to crash but I fuelled myself with some French rocket fuel coffee, stuck on my jacket (as it was chilly) and stood on the top bank up to my left poised with the headtorch on full power to zap any areas where I heard any fish activity. I did hear enough activity to keep me interested, even though it was difficult to pinpoint exactly where the swirls were coming from. By 11pm I’d made a decision that in the morning I was going to move one rod off of one of my four main spots and investigate the bay down to my left – there seemed to be enough activity to warrant giving it a go at least! 

Chilli...con...carne!

 By 6.30am I gradually dragged myself out of the sleeping bag and whacked the kettle on for my first caffeine hit of the day. With one coffee down the hatch, I pulled on the jacket and stood once more on the high bank. I saw nothing but strangely, and almost in an eerie manner, the mist started to drift in engulfing everything around it. Then the mist then because a thick bank of fog...spooky times! By 8am the mist started to burn off and the sun once again reigned supreme and confirmed we were in for another cracking late-November morning. 

My carp house seemed more appealing than being stood outside...the sun was coming!

By 9am I was deliberating what the hell to do with the rods. Three of the rods I was happy with but I had made up my mind to move one down to my left. Then completely unexpectedly a couple of sharp bleeps sounded from my 4^th rod, the one positioned where the hookbait was positioned some 200yds away close to a small dot island. After the initial burst from the alarm, the clip pulled, the tip bounced and bent over…fish on! I legged it to the rod, picked it up like a demon and lifted into whatever was on the end. For a split second I was convinced I’d hit into thin air but thankfully I felt a kick from a carp on the end – come on!

After a bit of navigating under the other rods I was out in the boat winding down to the fish. In my head I was cool and focussed but for some reason my right leg was shaking uncontrollably and it wouldn’t stop! What the hell was I attached to? With a deep breath I passed over the first shallow bar some 30 yards out in front of me and turned the boat round and whacked on the engine and steered myself out to the fish, reeling steadily and dropping my rod on a tight line, either left or right to steer myself out to the carp zone! I was only a few yards away from the spot when I lost the tension in the line and momentarily I thought I’d dropped the fish. Fortunately I needn’t have worried as the fish kicked hard as my leader knot passed onto the reel…this was now battle time! I kept on winding and wound down to the top of my leadcore leader – now was the time to hold on and keep my nerve. The fish surfaced and I caught a glimpse of a golden-flanked common – not a massive one, but big enough to keep my right leg shaking like an epileptic baboon! Once more the fish tried to spin the boat but I just steered her left or right to keep myself straight. After five minutes of plodding around up she came and after a bit of a scramble with the net in she went! Yessssssss…..I so wanted to shout it out aloud but not wanting to sound like I Rainbow virgin who’d just netted his first fish, this shout only sounded inside my head! Relief was draped all over me – a fish in the net after getting a bite on a hookbait that had been in position for nearly 72 hours! With my leg returning to normal I grinned from ear to ear as I made my way back to terra firma with my prize. 

Get in there - 40lb of November carp! Nice tache too!

   

On the scales she went 40lb 10oz – not massive by Rainbow standards but for me it was a massive personal achievement and a huge sense of relief that I’d actually managed to catch one from a swim devoid of fish! Never give up – too damn right. 

Until tomorrow, Jerry.

Confessions of a Rainbow virgin - day 3.

Well I’m three nights into my eight night session and neither myself or Tim have managed to open our accounts. I had a weird occurrence yesterday morning when my rod tipped slammed down the alarm went mental and I struck what I thought was a take. Immediately the braid fell limp and my heart sank when I realised I’d been cut off. Later that morning I went out to the spot in the boat and dragged the it to see if the terminal gear was still down there. I was still unsure whether it had been a pick-up or whether one of the resident coypu had taken a liking to my line entering the water and had bitten it off! Either way I was a gutted – I’d said at the start of the trip that I wanted a bite…well I’d had one and now I wanted a fish! 

The prodding stick has been invaluable to find the hard spots.

The remainder of the day passed quickly and I managed to capture the early-morning sunrise and also the burning end-of-day when the sun quickly disappeared behind the trees directly in front of Tim’s swim. In short not much happened so it was a case of re-doing the rods and sitting on our hands waiting for the fish to arrive, which they hadn’t as yet! Tactically I’ve decided to not go mad with the bait as the guys who we followed into the swim hadn’t experienced a prolific week – perhaps three or so fished hooked.

Kebab anyone? Tigers and an Enterprise Immortal in the middle.

Tiger nuts seemed to be on the wanted list for hookbaits so I edged my bets and ‘tigered up’ on two rods and fished boilie on the other two with a mixture of oily hemp, pellets, crushed tigers and mixed-sized boilies in the mix I introduced over the top. Prior to the trip I’d been advised to go easy with the bait and to only introduce a pint of bait over each rod – that’d I’d done, plus a small scattering (for good luck) in the general area around where I was dropping the rigs. 

My remaining bait all labelled up and rationed for use each day.

 There have been several fish caught around the lake with the biggest reported so far being 67lb, a true monster, but not massive by Rainbow standards. So there you have it, the search for a carp continues from what really is the most incredible carp lake I’ve ever visited! Until tomorrow, Jerry. 

The view from Tim's swim as the sun sets on another late-November day.