Hi and welcome to my blog, like the others I am going to do a review of 2009 and for 2010 I will do monthly reviews of what I have been upto. For anyone that doesn’t know I am the assistant editor of Carp Talk Magazine, so unfortunately my fishing time is somewhat limited.
Most of my time this year has been quick overnigther’s after work and the occasional weekend. It was a slow start to the year as a lot of my time was taken up by helping my good friends Danny and Phil, they had set up Majestic Pool and a lot of time and effort was needed to get the place up and running. I won’t bore you with all the details as Danny has gone has gone through this in his blog. I did manage to catch a fair few carp from there on short test sessions, resulting in some stunning fish  and a nice start to my fishing for the year.

My first proper session of the year was an NCFF forum social at Yately Sandhurst Lake in April, this is one of the best day ticket lakes I have ever fished with a massive head of big fish. I had fished it a couple of times before and had a few fish to low 30’s. Because of my previous visits I had a good idea on how I wanted to fish the lake on this session, the lake receives a lot of pressure and a lot of bait, so I didn’t want to be putting more out as I knew I would  be fishing over other peoples bait anyway. My first line of attack and something I use quite a lot these days,  was chod rigs. I didn’t want too cause much disturbance with a marker so the “choddies” were ideal.

I was lucky enough to get into a swim with a few fish showing in front, so two “choddies” were cast towards the area the fish had been showing, no bait was put out so I had stuck to my plan of attack. Several fish showed over the next couple of hours and it was whilst I was sat behind my rods that one decided to scream off. When I picked up the rod I felt a solid resistance and knew straight away it was a good fish.  The fish was pulling line off the spool and kiting into the margin to my right, about 40 yards along the bank!! The fish had gone over Josh’s line to my right and nearing some over hanging trees, luckily Josh sunk his tips and the fish came back to my swim without too much commotion. A few minutes later and the fish was back in front of my swim rolling towards the net, once in the net I realised it definitely was a good one, on the scales it weighed 33lb 10oz, a new P.B by a few oz’s and I was absolutely buzzing.

A good social with an Indian takeaway followed and the fish decided to move to a different area of the lake. Sunday morning was a different story though as a few fish had decided to move back in front of me, I quickly redid the rods and cast them towards the activity. We were due to leave at lunchtime and with only a couple of hours to go one of the rods ripped off again. This was a much less stressful fight and after a few minutes I could see a nice common twisting and turning  in the clear margins. It weighed 28lb 6oz and was a cracking end to the weekend. Both fish fell to XS Pop Ups fished as singles.

A couple of weeks after the social I was back down south again, this time at Elphicks North Lake for a 48 hour session to celebrate Craig’s 40th birthday. I had never fished the lake before but I had heard quite a lot about it and I also did some research beforehand.  6 of us traveled the long journey through the night  so we could arrive at the gates for 7am. We got to the lake in plenty of time and were first in the queue as the gates opened,  as we pulled up to the lake it was a slight disappointment that most of the lake’s stock were preoccupied with spawning.  A couple of hours was spent looking around and I decided to set up in the middle of the lake where I had seen a couple of fish feeding in the edge. I quickly got a rod sorted with a little PVA bag of XS Pellets and a matching wafter, I walked this along the bank to the spot I had seen the fish on and gently lowered it in. 10 minutes later the tip whacked round and line was peeling off the spool, a powerful fight ensued and as I caught sight of the fish I knew I was into another good one following on from the Sandown captures. Craig was in the next swim and came round to help with the weighing and photos, just over 30lb on the scales and my 2nd 30 on only my 2nd proper session of the season.
The rest of the session proved quite hard going, with most fish interested in spawning rather than feeding,  another couple of fish fell to the XS pellet and wafter combo and the weekend was celebrated in style when, birthday boy Craig, landed his first UK 30.

My next session was the BCAC qualifier, fishing for the Carp Talk team with Danny Fletcher we made our way to Essex, again this was a venue we hadn’t seen before but a little bit of research gave us valuable info, we also had a good look round the night before the event and before it started, this gave us a good idea of their location and swims were noted as to where we wanted to be.  To cut a long story short, we came out 3rd in the draw and got our 1st choice swim. The weekend just got better from there, by the Saturday morning we had caught consistently as others struggled, this saw us with a huge lead that we managed to keep and take 1st place, this confirmed our position in the semi finals. Sadly the semi final was not to be, a bad draw followed by 48 hours without even seeing a fish meant we were on our way home and out of the competition.

Another trip to Elphicks had been planned and a few weeks later I was on the way back down, hopefully this time the fish wouldn’t be spawning. Our arrival this time was met by masses of fizzing and not a spawning carp in sight. I spent most of the first day messing about with zigs and surface fishing, but the birds made it a nightmare and no action came my way. I had gone well prepared with a mountain of XS Pellets, groundbaits and liquids, as soon as I started to spod some out big patches of fizz were coming up on the spot, the fish were clearly hammering the bait. It took a while to get a take but I was getting constant liners, the bobbins were rising from the floor to the rod before dropping back. I had a bit of a play about with my rigs, just fine tuning everything down and trimming the XS wafters right down, within minutes of putting the rods back out  I had a take and pulled into a fish, it felt pretty good and on the scales it went 27lb so another good start to the session. This was swiftly followed by a mid double common and then another take which saw me playing a heavy fish that just wanted to plod around.  I knew I was into a good one but when I saw the fish I was more than a little shocked, it looked very big indeed and when I went to lift the net out I genuinely thought it was caught on something. I thought people made these kind of things up to make it sound better in the magazines, here I was in the same situation having to give it that little bit of extra effort to lift it out of the water. It was clearly another 30 and I was wondering if it would be another P.B. At 37lb 10oz it certainly was! A proper chunk of a fish and for the 4th time in 4 sessions down south, I was over the moon. After the big one I kept piling the bait in and the takes kept coming, it seemed the more I put in the longer they stayed around for so I was constantly spodding to keep them interested. I ended up with a dozen fish including some nice 20’s and the big one, another session to remember.

It was now about time I had a go at Erics Angling Centre’s Willows Syndicate, it’s certainly not what you might class as a conventionally nice carp lake. It can’t be far off 30 acres, with pretty much totally open banks, big pylons running alongside it and absolutely loads of weed, but it holds some cracking fish that I certainly wanted to have a go at. I didn’t end up doing that much time down here, overnight trips saw the fishing being hard work, I found the best tactics were to get there and go stalking straight away for a few hours before retiring to a swim for the night. The XS Pellets and wafter combos continued catching for me with a few decent fish stalked from the shallows, a low 20, an upper 20 and a small common all falling to the same tactics. This place really taught me an hour in the right spot was worth more than a whole night in the wrong spot, all 3 fish coming from my shorter stalking sessions with one rod. Although I got dragged away from my plans here I will certainly be back in spring before my ticket runs out and hopefully be catching some of the much larger residents in here.

Into June and it was time for the session I had been waiting for all year, back in the winter we had arranged a week at Chad Lakes in Gloucestershire for the lads at the Carp Talk office. Chad had always been a venue that interested me, due in no small part to a rather large mirror carp called Blackeye that lives there. I’d always paid extra attention whenever I saw a picture of Blackeye in the press, I’d watched him grow on over the years from a 20 all the way through to being a good 50 and one of the biggest carp in the country.  The thing about Blackeye though, for me anyway, was that not only is he a massive fish but he’s also one of, if not the best looking carp in the country. The chance to fish for him was going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and for weeks running up to the session it was all I could think about. I spoke to as many people as I could who had fished the lake, trying to pick up on any tiny bits of information that might help in my quest. Re-reading catch reports and features about Chad, I was sure I had a good understanding of Blackeye and how he behaved.  It turned out only me and Crowy could fish that week so we arranged he would go down first whilst I stayed in the office, then I would go down on the Wednesday whilst he did some work, Crowy then rejoining me for the last couple of days.

I was gagging to get down as I received text after text from Crowy telling me how awesome the lake was and how he had spotted a few decent fish already. Due to car problems I didn’t end up getting there until late Wednesday afternoon, on arrival at the lake I was speechless, the lake was simply stunning. Surrounded by overgrown trees, gin clear water and plenty of weed, it really is a carp anglers paradise. I’d left the gear in the car as I wanted to have a good look about and see if I could find any fish, Well as soon as I started looking, I found fish, and plenty of them. As I made my way around the lake I saw most of the lakes stock, including Blackeye who was slowly cruising around the weedbeds. A few broken boilies and some pellets were flicked out but he wasn’t interested just yet, he seemed more than happy just lazing about. Another thing I noticed was another known fish “The Red One” was regularly visiting an overhanging branch and disappearing down onto a clear patch. I fed the spot with some XS pellets and before long the red one was feeding on the spot. I quietly but quickly rushed back to the car and grabbed my gear, the light was beginning to fade by now so as quickly as possible I got a rod ready and lowered it onto the spot after flicking a few pellets out to disturb any feeding fish.  The Red One came back in almost instantly and carried on feeding, with me just feet away and my rod laying on the bank. The spool was soon spinning away and I was hooked into a very angry carp, I knew what I was attached to, there had only been one fish feeding, but when I saw the fish go in the net I still couldn’t believe it. I’d only had a hook bait in the water for 20 minutes and I had the 2nd largest resident in my net. The scales said 42lb 14oz and I was absolutely buzzing with my first UK 40, this also being my 3rd PB of the year, could things get any better. Once the fish was sorted it was almost dark so the best option was to put my bedchair up under the stars and just fish the one rod on the same spot. Nothing more happened that night so I was up early looking for signs of  fish.

Most of the next day I spent wandering around with a surface rod and a bag of mixers, it was a really hot day and the fish were more interested in sunbathing than feeding. At one point though I did get a few fish taking a few freebies,  Blackeye was part of the group, watching him slurp mixers in the clear water was amazing, I could see every detail on him and it wasn’t long before I got him feeding quite confidently. I decided to have a cast, casting past the group and slowly drawing the hook bait back amongst them. The whole group started heading towards my hook bait, with Blackeye, proud as punch, leading the pack, he was getting closer and closer , with my heart racing and my legs shaking I really did think this was it. Then as normally happens in these situations, one of the smaller residents beat him to the hook bait and although happy at hooking one of the smaller ones I was gutted at being so close to Blackeye. That one weighed 17lb 8oz but the disturbance spooked the fish off and nothing else was to be seen in the area for the rest of the day.  The rest of the afternoon was spent watching them cruise about down the other end of the lake, happily going about their business. I decided to set up properly in a new swim called Hobbits and not long later Crowy was back down to give me some company for the last couple of days. A quiet night with no action at all, morning was soon here and a quick trip to the shop turned into a 2 hour journey, heavy rain had caused floods and traffic jams all over. On arrival back at the lake the heavy rain seemed to have had a strange effect on the fish. Eventually I managed to get a couple feeding close in, on yet another different spot. This time float fished tactics saw me land a scale perfect low double common, yet again caught very close into the edge.

Throughout the session I had been feeding the same spot in a weedy corner of the lake to the left of Hobbit’s, I had seen a few fish feeding here since I arrived, through the evening several fish really got on the bait and could be seen hammering it. One of the trees has a viewing platform built onto it that overlooks this particular spot, I spent a lot of time up here during my session, watching the fish and seeing which ones they were and how they were feeding. As dark approached I walked the short distance down the bank and dropped a hook bait in the corner, due to the weedy nature of the spot I fished a very slow sinking snowman hook bait in a long 14 or 15 inch hooklink, this meant the hook bait would rest on top of the weed. With everything in position I topped the spot up with a few more handfuls of pellets mixed in with whole and broken boilies, again the XS being my favored choice. Returning to the bivvy for the night it was 4am before I was awoken by a blistering take on the corner rod, it was tearing line off and before I even picked up the rod I knew there was a very real chance I had Blackeye attached on the other end, I had seen him in the area and he has a reputation for fighting really well. Not long into the fight he found a weedbed and got snagged up, I was a bit worried about trying to free it, especially with the thought of what might be on the other end. I decided I needed to put a little pressure on and see what happened, the fish moved a little, then a little more, then it was free and powering about again, it went all over, left, right, out into the lake and even managed to go right through my other rod at one point. As the fish neared the front of my swim it was just starting to get light but still to dark to see which fish it was, once the fish was in the net, I turned the head torch on and there in front of me was the biggest carp I had ever seen. Blackeye at 52lb 10oz, all I could do was keep saying Blackeye, it’s Blackeye ITS BLOODY BLACKEYE. Seeing him up close was a privilege and I was imply blown away with the whole experience. The sheer size of him combined with stunning looks really took my breath away, this really was the stuff of dreams. Once he was returned I just sat there for a couple of hours, taking it all in and trying to digest what had just happened to me. I even thought about packing away early  but I knew I would never be going back to Chad, so I decided to stay on and try and catch one of the really stunning scaly mirrors that the lake contains. So back to stalking for the rest of the day to try and stalk one as that gave me the best opportunity to target an individual fish. I had kept bait going onto the spot  where I had the red one from and it had been cleared out time and time again, I had seen a fish called Warty feeding on the spot several times so it was that fish that I decided to target  and set my sights on landing it before I went home.

I spent all day watching the spot, Warty was visiting occasionally for a mouthful of bait before drifting back into the middle of the lake, it talk almost all day to get her confidence up, but I kept baiting up every time the bait went and eventually she was having it big time. She moved off again so without hesitation I knew this was my chance, lowering the rig onto the spot  it wasn’t long before she returned again and the hook bait was soon being sucked in. She shot off heading for a weeedbed to the left of the swim, I just managed to keep her out of the trouble and before long she was safely in the net, I really wanted that fish and my patience had paid off. Warty at 28lb 6oz, this really is one of the prettiest carp I have seen and was the best possible ending to an awesome session.

2009 saw me do less fishing than I normally would but I will never forget it, that’s for sure. 4 PB’s including UK 30’s, a 40 and a 50. I have done very little fishing since due to work loads and a house move but I will be back biting at the bit come springtime and hopefully will have some more lumps to keep you updated with.