Subtlety has never been a word closely associated with me, so I’ll say from the start of this article that some of the items mentioned were sent to me by companies for the purpose of reviewing them. It was pure chance, though, that led to a few of them being reviewed all at once. Please read on…
I arrived at Steve Burke’s Wingham Fisheries on Wednesday at around 4:30pm, having already discussed with Steve how the lake was fishing and selecting a swim before I got there. For those of you who don’t know Wingham, it has a relatively small membership and the chances of finding somebody there midweek are pretty slim. I should be a gambling man, because ‘my’ swim was already taken…however, the angler was leaving at around 6:00pm and was a conscientious chap who wouldn’t have spooked the fish unnecessarily, so I decided to leave the gear in the car and have a wander round the lake with Steve.
Jim Gibbinson landed this lovely 20lb 4oz fish under my guidance (believe that and you’ll believe anything!)
Fishing the far side of the lake was Jim Gibbinson and we decided to say a brief ‘hello’ and leave him to it. The rest, as they say, is history:
Keeping a wide berth around the area that Jim was fishing, we observed him cautiously moving his seat back from his rods, keeping his body out of sight from any fish patrolling the margins. When we got within whispering distance, Jim told us that he’d just seen three fish, two probable twenties and a smaller fish, with ‘intent’ in their movement. He was sure that they had come for a feed and had delicately placed his baits just a few feet out to see if he could tempt one.
Within moments of him telling us this, the left hand buzzer beeped and we watched as the hanger rose steadily as Jim approached and struck into a good fish. This was when I remembered that the camera was still in the car. Oh well, the exercise would do me good!
By the time I’d returned, Jim had netted the fish and placed it into a large carp sack, ready to be photographed. There’s a maximum ten-minute ‘sack time’ at Wingham to allow for photography, as the welfare of these fish is uppermost in Steve’s mind. If you take a look at the photo here, it’s not hard to see why – this fish fought well and, by Jim and Steve’s reckoning, had probably never been caught before. 20lb 4oz was what the scales registered and Jim returned the fish carefully, a big grin across his face.
Dome sweet dome
For me, it was a great learning experience. Jim was only fishing for a relatively short session, he’d read the water and chosen a likely swim and he’d spotted fish. In fact, he’d hooked and lost a large fish earlier on and landed a smaller fish. By the time we’d arrived, he had spotted his target fish and went for them, successfully. There’s a world of difference between an angler like this and me, a relative newcomer. However, the good thing about our sport is that we can learn and we can build that bridge to success at a surprisingly quick rate. There’s nothing to stop any of us from becoming good anglers if we watch, listen and learn.
So, 6:00pm came and it was time for me to set up. It was a warm evening, a little breezy, but I had definitely been lucky to choose such a day in April. The Sundridge Millennium dome went up without any bother – this is the first time that I’d had to perform this task solo, so I was a bit concerned that I’d get it wrong. This was also an item that I’d been sent to review, so I didn’t want it to perform incorrectly because of my inability to erect it properly! Honestly, even I would struggle to get it wrong – it was far simpler than I thought.
The Fox Quattro Pod had its first airing, as did the brand spanking new Micron STR’s. I’d love to tell you that they were sent to me by Fox, but they weren’t – I bought them, willingly, having borrowed a similar set up a few weeks prior from a friend and was keen to ‘christen’ them. What I had been sent, though, was a very interesting bite alarm from Good Fishing. It seemed to be packed with all technical specifications of other alarms, but was very reasonably priced. I’ll perform more thorough testing of their alarm soon, but you may want to take a look at their website to see what’s on offer if you are thinking of buying new equipment soon. All I’ll add at this stage is that it worked well for me and, as well as the odd ‘swan run’, gave me superb indication when I had a ‘real’ run. Can’t ask for more than that!
Ready for action…
The rods were set up, baits added, pva bags loaded, sealed and attached and the baits hit the water. Time for a coffee. The baits used were the much talked about and, it would seem, sought after ‘Remedy’. Now, I can’t claim to be any kind of expert on carp baits, but there is one element that is needed in any branch of sport and that is ‘confidence’. It happens a lot in lure fishing – if you’re confident that a lure will catch, it often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you’re confident with the rod and reel that you’re using, you tend to cast better. Confidence is something that can make or break a trip, in my opinion, and having received a few emails praising The Remedy and having read about it in David Hall’s Advanced Carp Fishing, I knew it wouldn’t be the bait that let me down. So, to cut it short, I was feeling confident and enjoying the peace and quiet.
The first night was pretty uneventful, apart from an interesting ‘run’ in the middle of the night that turned out to be from one of our white-feathered friends kicking the line as he patrolled the margins in search of the hemp and trout pellets that I had put there in the vain hope of dropping a bait just a few feet out, just as Jim Gibbinson had done. No worries, I thought, I’ll just walk towards them and they’ll move elsewhere. It’s a big enough lake. Would they move? Yeah, but only towards me! I was being harassed by the Wingham Swan Posse and it was quite an experience. I decided that to leave a bait in the margins would be irresponsible during the night, so I made sure that all baits were in deeper water and decided to stay awake watching the water and listening for sounds of fish moving. Nothing.
You don’t get a figure like mine from a healthy diet of lettuce and lentils!
Next day, it was an early rise and a, err, really healthy breakfast, followed by me reeling in all three rods, removing the baits and strolling over to the clubhouse for a freshen up. Once back, fresh baits were added and the rods recast. As much as I’d love to recount tales of screaming runs and monster fish, it just didn’t happen. It rained, though, which was nice. Nice if you enjoy being soaked from top to bottom. The only dry bit on me was my chest, which was protected by the sweater that I reviewed a little while ago. Talk about field test!
It was getting towards teatim
e and I was getting a bit disheartened. I spoke in my previous article, the fly-fishing one, about how anglers who’ve fished for a while have the benefit of being able to take a blank in the knowledge that their day will come soon, but it can still be a pain when you’ve got your heart set on something, and I wanted a double figure carp! Steve had turned up and I persuaded him that, as here was here now, he should set up and fish the bay. He did so and missed one bite almost straight away. The bait? Lobworm.
Then it all happened at once. I saw a fish to about 70 yards away and quickly reeled in one of my rods and cast it straight back out to almost exactly where I’d seen the fish. I then decided to get the other rods in and give them some fresh bait. Just as I cast the first one back out and went to set the baitrunner, the Good Fishing alarm sounded on the one I’d dropped onto the surfacing fish and I turned to see line streaming off the reel (this rod had been removed from the buzzer and set up independently on a bankstick to enable me to cover more area). I struck into the fish and wasn’t sure at first whether it was of any size, as it swam towards me. However, once it headed for the only known snag in the lake, I knew that it was time to find out and put a bend in the rod to steer the fish away. It’s at time like this when you start to think about the knots you’ve tied – I had to put some serious pressure on this fish to steer it and am proud to say that everything held fast! I was probably more worried than usual for a number of reasons – I’d lost a fish here a few weeks prior, I’d never tied a hair rig before and I really wanted a carp! Also, I was unfamiliar with the rod. It was from the Decathlon range and, I’m glad to say, performed admirably. Not bad when you consider that this rod costs little more than £30!
‘The’ alarm from Good Fishing….the one that told me my first real carp was on, despite me leaving it out in the rain all day and night!
The fish gave a terrific account of itself, fighting all the way to the net. I’d have loved to have had a video camera there to record it – it was that memorable. This carp still had its ‘winter colours’, too, and was almost like a big slab of gold.
The net went under and it was time to weigh here – 17lb on the nose. Not bad for a first ‘real’ carp and, after a couple of photos, the fish was returned fit and well and I forgot just how wet I was. I was over the moon!
I didn’t get any more runs during the night and packed up early the next day in order to be at home for the weekend. However, I do feel that I learnt from that trip and will take that knowledge with me next time I visit. I certainly learnt that if you see fish, don’t just point at them, fish for them! Jim had done so on the first day I was there and I had done so on the next day. In a lake like Wingham, where wild birds come and go all day long, the sound of a weight and a couple of boilies splashing into the water is very unlikely to spook the local fish population. In fact, some would argue that it’s the splash that attracts them.
I’ll definitely do some more carp fishing over the coming year and a 20lb fish is on my ‘wish list’. I do need to find some decent waters in my home county of Suffolk, though, as I want to broaden my experience. So, if you know somewhere local to here that offers the chance of a decent carp but, just as importantly, is tranquil and scenic, please let me know.
Wet, but happy!
Going back to my opening paragraph, I mentioned that it was pure chance that led to all of my review items (some of them haven’t been mentioned in this article) being tested at once, and it’s true. I made a decision to set up one rod with all the various bits and pieces that I’d been sent or had ‘borrowed’ from friends, starting with the hook and John Roberts anti-tangle tube, right through to the Good Fishing bite alarm. Guess which one I caught on? Beginners luck, I reckon!
Tight Lines,
Elton
The Bait
The Fish
