Having wrapped up the park lake early last Autumn with the capture of the 40+lb common carp, the rest of autumn and winter was spent flitting about from lake to lake trying to find my new nirvana and whilst Furnace brook and Hawkhurst fisheries are both stunning looking lakes, they didn’t grip me as I’d hoped. This spring was spent bass fishing, but with work and a 19m running around, rod hours were sparse and to be honest, I wasn’t too fussed. I even dropped back on the park lake, but it did nothing for me, same old swims, same old lake - I was getting stale.
Wifey had decided that she had had quite enough of tripping over me at home, and with her on the summer break from her masters degree, she ordered me out of the house to get the rods out, I had an overnight pass - but where to go? Wifey then reminded me of an old and wild river that I had been searching for carp about 2yrs ago, but never got around to actually wetting a line, so she suggested I finally got that quest under way. I hummed and ahhed for a bit, thinking of just dropping on the park lake for an overnighter, but wifey was not impressed! “You’ve caught that one - go somewhere else and let someone else catch that one”
so yesterday saw me dragging out the carp gear, fetching a few kilos of boilies out the freezer, boiling up 3kg of hemp and filling the pellet buckets to the brim. I couldn’t go until the chimney sweep had been at lunch time and the wallpaper guy in the afternoon, so evening would be my time to head out. Sitting at home, waiting I receive a text, from the wallpaper guy (a mate of mine) saying he couldn’t come over as planned and asked to rearrange for the weekend, that’s a result I thought, I could leave as soon as the sweep has left… only to get a call… from the sweep… his vans broken down and he can’t keep his appointment today!! That was it, this is obviously divine intervention at work! I was on the road for 10am, as opposed to 5pm as planned! I soon had the car loaded and away, on the 45min drive to the river. On arrival, I threw the kit over the fence and jumped the style, loaded the barrow and stashed it behind the bushes, taking my Polaroids I started wandering the banks. Boy was I buzzing, I hadn’t felt so nervous and excited since the wedding night!
I walked the full stretch my ticket gave me access to, it was dark and brooding, with a gusty wind hacking across the levels and smashing into the Norfolk reeds on the far bank. I quickly found what I was looking for, a deviation in the far margins with an overhanging bush, flanked by weedbeds something out of sync with the serried ranks of reeds as far as the eye could see. I nipped back and got the barrow, bumping it along to the swim.
As I can use 3 rods here, it would be rude not to, but as I started setting up, the heavens opened so first up was the brolly! I plumbed the depths and found a 4ft shelf in my near margin, dropping away to 6ft in the main body of water shallowing to 5ft in the far margin. The bottom was thick silt, with more presentable spots on the marginal shelves. Left hand rod was flicked to the reeds on the far sides, fished on a bottom bait and 7 bait stringer, right hand rod was a single bottom bait over half a dozen whole and chopped boilies and a handful of pellet tight to the near margin. The middle rod went under the bush, with 50-60 boilies around it, as well as 2kg of mixed pellet and 3kg of hemp! With that, I settled in to wait. The day was quiet, and I was worried I’d overdone the baiting, but I saw a carp cruise along the reeds and disappear near my baited patch, so at least one carp was nearby! As the sun set, the wind dropped and the rain eased and fish started topping all over, bream rolling, roach splashing and pike striking. I sat and took it all in as a large boil broke the surface mid river, it was another carp - a nice one too! I was shaking so much with excitement I spilt my drink down my front! After dark, I started getting liners on the middle rod, a drop back soon after midnight saw me strike into nothing - at least there was life over my baited area! 2am saw another drop back, this turned out to be a bream of about 4lb - I unhooked him in the edge and flicked a new bait under the bush. I received liners until 3:30am when the sun came up
I got a few hours sleep when at 7am, the middle rod ripped into life! It scared the hell out of me, but the strike met with little resistance. A nice tench soon joined me on the bank
it was already very warm and sunny, so chucking the rod back out, I chilled out with a breakfast croissant and watched the water. The full sun soon killed the activity off and I was reluctantly packing away for the 45min drive home. No carp this time, but some newly acquired knowledge, an idea on swims gained and I buzzing feeling of anticipation for the next session! Bring it on!
