fixed lead on one rod, 1oz lead, with a 1

In the November edition of the site I have written an article about winter carp fishing and all the ups and downs that go with it. So with a free week to write I thought I’d bore you silly with another of those stories from the past when carp fishing was done by the idiots with funny hats and a strange look in their eyes! It was that Mecca of carp lakes again; Fox Pool, near Staines. November 1981, cold wet and the last carp I had caught was back in the relatively summer weather of August. Since then I had spent time on both Fox Pool itself and the Road Lake. The hair-rig was really coming into its fore by now but the carp were still extremely hard to catch. Kevin Maddocks had come down during the autumn and had done well on the lake, showing us all how to do it, I was a mere novice in comparison. Still, to the session in question. I pulled through the gate in my overloaded white Mk 1 Escort, and negotiated the exhaust destroying potholes. Round the little corner at the end of the track and into the small muddy car park. Eddie’s silver Capri was there, I knew he would be on the Road Lake in his usual swim. He had taken a 24lb mirror a fortnight before, one of the biggest in the lake.The water was typical early winter, overcast, windless with a slight mist in the air, it looked good for carp though. Out of the car I walked in to the back of Eddie’s swim. Sure enough, there he was, sitting out by the rods scanning the water. A cup of tea and a funny fag were thrust my way before I had even said a word, I refused both and picked up one of his tins of Carlsberg instead – it had been a bad day at work, but then, they all are if you are not fishing. Eddie reported no sightings of carp for sure but said a fish had rolled mid morning, a possible, but it could have been a pike. After a while I went for a walk around, I didn’t fancy the Road Lake, it was covered in leaves and looked dead, its black clear water looking totally devoid of inspiration. I crossed the little bridge over the stream and came out onto Fox Pool itself; I passed the Secret Swim to my right and into the Little Noddy and looked out across the lake. This looked better; being slightly bigger than the Road Lake the surface was slightly rippled by the merest of breezes, the fallen leaves all up in the far corner. I moved on around the lake onto the Bungalow bank. There in the deep water were two carp like grey submarines. As I watched one went down on a clear gravel patch a few feet to the right of the swim I was in. Moments later another carp stuck its head out 20 yards out. This was inspiration for sure. Not bothering to wander around any further to chat to the two anglers in the Middle Swim around the other side, I went straight back to the car to get the gear. I told Eddie I was going onto the Big Lake as it was called then. Rob Maylin was still a few years away from his era on there. I did not tell him what I had seen though, I wasn’t being selfish, it’s just carp fishing as it was then. Back at the swim I set up a simple semi-fixed lead on one rod, 1oz lead, with a 1-inch hair coming off the bend of the hook, a size 6. The other rod I set up with a half once running lead with a two-foot hooklink and one and a half-inch hair. Both rods were baited with small Catchum Seafood Blend boilies. After casting out, one to the gravel patch and the other to a clear area of silt amongst the thick weed where the carp had rolled, I fired 150 boilies around each. On the margin rod I then did something that was rare in those days. I put out a pint of hemp. This may seem a lot of bait for November but the lake was full of bream and tench which feed continuously. The old upright canvass brollycamp was set and I set in for the session. Before long it was dark. Around 6pm a carp rolled, again over the spot 20 yards out. This was more sightings of carp than I had seen for a long time on here and I felt extremely confident. I sat back on the sunlounger/bedchair listening to the radio. Suddenly the optonic bleeped a few times before coming a single tone; the 20-yard rod was away. Demolishing everything I was out the brollycamp door and on the rod. In seconds it was bent double as a carp fought for freedom in the deep water. In the gloom it broke surface a few yards to the left, it was still kiting round perilously close to the trees that stuck out like witches arms and hands onto the margins. I stuck the rod under water as the carp still swung round to my left, one of the branches jerking suddenly as the line caught it. Suddenly there was a voice from behind me; one of the guys from the Middle Swim had heard the run. He asked if I needed help, I told him the predicament so he took the net and crouched down close to the water on the step in front of me. Then I had a bit of luck; the carp gave up his fight for the trees and came back along the margin. I had to wind in quickly, the Mitchell 300 reel spool tiny compared to reels these days. The carp was now fighting under the rod tip, I told the chap to get ready as it would be breaking surface soon. There was a swirl further out than I thought but it looked ready for the net. I could feel elation building up inside, a winter carp from this mega hard lake. Then it was gone, the rod sprung back, no warning, no sudden surge, the hook had just pulled out. We both stood in silence for a few minutes before he said, “bad luck mate” and put the net down and left me to it in the quiet blackness of a winter night.

Have fun!