I had a slow walk around

The lake was still quiet, just me there, rain was forecast but the wind that had helped me on the session before had gone. I had seen carp roll consistently in an area of the lake opposite the swim I fished last time so I drove straight round there. In the swim in question the carp were well in evidence, drifting about in the clear water. I had a slow walk around. In the next swim along there were half a dozen carp, their grey backs drifting around. Close in there was a channel in the weed that had been made by someone dragging a rake through it. As I watched two carp came in and followed the channel right to the bank, the one in front ended up just six feet from me. It was not feeding and after a few seconds it struggled but turned around in the narrow channel. As it rolled, it showed its common carp scaling, a fish around 20lb. After it had gone I dropped some pellets in to the channel but over the next two hours no carp came back and after that the ducks found them and they had a field day. I saw nothing more to inspire so I set up in the original swim and baited up a small clear spot just a few yards out in front of the weed, a 30lb common had been caught from that spot the weekend before so it was hard to ignore. In front of the swim was a huge bank of weed, to the left of the swim by another huge weedbed was a clear area of silt that carp consistently rolled over so a PVA bag went out there. I baited the whole area liberally with trout pellets and sat back on a mild calm cloudy evening. The carp in the weed to my right got active for a while, one small common leaping clear of the water time and time again. As the evening drew on, a carp rolled out at another spot not far from my left-hand rod. Five more times it did so, the same spot everytime, this had happened the session before, I’d had a bait close then. Remembering the capture of the 15lb mirror the week before when I made the effort to recast to a rolling fish I forced myself out of the bedchair and wound in the left-hand rod. I flicked a three bait stringer into the ripples of the leaping carp. Last time the result came within 20 minutes, this time I had to wait 3 hours. Sometime after 3am it was that rod that powered away, the buzzer screaming. The carp had swam out to open water by the time I had it under control, surging away, the rod tip thudding down as the carp tried to get away. Between the carp and me was one of the lakes biggest weedbeds, it reached the surface in 10 foot of water and was around 15 yards square, not a place for a hooked carp. I let the carp have a little bit of its own way, content to let it tire itself out in open water. A little more pressure showed it had kited around to the left as it rolled on top. Now I had a channel of clear water between it and me so I crammed down and forced the carp the last 20 yards into the net without too much trouble. My guess was it was a double and a glimpse into the net showed indeed it was one of the double figure commons. After a little rest and a sort out, leaving the carp in the net I got the scales ready. I hoisted the fish onto the mat, a gorgeous little carp, and not so little as it spun the scales round to 19lb 2oz, another carp that had grown well in this rich environment. A couple of quick photos on the mat and from the next swim up it powered off. This time the rig was not in a mess so within half-hour the rig was flicked back out to the same spot. The next two hours passed quietly, not a carp moved and before long it was time to trudge back to work, I was looking forward to a return in 10 hours. On my return not a lot had changed except it had been a sunny day and it looked like it was going to be the first cool night of the autumn. I knew where I wanted to fish, two carp in two sessions from separate spots that I could fish from one swim. As usual I had the place to myself and the practice casts to mark the line for clipping up found both spots clear and hard, the leads hitting bottom with a thud. PVA bags of trout pellets and crushed boilies with bottom baits were whacked out and the areas given an extra sprinkling of trout pellets from the catapult. The evening was soon a starry one and the action from the last couple of sessions soon caught up with me so I was soon asleep. When the rod I’d had the 19lb common from spluttered into life I was on autopilot and found myself with a rod bent double before I came to my senses. The carp was thudding very hard but I could feel it had found some weed. This was a bit of a repeat performance of the capture of the 24lb mirror as I slowly pumped in the carp and weed. However this time, at a distance of about 30 yards I felt the hook ping free and all I wound in was a small piece of weed. The rig looked fine, the hook sharp as I pricked my finger painfully. I looked at my watch in the gloom, 3am, the bait was still on so I cleared off the weed and cast it back out there, positive I would have no more action in just two hours. Back under the oval shelter I turned the torch on, the time in fact was a quarter past twelve! Back out, I wound in the rod and cast a new bait and PVA bag out; perhaps there was time for another take. Unfortunately though optimism does not catch carp and it was a quiet five hours. What a week though, I love October.

Have fun!