Positioning the rod well back I sat back and waited

What I really wanted was to get an opportunity to fish under an overhanging tree that just about everyone was baiting up and fishing. This spot was one that I had utilised last season to good effect but as with everything, good things always come to an end. The pressure this spot was getting meant that its life span as a carp producing spot was on its last legs. Imagine my delight then when I pulled in off the road to find the lake deserted, this was more like it. Without even walking round, unusual for me, I put my gear into the swim by the tree. As I carefully peered into the water I just saw a carp swimming out; this is what I needed to see, I knew then that as long as I got a bait under there before the carp came back I would get a take before dark. I introduced a few trout pellets and half a dozen boilies before quickly walking round the lake. I did not want to fish anywhere else but I could not resist a quick scout round. I saw nothing and was soon lowering a bait in onto the clean gravel under the tree. Positioning the rod well back I sat back and waited. It took just ten minutes before a carp was back under the tree feeding well. It continued in this manner, not leaving the tree again for the next twenty minutes. At one time it was joined by another smaller mirror but after a while I saw this carp swim off. From my vantage spot on the bough of the tree above the carp, I could see it had a deformed dorsal fin and with no scales visible I was convinced it was the lakes big leather carp. Although I had caught this particular carp several times before I had not landed it yet this season and any carp was welcome as it had been three weeks since my last capture. However, this carp is very hard to hook when it is feeding in the margins as it feeds very carefully testing each morsel at a time. We had often seen it lift rigs with their leads right off the bottom and then drop the bait before carrying on feeding again. Therefore I was a little worried that I may indeed still not hook it. After a while two other members turned up and one informed me he had put loads of bait in under the tree the evening before and had come down to fish there today. Tough, that had happened to me loads of times so it was nice to have the boot on the other foot. He had though made the classic mistake, he had no clue where else to fish and was totally thrown by my presence in his chosen swim. In fact, in the end he never fished at all that evening and went home later on without wetting a line. After they went off I continued watching the carp before returning to sit behind the rod. A carp crashed out twice in front of the swim next door together with loads of bubbling taking place. I decided to fish that swim for the night from when I either caught a carp from the tree or it got dark, whatever came first.Suddenly the buzzer burst into life and a carp tore off from under the tree. I was on the rod in seconds and the carp rolled on top just the other side of the tree. Far from the flank of a leather carp there I glimpsed the full linear scaling of the only such carp in the lake, and it was one of the two carp I had left to catch in the whole lake. The moment took on a whole new meaning and within minutes the carp was safely in the bottom of my net. It then dawned on me. Of course! The linear too had a deformed dorsal but from the bank I couldn’t see the scales at all, and there I was wishing it would go away just minutes before! It was hooked nicely in the corner of its mouth and on the scales it went 24lb 6oz, a nice weight for this particular carp. It’s rarely caught and is one of the original old carp, perhaps at least 40 years old. Safely sacked up I went in search of the other two guys to get them to take the photos. I found them up a tree still unsure where to fish. They were pleased to see a carp on the bank and took some great pictures before I let the old warrior go, two down one to go! I moved immediately to the swim next door, as once a carp is caught from the tree, that is it! For at least 12 hours anyway. Before I cast out, I walked round the lake several times as there was still a few hours of daylight left and if I saw any carp in the edge I would fish for them until dusk. There were a couple of carp feeding well on a gravel shelf in a bay but the other two had found them first. The carp were obviously feeding on bait but none of us had put some in there, so it must have been from the morning or evening before, that someone else had put in. Such was the pressure this year that everyone was baiting up the same spots making the carp very wary. When I came down to fish I didn’t know when a spot was last baited or indeed if a carp had been caught the morning before from there, thus making it a pointless exercise. So different to last year when I had the place to myself. The guy who fished though made a fatal error and cast out whilst the carp were still around and they swam off never to return. He then proceeded to fish the night on this small margin spot. All these margin spots are day only feeding areas for the carp and a waste of time at night. Not that all went well for me that night, the bubbling continued but I soon could see they were tench and my baits were ignored by the carp. I was far from disappointed though, I had at last made progress and another target fish had seen my net. Two days later I again found the lake deserted and it stayed that way all evening. I was the only one fishing there that night. I baited several spots but on this breezy wet day I saw no carp in the edge, though a lot were showing just under the surface. One swim covered the main concentration of fish so I set up stall there. Before I fished there though, I spent the evening fishing under the tree again. No carp came in at all so I suspect someone fished and probably caught from there the morning or evening before. I was not bothered though as no carp showed elsewhere. By dusk I had pop-up baits and PVA bags out on clear areas where the carp had been showing from the other swim. Unfortunately the carp have shown a dislike for feeding at night over the last few weeks and the night was blank. In the morning, before I left I went round and looked under the tree. There was a carp under there but it was not feeding, it was just lying up, was it asleep? I recognised the carp, it was a small leather of around 17lb, it is an often-caught mug fish and I had no inclination to fish for it. I stood in the open trying to spook it but it never moved, I dropped a stone a foot from it, it never moved. So I dropped a stone right on top of it, the stone missed it by an inch. Ten seconds went past until it finally slowly moved sidewards and swam off. I obviously had just woken it from its slumbers!

Have fun!