Dave Springall didn’t take long to catch this stunning long old common, the largest resident in a local club lake. Here Dave takes up the story, top angling mate!
After my ticket recently expired on a syndicate lake I decided not to renew and that a change of scenery was in order. It was time to have a go on a local club lake that I have had my eye on for a couple of years and is known to contain a very long common which has reached the low to mid forty pound mark in the past. It’s one of those pretty little lakes that I have meant to have a go on over the last few years but never really got round to it and with my syndicate ticket gone and with little else available to me until 16th June this seemed like the perfect time.
The first overnight session produced only a couple of tench. The second again saw me plagued with more tench but I did manage a scraper twenty mirror at around 7am just before packing up which confirmed my suspicions that I was in the right area. I opted to just slip this one back, un-photographed with minimal fuss as the area I was targeting seemed unpopular with the regulars and I was determined to keep it that way!
The third overnight session produced not so much a bleep but proved an ideal opportunity for me to apply some more bait with mixed 15mm and 18mm Baitcraft Super K boilies being the bait of choice.
After spending the day at home with the family I managed to get to the lake just before dark and could see that the tench were again very active in the area in just two and half feet of water amongst the new growth of silkweed that the lake is known for. My experience of the lake had told me that the carp are never far behind the tench and after a near sleepless night with a hatful of tench landed and one lost at around 4am I was finally into a Carp with just the slightest of indications on the bobbin and just three bleeps registering.
At first I thought it could be a large tench wrapped in silkweed due to the nature of the bite but when something appeared 20 yards out in the head torch that looked about three feet long I knew it was no tench.
With very little resistance she went over the cord first time. She tipped the scales at 41lb 10oz and was absolutely nailed on my naked chod set up comprising 18lb ESP Syncro mainline, 25lb ESP Bristle Filament, a faithful size 5 ESP Stiff Rigger, size 11 ESP High Performance Swivel and 15mm UK Tactical washed out Baitcraft Super K pop up heavily glugged in K Cola.
For ready tied chod rigs just like Dave used to catch the common, please follow this link.