Well respected carp angler Jerry Hammond has recently linked up with ESP tackle and taken no time at all in putting the gear to good use! Here Jerry takes up the story that lead to the capture of a cracking winter common…
I had not fished for around six weeks in the UK and I was only just back from a fishing trip to Thailand, I really wanted to be out angling as the previous few winters the lakes had frozen solid and then it would all be over for weeks.
So last week saw me set up on my own syndicate lake, only a stones throw from my front door so no excuses. The weather was bang on for the time of year with good temperatures some strong winds and rain, more like what the autumn weather should be like, and the old wily Carthagena carp were very active.
The first day or so I was noticing the fish were up in the layers, so I fished Zigs for most of that time with no action, I was seeing them to begin with only just under the surface. They were very hard to spot sometimes just a tiny bit of the dorsal would break the surface, if you were not looking that way you’d miss it.
The next day however I saw nothing up in the layers so I stripped both rods down, and tied up a couple of Chods, with the ever reliable Stiff Riggers size 5s, ESP Lead core, and 20lb Bristle Filament. Both the rods were cast to a silty patch In-between patches of silk weed in 11ft of water, hook baits were White Winter Zing from Mad Baits, and I spread a hundred or so freebies between the two rods.
After yet again another quiet night I began to wonder if I should have left the Zigs out, when all of a sudden the bobbin pulled up tight and I was into a carp. It did not feel a big fish and I soon landed probably one of the smallest in the lake, a nice mirror of around 12lb and one I’d never sen before maybe a grow on or just a very old fish that never gets any bigger. Oh well I thought at least I had caught one and something was feeding, and I hoped there may even be more to come.
That evening I topped up the spot with another Hundred baits and cast both rods back to their same areas, I had decided this would be my last night. There were other anglers fishing mainly doing nights after work but even though the conditions seemed spot on that little one I had caught was so far the only capture.
It was very warm night with strong winds and rain, by the morning the winds had died off a bit and I was sat there looking at my tackle thinking well I’d better start getting this lot packed away. A mate had rang me and I was chatting away when the left rod pulled up tight just like the other bite, the rod tip pulled over and I said I had to go and picked up the rod. This fish felt a lot bigger than the last one.
A friend next door came and reeled in my other rod for me, and by now I was aware that I was playing a common as it was now mostly on the surface. The fish made a few little runs towards the end but was soon waddling over the net, I could see it was a good fish but when I examined properly what was in the net I could not believe it.
This fish was one of the most sought after fish in the lake, one named Tango a stunning common that hardly ever comes out, once a year normally. I know from its previous captures it’s an upper 30 fish and as I carried it to the waiting mat I wondered if she would do the magical 40lb. My mate got his tripod from his swim and we weighed Tango, I was delighted when the scales settled at 40.4 the first time this fish had ever done that weight, I was made up as I’ve always wanted to catch a 40lb fish from my own water, an ambition achieved.
Jerry.