James Small enjoyed a memorable session recently on a local day ticket lake – accounting for two of his targets! Good angling James!
‘I arranged to do a 48 hour session on my local day ticket water called West Lake which I set as my target water this year with quite few decent fish to go for.
The Pretty One
When I arrived the fish were in a swim I had enjoyed some success including landing my personal best mirror at 34lb 10oz known as Pretty One. The first night of the session was quiet but the weather wasn’t with heavy winds and rain. But as soon as the sun came up and wind eased I was able get some bait out in a hole in the weed about 65 yards out.
Long, lean 28lb mirror
The big common
Within an hour I was in, after a long battle I landed a long lean pretty mirror at 28lb. During the second night at 1am the same rod screamed off tearing line from the spool and I was in the waders off out in the water in the wind and rain. It was savage, but after a long fight I eventually gained some line and about 20yards out I saw a massive common roll on the surface. I knew it was one the big commons and I soon had a PB common in the net 34lb 8oz!
I got the rod back out with 1kg boilies over the top then got some photos, a quick cuppa and back in the pit, but shortly after at 3am the same rod again screamed off but I couldn’t seem to get in the waders so into the water I went fully clothed and was lucky to quickly land a mirror at 26lb.
I then decided to re-do both rods and put my other rod just off the one I was having the runs from and spread another kilo of boilies over the top.
C Scale
It turned out to be the right decision because a couple hours later that rod was away and I landed another mirror and my 2nd target fish of the session landing a fish know as C Scale at 35lb – a new personal best mirror. So far in 12 nights over 8 weeks I landed 36 carp 3 x 30’s and 13 x 20’s all taken on a bottom bait rig made with E-S-P Soft Ghost fluorocarbon and size 6 Cryogen Classic hooks’.