Long time ESP consultant (not to mention carp fishing legend!) Terry Hearn has been having a really productive first half of the year, catching consistently including a few real crackers! There are a couple of good tips here too, plus a sneak preview on the new ESP mono that’s due out later this year. Nice one Tel!
So what have I been up to this spring? Well, since early this year I’ve spent most of my time fishing for a large and very elusive mirror at a local water, Cemex Angling’s Chertsey. To say it’s been a tricky carp to fool would be a bit of an understatement, but then although I’ve not been lucky enough to catch the biggest prize, I’ve still managed to winkle out some nice commons into the high twenties, mainly using my ever faithful Chod Rigs.
Like many waters, the carp in Chertsey have seen a lot of pop up presentations over the last couple of years, and it’s worth noting that over my last few trips I had more success by dropping down from my favourite size 5 Stiff Riggers to the smaller size 6’s. Likewise, so long as the bottoms clean enough, I’ve often found the same proven hooking arrangement, but fished with a boom section, hinged stiff link style, to be more productive compared with when it’s fished directly off the lead core, Chod Rig Style. Just a couple of quick points worth remembering. If it’s weedy or choddy then obviously its best to use the Chod Rig, but if it’s clean enough out there it’s worth making the effort to fish it with a boom section instead.
As it happens, the big Chertsey mirror was banked just recently, and at a good weight of 48.8 it just strengthens my thoughts on this particular fish turning into a real monster as time goes on. It’s a real long one, and though not quite as prestigious, in the water it reminds me of looking at Colne Mere’s late Black Mirror. It’s a proper beast, and so no doubt I’ll be heading back for another go at catching it in the not too distant future, particularly as it’s a nice local one.
In the meantime I’ll be carrying on fishing a large Oxfordshire gravel pit, a water I’ve often referred to as the ‘Big S’ whenever I’ve written about it in the past. On my first nights fishing on the ‘S a couple of weeks back I was lucky enough to winkle out one of the pits beautiful scaly mirrors at 37.10, which was a nice welcome back and enough to spur me into having a few more trips before heading back to Chertsey. I’ve managed one more since then, a nice dark common of 24lb’s plus.
These big pit fish really do scrap hard and they’ve proved another really worthy test for the new ESP mainline I’ve been trialing for a while. I had been using another brand of mono for donkey’s years so it would have to be something pretty special to make me change. Well change I have! The new ESP stuff really is that good, it does everything I want from a main line and you’ll be able to see it for yourself when its out in the shops around late summer time.
Well, as I write this I’m looking at the rods all ready to go in the corner of the living room. With any luck I’ll have a couple of baits cast out for first light – I’ll let you know how it goes next time around.
Until then, be lucky
Terry Hearn.