Big carp angler Richard French has been continuing his fine run of form on the big pit he started fishing earlier this year. Good observation and water craft and fine attention to his rigs has really paid off for Rich and with him planning a concerted campaign through this autumn it looks like a few more of the lake’s special carp could well be on the cards!
After a fairly successful August on the big pit, the beginning of September was a very different set of circumstances all together. Over the period of the full moon, the lake seemed to go quiet with the fish doing a vanishing act. My plan was to fish the phase of the full moon in the areas where the big common is known to visit at this time of year but keep my other areas baited for the coming weeks. I wasn’t the only angler with this idea in mind, and on turning up the area I was hoping to get into was pretty much stitched so I left the rest of them to it and fished around the pit for a few nights until the area that I wanted to be in had gone quiet on the Sunday. I managed to find a few fish but they seemed to be there one minute and gone the next. On the Sunday, I made the move to one of the area’s I had in mind and take my chances for my last 48 hours of the session but all of this was in vain as the carp had other ideas.
I was unable to get back to the lake for eight days but this gave me time to think about what I should be doing over there for the coming few weeks as we go into the autumn, and with the new moon coming, I couldn’t wait to get back and hopefully get onto one of my baited area’s in the deeper water. The lake over the last few weeks had become fairly quiet during the week days which suited me just fine and on turning up; I had the choice of both of my areas. I opted to fish the area I had not yet fished and now seemed like the perfect time as other area had dried up a bit in the last couple of weeks which I think had a lot to do with the immense amount of rod hours going into the swim with very little, if anything getting caught and pushing the carp elsewhere and hopefully onto my other area.
I saw a fish show not long before getting ready to make my casts so decided to hold out for a bit longer to avoid potentially spooking anything out there with a 3oz lead and only fish three single red fish meals for the night ahead just to be on the safe side. Waking up at 5am, the night passed without event. It was time to fire up the burner and get the first brew of the day on and sit by the rods. As a stunning dawn broke, the carp went absolutely mental out in front of me showing me more or less where I needed to have my rods positioned. That evening the rods went out bang on followed by a kilo or so of boilies spread out with a throwing stick over three hinged stiff links. The evening had a slight chill to the air and felt like something could happen providing I’d got everything right.
Later that evening at around 10.30pm, the buzzer let out a few bleeps on the left hand rod, the line pulled out of the clip and a steady but meaningful take followed. The fish came in pretty easy until I got it forty odd yards out, it went absolutely mental! I was clearly into a big fish which had no problems flat rodding me consistently, taking me left then right then left again on an easy forty yard run whilst all the time the rod was taken past full test curve with the fish having the upper hand for most of the fight. But at long last I eventually had the fish under control and managed to guide it over the net chord. I had just landed the hardest fighting carp I have ever done battle with and quite frankly, I needed a sit down after a scrap that lasted nearly half an hour!!!
It wasn’t until the fish was on the mat that I realized that I had in fact caught one of the ‘A Team’, a carp that was just over 40lb back in July. It was one of the carp I really wanted to catch from the pit, an absolute stunner with an awesome coloration and a big floppy tail. She weighed 36lb 6oz and I was blown away by the whole thing.
Looking at the hook hold of the 36, it was solid but not in the place we all normally hope for, bang in the bottom lip. The fish had a slightly caved mouth so this could have also had a bearing on the position of the hook. Now, my hinged stiff links are made from ESP bristle filament in 25lb for the hooking section and 20lb bristle filament for the boom. I had run out of the 20lb version so had no choice but to use the 25lb for the boom section. The area I was fishing was clear enough to present this rig perfectly and in my opinion, if your using a stiff rig, you may as well fish one as stiff as possible. I tied the rigs with the 25lb bristle and they looked the nuts. With the 25lb being slightly stiffer it was easy to get the rigs looking perfect but most importantly it would be extremely difficult for the carp to deal with and hopefully resulting in a more secure hook hold due to the rigs extra stiffness. I combined the stiff rigs with the ever trusty ESP leadcore on a helicopter rig set up connected to Syncro XT mono which I’ve been really impressed with since starting using it earlier in the year.
The rods were put out again to the same marks followed by around another kilo of bait and before the end of the session I managed to land two more mirrors of 18lb and 35lb 1oz both hooked a good inch back inside the mouth, well and truly nailed. It seemed the small change to the rigs had made a big difference. After the many hours walking the pit, watching and baiting, finally everything seems as though it’s falling into place nicely for me on the big pit in terms of the bigger residents and we’ve still got the rest of the autumn to go… I’m off to get the rods!