Martin Cannon had a great result last week; on only his second trip to a Berkshire syndicate he caught the biggest common in the lake! Great angling Martin, we look forward to hearing more news from this lake which holds some real stunners.
With the bank holiday weekend approaching and the notorious busy banks I found myself travelling down the M4 to my new syndicate water. It was early afternoon on the Friday and the whole way there I was praying I would be fortunate enough to get a swim. On entry to the lake I was greeted by a fellow member who informed me that there had been a few fish out through the week but more importantly that there was only four anglers on the lake. It was exactly the news I wanted so being as polite as possible, I cut the conversation short and made my way to the lake before other anglers turned up.
The lake in question is approximately 18 acres with two small islands present. Previously I had only spent 72 hours on the lake before this trip so my knowledge was still limited although on the last two sessions I had been woken by my alarms only to be greeted by tench (not only tench but super tench approaching double figures).
Once at the lake armed with my trusty bucket, I began to walk around to look for any signs of fish. I managed to find a few fish led up in snags sunning themselves but in unfishable areas.
I had already set out in my mind that for the rest of this season I would try to visit as many different swims as possible so I could build up as much information as possible in my CC Moore log book which for quick overnighters and dropping the baits in quietly will prove invaluable at a later date.
I looked at various swims which if I am honest all looked very carpy with various features dotted around them but with the possibility of the lake filling up with anglers over the weekend I was looking for a swim in which I could command my own water and keep me away from other lines as much as possible. Sometimes it is better to pre-empt where the fish will move to when it gets busy and by fishing an area away from lots of lines is always a good option on a busy venue.
I eventually opted for a point swim between the two islands. With this swim, no other anglers could fish the same channel of water that I had between the islands which was around 60 yards wide and 130 yards long.
I initially found 12ft of water just off both islands but what I soon discovered was that moving out to the middle of the channel it sloped up onto a 7ft plateau which was reasonably clean gravel with some light weed growth. With the warm weather forecast I thought this to be perfect.
Onto this spot at 90 yards I positioned two rods and lengthened my rigs to 9” which were made of a soft coated braid down to a knotless knotted size 8 ESP T6 raptor hook coupled with the usual quick link clip.
From my previous experience with the tench I had upped my bait size from 15mm to 18mm and the hook bait to be used was an air dried 18mm CCMoore odyssey xxx bottom bait soaked in the matching bait dip. Finally with a 3rd of the bait drilled out and with the use of an ESP nut drill, a piece of 6mm cork plug was added for counterbalance. I then baited the spot with 2kg of 18mm odyssey xxx boilies to begin with.
For the third rod, I found a spot of five foot next to some over hanging trees on the island which was clean gravel so the exact same rig was used only the length reduced to 7”. Onto this spot went a kilo of mixed broken and whole xxx boillies.
By late afternoon the wind really started to pick up and I was now encountering problems with floating weed gripping onto my lines and causing me endless amounts of false bleeps which left me no choice but to add some back leads to pin the line down as much as possible.
Darkness fell and I had seen no signs of any carp over my spots or within the channel so there was only one thing to do, set my alarm for first light to try and spot any early morning carp.
The night passed un interrupted until the alarm clock went off at 4.45am I looked out from the brolly and instantly saw a fish crash less then 20 yards from my plateau spot followed by another then another within 25 minutes. I must of seen 15 shows of fish (never had I been so pleased to get up early). I led there thinking if my first fish is going to come this has got to be the chance. A further hour passed with fish still showing ever closer to my spot and I started to run through the usual questions in my mind, was the rig presentable, was I fishing over too much bait, all the norm when you feel you should have had a take.
At 6.50am I received a single bleep on one of my plateau rods leading into an awesome one toner. With my heart racing I lifted into the fish. At first I didn’t even contemplate the size, it was just the excitement of knowing I was attached to my first carp from the venue. After a ten minute battle out in open water, the fish tried to gain sanctuary amongst all of the floating weed that had gathered in the margin. By this time I had already jumped into the chestys and with net in hand moved out into the water to gain a better angle to draw the fish away from the reeds and weed. So far I had just about managed to make out it was a common. As it drew closer to the net I could see it was covered in weed and after some heart stopping lunges I finally slipped the net underneath her. Quickly leaning into the net to see my prize, I removed the weed from the fish and to my surprise I was greeted by an immensely huge pristine common.
I took the fish back to the bank and secured the net in the margins and set about setting up the weigh sling and zeroing the scales. With the scales zeroed and the fish in the sling I slowly lifted her up and the scales spun round straight past the 40lb mark. I lowered the fish and lifted again and when the needle steeled it confirmed that my first encounter with a carp from my new venue had resulted in the aptly named big common at 42Lb. Coupled with the fact it was a new pb, I was ecstatic!
The fish was left in the sling whilst the mat and camera were set up, a fellow member kindly wound in and came round to do the pics for me. The feeling I had when holding the fish was overwhelming, a real fish of a lifetime. Never had I dreamt that my first fish from the venue would be a 40+ common.
Two cups of tea and a couple of texts later and the rod was repositioned again followed by a further kilo of xxx boillies.
Throughout the day the fish activity over my rods had further increased but with no further action to the rods.
It was late afternoon by now and I had just made the decision to move the island rod out into the open water. By 7pm all three rods were positioned on top of the plateau with a further kilo of bait spread evenly over the top.
My next take came at 01.00am and after a scrappy fight I had another common in the net, this time pristine at 21Lb.
With the rod back out, I climbed back into the bag and could jus make out the ring marks from fish activity out over the spot. I finally nodded off and I was awoken again by a one toner and this time I was slipping the net under a rather oddly football shaped mirror that weighed in at a solid 27lb. Could this session get any better I thought. With this rod repositioned, I made the decision to put out my last kilo of bait onto the spot as by now with all the activity they must of cleaned me out.
Struggling to get back to sleep, I lay there wondering if the spot had one more fish to throw at me and to my surprise at 5.20am my third rod was away again. This time from the start it felt like a better fish that put up a lot more of a fight in the margins. Once landed and put into the sling I lifted her up onto the scales and she spun the scales round to an impressive 30lb 6oz. By this time it was daylight and the colours of the mirror were stunning, almost a deep purple in places.
I felt everything on this session had fallen into place, the swim choice and baiting being the key to my success.
No further action came to the rods in the next couple of hours so I began to slowly pack up. Once this was done there was only one thing left to do which was to fill out all the info in the log book which I know will see me good again on future sessions.
All in all a truly unforgettable session that couldn’t have gone any better… awesome!
Martin Cannon