Belgian angler Wesley Mast had a great start on his first visit to a tricky, highly pressured venue in his home country. Good angling Wes, here’s what happened:
‘It’s the end of April as we speak and for the last two weeks the weather was pretty mild after months of rain and cold temperatures. A busy little lake somewhere in Belgium would be the hunting grounds for a day so I left home at 5.30am and arrived at the carpark at 6.20 and still I wasn’t the first, 2 other carp anglers were waiting already ‘on the gate’ but I stepped up the pace to load the trolly and ensured 2nd choice of swim.
When I arrived at the gate I had a little chat with the other lads and asked them where they wanted to fish (already knew the answer, but wanted to be sure).
They opted to fish the spot I fancied so over to plan B. Credit to them of course, they arrived first at the scene. With no other anglers arriving I took a walk around the pit, searching for signs of carp and I found some under and next to a wooden platform. Enough for me i thought to myself and secured the swim with my trolley.
I was ready in no time but before I made my first cast I wanted to see more of those fish I saw earlier. Slowly and in stealth mode I crept to ground zero and for the next hour I was there, flat on my belly, watching, learning there patrol routes and how they reacted to the few freebies I put in.
When I made up my assault plan and like I said an hour later I tied up 2 multi-rigs, both made of 20lb ESP Two- Tone (green) and size6 Stiff Rigger hook. A combination I have 100% confidence in. Close to the deck with a washed out 16mm Monstercrab pop-up from New Bait Designs and critically balanced with some tungsten putty I walked that particular rod out and placed him right next to the ‘obstacles’ and flicked the other rod to a hard spot I had found on the other side of the wooden construction.
Two hours later my alarm from the left hand rod gave 2 bleeps and I saw the rod tip bend. A short but powerful strike followed and I was into a fight with an angry carp who wanted nothing more than to get under his safe zone.
Several minutes later I had the mirror in the bottom of my landing net and I was a happy man. First blood for me this year. The scales said 32lbs and soon after I had some photographs and a short video footage for my Carp Movement video’s. The rest of that session nothing happened but I went home a happy carp angler! To be continued…