Kev opens his account with this stunning common!
Kev Hewitt ventured back to the Bluebell complex last week, this time to fish Kingfisher lake for the first time – and what a great start he had!Starting out on a new venue is always exciting for me, so much to learn, so much to try and so many prizes to be claimed. After finishing up on Manor last month, my next venture would take me back to the Bluebell complex where I had enjoyed much success a few years ago on Swan Lake. However this time I managed to resist the temptation and drive straight past Swan, crossing the river over to Kingfisher. I had never wet a line in Kingfisher in the past but am well aware of its notorious difficulty compared to many of the other day ticket waters I am used to fishing. Don’t get me wrong, it is far from a low stock big pit, in fact quite the opposite, small and intimate with a lower stock than Swan.
I do not know the exact stocking levels or precisely what big fish are in there, all I know is during my time on Swan I made some good friends, the likes of Gary Dennis who had a blinding year on Kingfisher in 2016 catching numerous big lovely carp. Seeing his catches on social media alone was enough for me.
So I arrived for my first session and after a couple of laps and some good conversations with the regulars I soon established the lake was very much boilie orientated. In fact hardly anyone uses particles. Although I will always listen and take on board what people say, I just had to give my particle approach a good try before writing it off. I saw a number of shows the morning I turned up and once the angler had vacated the swim I set up and took my usual approach. Found a nice spot, put three rods on it and a few kilos of particles over the top. The lake was fishing very slow, a couple of fish came out on singles but nothing happened for me.
During the afternoons I spent my time walking round with the floaters and came very close to a fish off the top and then got them feeding on a couple of margin spots I had been baiting with particles. I managed to get a solid bag onto one of the spots and watched four fish come in and drop down on the bait before one tilted up, hookbait in mouth, then shaking its head and bolting of whilst spitting the hook out. I had come very close but sadly not close enough. Now people will say the fish are very riggy in there and that my solid bag presentation needs refining or I need to invent some wonder rig to catch them. I don’t believe in that at all and think that the fish was very fortunate to get away with it.
Traps set in the edge
This was proved on my following session a few weeks later when I got a fish feeding on exactly the same spot and lowered a PVA bag down on the spot. I actually had fish feeding a little further down the margin too, over particles on both spots. I dropped a Ronnie rig with a size 6 Cryogen Curve down to the left with a double big buoyant plastic corn hookbait. Once both traps were set I climbed the tree and within minutes the fish returned and dropped in the left hand spot next to the lily pads. The water was already clouded up from when they had fed on it a few moments earlier. I quickly descended from the tree and sat next to the rod. One of the fish was huge and unusually sandy in colour. The other fish on the spot was very dark, like the majority of the fish I had seen in the edge.
Now I would like to tell the story with a little more drama and excitement but what happened next was probably one of the most un-dramatic captures I can remember. So my rig is two rod lengths out from my tip and the bobbin slowly pulled up and held tight. I was expecting a full on melter and didn’t know if the fish was hooked or it was a savage liner. The tip pulled round and I picked up the rod and it hooped right over. The fish didn’t really take any line and at first I thought it could have been a tench. Then it came up to the top and rolled over right in front of me and I could see it was a carp. It plodded round under the tip for a couple of minutes before I slipped the net under my first Kingfisher carp, a jet black common! With a Ronnie rig hanging out of its mouth, I left the fish in the net and went to get my unhooking mat when the other margin rod on the pva bag signalled a couple of beeps before it tore off. The hookbait was only 20 yards up the bank in the next set of lily pads and I was on it straight away. The fish stayed in the pads the whole fight; it just kept boring down into the pads on the spot where I hooked it. All went to plan and a few minutes later I managed to get her on the top and slipped the net under my second Kingfisher carp, this time a mirror.
Battle in the pads!
We weighed and photographed them both with the help of Gary Dennis and Dean. It was nice to have Gary there seeing as he was the very reason I was fishing the lake. He did a great job with the camera. The dark common stopped the needle at 29lb 10oz with the mirror going 28lb 2oz, a lovely brace of carp from a tricky lake. Earlier I mentioned I do not believe in riggy fish and am confident I would be able to catch them on my PVA bag presentation and the Ronnie rig. Well with one fish on each rig I now know I do not need to worry about rigs. If I can get them feeding and get a rig in front of them there is a good chance one will slip up.
28lb 2oz mirror
I came very close to catching one off the top up the other end of the lake the following morning but I was soon back in the van homeward bound planning my next trip and dreaming of big dark commons.