Castle ashby. (Frozen nipples and winter whales.)
A while has past since the breaking up of the greatest fishing combo since captain birdseye and huck finn. A long icey spell over our lakes in northampton forced me to game and chapman to get married. Loaded with 2 shiney daiwa Ss 3000s and more end tackle than delroy senior i had again aquired the fishing bug. A brief recce tour of my chosen lake castle ashby Scotland pond uncovered a tough time for the lake not many carp had graced the banks and none of any size. My plan was simple, head to the corner where the fat and retarded would not go and catch some carp. At the crack of 5:30am i was up and by 6:15 i had managed to drag my self out of bed. By 7:15 i was on the lake not an angler in sight.... it was still pitch black. I scoped the lake for any signs of life but as i feared the winter chill had taken the life out of the carp. I opted for a little and often bait approach, a simple hair rig was tied using camo braid and a small size 10 korda wide gape hook, a long hair is also issued as with all my fishing, this was finished with some rig putty.I used 4oz leads on this attempt but will be reducing this to 1.5oz to 2oz max, chances are rare in winter and i did not want to be scaring off my only chance.This was finished with a snowman rig, 1 rod using cell boilie topped with fake yellow corn and the other robin red squid scopex and a pink maple pop up on top of that, single pva meshed boilies were also attached simply to removed any chance of a hair tangle. My baiting strategy had worked on this venue before scoring me 2x 20lbs + in an afternoon, i scattered 15 baits in a 10 yard radius around my hook bait. The logic behind this, is that the fish cruise round picking up single baits and growing in confidence as each bait is eaten, also both baits were topped with a bright pop up just incase the fish were not in the mood for eating but carp being carp will pick up an interesting bait to investigate. The over use of tightly placed pva bags of boilies and pellets, by other anglers had led me to this way of baiting.
The day kicked off with some rain and cold, added to this i had forgotten my matches so i could not make a coffee...not a good start. A match had also sounded up near the car park which could have been good or bad. A few serious carp anglers had arrived on the scene as well, typically strolling around and looking for signs, with sub par standard rob tackle, 20kg of yum yum baits (fruity furter no doubt), 12oz leads and a hammer to bang there bivvy in. I was just questioning why i was there freezing my nads off, when in the corner of my eye i saw my line was on the move this swiftly turned into the best alarm clock on the planet. I was in!. The battle was over fast, the lethargic winter carp was a beauty, a scale perfect common had graced my net, 18lb 10oz was registered. My 1st carp of the year had arrived and i was a happy chap. Simple baiting and sticking to basic tactics had aquired for another stunning double on a day when the matchmen and fellow carpers had blanked.
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