Carp Fishing - Day Session

Carp fishing in the north west is hard work, some of the big carp waters up here have low stocks of fish that come under a lot of pressure. It's difficult enough actually getting on fish in the first place, especially if you're a weekend angler like me!.
Up until yesterday I'd been without a carp since the first week in may, it's late july as I write this and the last two and a half months has been a complete blank. Turning up last on friday doesn't help get a decent swim and sitting out my valuable time in a poor area with no carp is just demoralising. Despite not being able to get near the fish I've stuck it out in the hope a wind change will bring the fish into my swim or a lone carp might come accross my bait but it's very rare for this to happen on our tough north west meres.

There comes a time when you have to stop and take stock of what you're doing and I've reached that stage, the weather has been poor for weeks now and my carp fishing has suffered. I just couldn't face another blank night in the rain so I opted for a 'runs water' and some short day session carping on saturday.

My last carp back in early may, one of the stockies at 16.12


The lake I chose to fish was a decent size at around 16 acres, there's always going to be room to move and with plenty of carp in there I was always going to be in with a chance of catching. I had a walk round the lake and found carp showing in a couple of areas. As I knew the lake well I figured the shallow end would offer me a good chance of a fish. There was a gentle northerly wind pushing into the shallows and occaisionally a carp would push it's nose up to be followed by some profuse bubbling.
I got myself set up and placed a pva mesh stringer and a single pop-up in the area I'd seen carp showing. Once again the rain moved in and for a couple of hours in the afternoon I was stuck under the brolly watching it bounce off the floor, not exactly enjoyable weather to be carp fishing in but at least I had a couple of baits in the same area as the fish for once!.
At just on 5pm as the rain got lighter the right hand rod top knocked and the line tightened up then fell slack again, I knew the scenario well, I'd just been done by one of the cute carp that inhabit the lake. I recast to the same area but over the next half an hour it was obvious by the carp shows that they were moving out of the shallow area I was in and back towards the centre of the lake. I'd been watching one particular area and carp after carp had showed for over an hour prior to my aborted take, as the wind dropped off I noticed that this particular area they were in was absolutely fizzing!. I only had one choice and that was to move, I packed the gear away from under my stealth brolly as best I could then got wet doing the rest. It didn't take long to install myself in a new swim, the fish were pretty much on the edge of my casting range but reachable with a good cast, again I opted for a stringer on one rod and a single pop-up on the other, both cast to the same area which seemed to be full of carp!.
After casting the rods out I settled down and sorted the rest of my gear, by now it had stopped raining so I left the brolly down in order to be able to see more of the water. The rods had been out for perhaps half an hour when the stringer rod ripped off without warning, I can't tell you how happy I was to see my baitrunner going into meltdown again after so many blanks!. I was on it in a flash and an uneventful fight followed, I had a bed of pads down to the right but some side strain on the way in prevented any potential problems and after 5 minutes or so I slipped the net under my first carp in two and a half months, a common that went 13lb exactly, not a massive fish but when you've been biteless for so long it's just the tonic!.

First fish for two and a half months, not massive at 13lb but most welcome!


The area was still fizzing so after a quick photo I slipped the fish back and recast another stringer to the area, carp continued to show and bubble, one big fish in particular kept crashing out of the water whilst others around it rolled and bubbled but despite them being very active I never received any more action, had I stayed on after dark I'm sure there would have been more action but time run out on this occasion, I wasn't complaining, a carp on the bank is just what I needed to get some confidence back.

Tight Lines
Mark.