Carp Fishing - Red Letter Days Pt4

For those of you who know your history the 6th September 1997 might just ring a bell?. It was the day Princess Diana was laid to rest. At the time, the TV and Radio was a nightmare, it seemed that the media were doing their level best to depress anyone and everyone!. I’m not a big fan of the royals and although what happened was a tragedy, it had little or no bearing on my life and I’d had enough of the continuous misery being churned out by our media on a daily basis. There was only one thing to do on the day of Princess Di’s funeral and that was get up early and go carp fishing, at least on the bank I was free from having this event rammed down my throat!.

I was up a couple of hours before first light making a flask and some sandwiches for the day ahead, I was fishing Capesthorne Hall at the time, I knew it was an hours drive to the lake and I wanted to be there before dawn. The drive to the lake was a little shorter than usual, the roads at that time of the morning are always quiet and with no Sunday drivers to get stuck behind I knocked a good 10 minutes off my usual journey time.
My plan was to fish the first part of the day on what is now one of the most talked about carp waters in the north west, capesthorne top pool, back in 1997 there was no night fishing allowed and the water was a shadow of the venue it is today. The top pool did have a tendency to produce fish from first light onwards until mid morning back then and the second part of my plan was to move onto capesthorne main lake during the afternoon as the main lake was a known late afternoon/evening carp water.

Capesthorne Top Pool Circa 1996


I’ve always been a short session carp angler and being days only the capesthorne waters were ideal for me, my fishing gear was stripped out to the minimum and this made the walk across the field to the top pool quite bearable, I walked through the small gate and dropped my gear in the boathouse peg so I could have a look around, it was starting to crack light and with nobody around I had the lake to myself, all I needed was a fish to roll and give me a clue and I could drop onto the area and be in with a chance of catching.

I was using tiger nuts at the time and these were fished on the D-rig that I finally published last week. The D-rig has been a nice little string to my bow for many years and during the mid to late 90's it was the darling of capesthorne, those spooky capes carp didn't seem to have an answer to the D-rig and it constantly tripped the carp up time and time again.

Right on cue a carp head and shouldered beyond the main pads to the right of the boat house so I grabbed my gear and moved down a couple of pegs and into the bay (peg 12). I cast a couple of single tiger nut D-rigs to were the carp had rolled and sat back to see what happened. I didn’t have to wait long, just 5 minutes after casting in the right hand rod pulled down and signalled a run. I was on it straight away, the fish took a bit of line but once it got bogged down in the weed the fight changed and the fish became quite subdued. I slowly pumped the carp and the accompanying weed back towards the net, apart from a nervous moment close in when the fish tried to make the branches of a fallen tree, I had no problems and I slipped the net under my prize after a fight that lasted about 5 minutes.

I peeled back the landing net mesh to find a nice common and on closer inspection I realised it was ‘the’ common, crinkle tail, a fish that is now quite famous and a target of every capesthorne top pool angler these days. Old crinkle tail looked in good shape and I thought I was looking down at my first ever 20lb common!. I weighed the old boy and the scales gave me 19lb 12oz, not quite my first 20lb common but still a pb common none the less. I did a few self takes and returned crinkle tail to the water, back in 1997 self takes were allowed and its only recently they’ve been banned on sotas waters.

Capesthorne Top Pool Crinkle Tail at 19lb 12oz on 06/09/1997


I’d had a quick result, it was 7.30am when I’d caught crinkle tail and I fished on through dawn and through the morning with no further action. I had hoped to bank another fish having got crinkle at the start of my session but it wasn’t to be and early in the afternoon I gathered my gear together and moved onto the main lake for the rest of the day.

Capesthorne main lake was fishing quite hard and being Saturday afternoon I was up against it, I stood on the bridge looking for carp and wondering what to do, this was a position I’ve been in many times before and after spending an hour looking round I decided to drop onto the famous ornamental eagle peg in the garden pool. I knew from hours of watching capesthorne carp that they would move up from the shallows late afternoon and that I might stand a chance in the eagle. I knew the swim and I knew the margins in front of it were a prime area for carp moving through in the evenings. I fished a few benches to the left of the eagle so as not to disturb the area, I dropped both D rigs in the margins and sat back to watch the water, if I saw fish move elsewhere I could always move on them if necessary, otherwise I was sitting and waiting for the carp to come to me.

I was enjoying the day and with no radio on I was still free from the historical event that was unfolding in the real world. It was 6.50pm when my attention was caught by a single bleep from one of my delkims. I looked at the rods just as the left hand rod flew off. A carp had picked up one of my margin fished baits in front of the eagle and bolted for open water!. The fight was a cracker with no weed to get stuck in and the carp made several determined runs in a fruitless attempt to evade my landing net. The runs became shorter until eventually I slipped the net under a nice mirror, it wasn’t one of the bigger main lake fish and the scales revealed a weight of 15lb 8oz. Although it wasn’t a biggie, it was the first fish that had been out for a few days and its capture put the icing on the cake of a good days fishing for me.

15lb 8oz Mirror from Capesthorne Main Lake 06/09/1997


A new pb common from the top pool and a nice mirror from the main lake later on was a great result and I was rightfully pleased with the day I’d just had, in fact I may have been the only person who was grinning from ear to ear on that famous day!.

Tight Lines
Mark.

Carp Venues - Capesthorne Hall Uncovered Pt2

A heron has landed on the bridge, click to watch.


Its been a while since I wrote Capesthorne Hall Uncovered Pt1 I know there has been a few north west carp anglers eagerly awaiting part 2 so here it is. The second instalment deals with the garden pool. For those of you that don’t know, Capesthorne main lake has a bridge crossing it about two thirds the way up the shallows (park pool). The bridge is regarded as the dividing line between the garden pool and the shallows.
The water in the garden pool gets deeper as you move up to the dam wall and at the far end of the lake, in front of the dam wall, you’ll find about 7 feet of water maximum with the average depth being about 3-4 feet for the garden pool as a whole. Walking from the car park towards the bridge, when you reach the bridge and turn right before crossing, the first swim you arrive at is known as the arches. This has always been a tricky peg to catch fish from. Carp pass through this swim in numbers and it took me a while to work out how to catch consistently from it. The arches rates as one of my favourite swims on the entire lake, its one of those swims where 2 rods never seems enough to cover all the options.
Looking at the picture below, this is taken from the arches looking across to the hidey peg known as ‘robinson crusoes’ and the first swim in the field known as ‘the moose’. The areas of interest are the channels in the silt and the brickwork around the bridge. The most common mistake when fishing the arches is to try to get tight under the bridge or to the brickwork of the bridge that can be seen when its full. As you can see, the stone is built up and gradually falls away to meet silt about a rod length away from the bridge, a bait fished were the stones hit the silt is a winner!. The carp use this line to patrol and when I started finding it I found some very good action. The other areas of interest are the silt channels, you may notice that the old stream bed comes through the second arch, this is not a good place to fish, the only action I ever received in the channel was from bream. It was far better to fish the third and fourth arches over against the silt/stonework area as this is where the carp like to move.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool,The Arches

Casting tip for fishing the arches for Capesthorne Hall Carp, click to watch!


There is a smaller channel in the silt that breaks off and heads towards the moose swim and where it stops and turns back to open water in front of the moose is also and excellent area. The silt/stones are about a rod length from the bridge and similarly, the channel in front of the moose is a couple of rod lengths away from the overhanging rodey bush that everyone casts too because its all they can see. Open water in front of both the arches and the moose are also worth a look, this quarter of the lake from the bridge up to the eagle is probably the biggest area of natural food in the lake and you’ll see carp head and shoulder and roll in this area during the evenings. I’ve also included a view looking back from the moose swim, you can clearly see the brick line of the bridge and how that it comes round and under the rodey bush then into the margins of the moose, baits placed anywhere along this line are a potential winner as its a carp patrol route.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool, The Moose


Next up is the ornamental eagle, years ago this swim was an absolute flier of a peg. You can see the old stream bed coming close in right in front of the eagle, you can also see a feature that I spoke about in part 1, the line where sandy margins hit the silt. In front of the eagle they pretty much come together, the sand/silt line and the stream bed are very close at this point and a rod fished a rod length off the eagle is another winner on the right day. Before the drain down, I used to see carp rolling right in front of the eagle and it was only when I saw the lake empty I realised why. Despite the lake turning gin clear, fish can still be caught from this spot if your quiet. They can also be caught further along towards the toilet if you find the sand/silt line the carp use as a patrol route. If any of you have read Paul Selmans Carp Reflections this area of the ornamental eagle gets a mention in the Capesthorne Hall chapter of his book.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool, Ornamental Eagle


The next picture is taken from just before the eagle and shows the margins of both sides, as you can see its silty and again the areas of sand meeting silt are the ones to have a rod on, One rod on the line and one out in the silt where the carps food collects was always my tactic in these swims, sometimes you can’t get into the peg you want so it pays to know how to get the best and possibly a bonus fish out of the ‘has been’ type pegs that most people don’t fancy.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool, Open Water


Next is the dam wall taken from the field side, again it’s a silty middle and sandy edges, the silt/sand area in the last field peg, just before the swim known as the ‘chicken run’ is another good place to fish. There used to be a fir tree growing in the corner by the toilet and when it was there, the corner was always worth fishing but the tree got chopped down and with little cover, the carp always seemed a bit reluctant to go in there although they do still show up there from time to time.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool, Dam Wall


Last but not least is the plug hole. When I first fished Capesthorne Main Lake in the summer of 1996 this was ‘the’ swim to be in, I remember waiting the best part of 3 months before I ever saw it vacant and even then it was only because the carp angler fishing there went home early for his tea!. It was such a productive peg, the lads used to try to angle a cast under the trees to land tight into a gap in the rodey bushes right back against the bank, if the cast wasn’t right you simply didn’t catch. Things changed after the lake was drained and with gin clear water and weed present the fish deserted the plug hole swim in droves and it fell out of favour. This turned out to be a bonus for me as I managed to stumble across an area that produced in the depths of winter and the swim was rarely or never fished!. In the picture you can see where the lads used to catch tight into the rodey bush, the area I had winter action from is under the big tree with the dead leaves on. It’s the nice flat silt area, there’s nothing much there to attract them, just a nice depth of water over their heads and the security of the big overhanging tree. If you get the right area here, winter carp action during December, January and February is possible. Runs don’t come every time but if you can get in there, its worth fishing and it’s the first peg I’d head for during the depths of winter.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool, The Snags/Plughole


Well that’s about it, most of what I learned during the time I spent fishing Capesthorne Hall Main Lake. I found Capesthorne to be a very tricky water, pinpoint location, a good carp bait, an efficient rig and an understanding of carp behaviour were all needed on this lake. Watch the carp closely, seeing these pictures of the lake empty is only part of the jigsaw and you’ll need to get up close and personal with these fish in order to get amongst them consistently. If you can learn how to catch carp consistently on Capesthorne Hall then you’ll leave the place a very accomplished carp angler. The carp fishing is far from easy and if you have any problems with your bait, rigs or location you will suffer an awful lot of blanks!. Best of luck to those of you who decide to fish this tricky and challenging carp water.

Tight Lines
Mark.

Carp Fishing - Capesthorne Hall Uncovered Pt1

A heron has landed on the bridge, click to watch.


Capesthorne Hall has long been one of the north west's top carp waters, its been producing good numbers of 20lb+ carp since the seventies and continues to be a top north west carp venue today with several carp topping 30lb+ at the right time of year. For details about capesthorne hall please visit the Sotas website, there is a link to the Sotas website on the right hand navigation on this blog under 'North West Angling Clubs'.
During my time on Capesthorne the dam wall sprang a leak and for a time, the lake was drained whilst repairs took place, the following pictures were taken when the lake was all but empty of water. Like most people, I struggled in my first year on capesthorne hall, my results were strictly average and I managed 6 carp in my first season, thats not a lot of fish when you're fishing there 2-3 days per week. The following pictures had a massive impact on my results on this lake, once I sat down and studied them I began to relate showing fish to the underwater features in the pictures, the next season produced 24 carp for me as I was able to use the photos to understand the carp movements around the lake.
The following pictures relate to the 'park pool' side of the bridge, a long area of the lake known as 'the shallows'. This area of the lake can be very productive as the carp like to cruise round the shallows in the afternoons.

This first picture is a swim known as 'the cattle drink', it's not a very popular swim due to it's restrictive nature, from the surface it looks very difficult to extract a carp from and it is 'hook and hold' fishing. As you can see from the picture, apart from the trailing branches of the yew tree theres little else for the carp to snag you up on and you can safely extract carp from this swim if your competent at snag fishing. This swim is highly under-rated and allows you to fish much closer to the yew tree than from the popular main pads swim opposite. Fishing close to cover is a big thing on capesthorne and the closer you can get to it the better. The cattle drink will produce carp regularly and is particularly good if the lake is busy as the carp tend to favour the cover of the yew tree when they are under angling pressure.



The next picture begins to deal with the 'stream bed'. Capesthorne hall is an old estate lake, it was created by damming a small stream which runs in from the end of the shallows, the lakes water level is regulated by the 'plug hole' up by the dam wall, what water flows in one end, then flows out via the plug hole and into the syndicated bottom pool. The old stream bed still exists and it didn't take me long to realise that the carp would follow this feature quite a lot. Looking from the main pads swim, the stream bed flows through the second arch of the bridge, it's quite pronounced here and has a fair depth of water, despite looking very good, fishing in the stream bed here has been unproductive for carp, in this particular swim the carp seem to prefer the cover of the yew tree and the pads and usually pass through arches 3,4 and 5 when moving between the park and garden pools and vice versa.



Changing the picture angle from the above shot you can clearly see the stream bed meandering its way through the shallows of the park pool, it comes close in to the bank just before the rodey bushes on the hall side before going back out to the middle of the lake. If you can get a bait in the stream bed anywhere down the shallows I think you have a chance of picking up a carp, for this reason I never used to break my neck to get into what are known as the 'popular' swims near the bridge, if you find the stream bed your in with a chance from any swim on the shallows.



The next shot below looks at the rodey bushes on the hall side, this clump of bushes is just under half way down the shallows from the bridge. As you can see from the photo, the stream bed passes through this swim as it does through every swim on the shallows. Take a look at the far bank on the hall side, if you look carefully along that bank you can see a line were the silt starts. Along this bank the margins are sandy to start off then a couple of rod lengths out the silt starts. If there are carp cruising the hall side then a bait placed precisely on this line is in with a chance of being picked up. You really need to be quiet when fishing capesthorne hall, particularly so if fishing the margins. If the fish are there and you can get your bait on the line and avoid being detected by the carp, this sand/silt line can produce a carp. Incidently the remains of the fallen tree were removed!.



The picture below looking back towards the bridge gives a different angle from above, you can see the line of sand/silt along the near margin, its just beyond were the old barbwire fence finishes, or used to finish as the fence is now gone!. You can also see the stream bed and that the far bank has the most cover. I mentioned above how important bankside cover is to these fish, I can only assume the carp feel safer with cover close to hand, they are more likely to try baits in areas they feel safe in, which I guess is true of all carp in all lakes. When a lake see's as much angling pressure as capesthorne though, it's crucial if your going to stand a chance of banking one of these tricky carp!.



To sum up the park pool, you should always pick a swim based on sightings of fish, don't worry about people running straight for the main pads swim, it's a good swim yes but because of the constant angling pressure it sees it's not as good as it once was. If you start getting obsessed about this, or any other swim then you've fallen into the trap of 'swim chasing' and you'll be in for a hard time.
The carp in capesthorne hall pretty much follow the same daily pattern, in the morning they begin to pass through the arches from the garden pool into the park pool and up to the shallows. They spend the day cruising the shallows, then, as we get to late afternoon, they begin heading back up towards the bridge and through into the garden pool again. It's worth fishing along the shallows through the daytime then moving to the garden pool early in the evening. The garden pool has slightly deeper water and it's one big natural feeding area, in part two I'll go through the pictures of the garden pool when its empty.

Tight Lines
Mark.