A Snow-man rig, tied with Cortex coated braid continues to be my number one rig, when casting out to baited spots or features, where I’m looking for the carp to be in a feeding mood, and a fraction less riggy. In this situation colour matching the Cortex to the bottom or weed is fine, but when I’ve been placing rigs in the edge, the new Illusion rig has carried on from the success of the forty by fooling a few more carp, and I’m really pleased to have gained another string to my bow that I’m totally confident to sit behind.
Another string to my bow and another carp fooling for the illusion rig in the margins
Keeping the new bait from Mainline, ‘New Grange’ going into the pits is also continuing to pay off, as the Oxford pits are generally very busy, so for anglers like Doc Martin and myself, making the 4 hour journey from Cornwall often means arriving at the venue late in the evening, and having to make the most of the remaining swims, if any! More often than not, the more favourable swims for the conditions are already occupied, and I have regularly found myself in the last vacant swim, which is normally a short-range, stalking swim, situated on the end bank of the pit. Assuming that while the lake continues to be rammed, it’s highly likely that this end bank swim will figure a great deal in my angling, so I have tried to keep some bait going into this area, whether I have fished it or not. As apart from the fact I’m probably going to have to fish it a lot, it’s also one of the quietest parts of the pit, and a great place to leave a free, safe meal for the carp to enjoy, increasing their confidence in the bait. Having taken the odd fish from some tough days, I’m sure the carp are getting onto the bait, with the end bank swim also providing some bonus takes. Like I say, I reckon the end bank swim could be my destination a whole lot this year, so as well as applying the bait to this swim, I’ve thought it best to really go to town with the marker rod, and find as many features as possible to try and get the most from the swim. As is often the case with carp angling, effort equals reward, and all the time thrashing the water to foam with the marker, really came up trumps across two back to back sessions.
Turning up around 19:30 Friday evening for my normal weekend 48hr session, not surprisingly the lake was busy as usual, leaving me with a choice of two swims, the last swim down the East bank known as ‘End Trees’, and yep, you’ve guessed it, the stalking swim on the end bank. My initial thought was to fish end trees, as I’ve not fished it before, and wanted to get to know the swim, but as this swim was first around the corner from the bottom bank, I thought I’d stop for a look in the stalking swim on the way. The sight of two good carp topping just fifteen or so yards from the bank in the stalking swim had me instantly dropping the barrow, wiping out all thoughts of the end trees swim. Knowing the spots in the stalking swim meant I was able to get the rods out with too much fuss, keeping things nice and quiet, as not to spook off these active carp close to the bank. In the bag later that night, I was well confident for a take, but besides the odd liner the night produced nothing, so the next morning I climbed one of the nearby trees for a look, hoping the carp hadn’t done the off. There was still a few fish around, although a little further out than where they’d been showing the previous evening. This would normally spell disaster for the stalking swim, as once you reached around 30yards from the bank, you were in the water held by the end trees swim, hence the bottom bank swim generally being known as the stalking swim. Luckily on this occasion the end trees swim was still unoccupied, so I reached for the marker rod to see what was what, a little further out. Aiming at a coppice of trees in the distance, I soon found an absolute minter of a spot, a pocket of silt between to bands of gravel, surrounded by some light weed at around 50 yards. Drawing the lead back across the bottom, you would firstly feel the juddering on the rod tip of the furthest band of gravel, followed by around 6-8ft of smooth silt then as soon as the rod tip signalled the lead had hit the closest of the gravel bands, the retrieving of the lead was stopped to pop up the marker float, so a rig cast just past the float would land nicely on the silt. Areas of silt were few and far between on the pit, but when you did come across them, they could be prolific spots for takes, so I didn’t have any reservations about the 1-2 kilos of freebies that followed a snowman rig cast out onto the silt. Not long after dark I started to receive liner after liner to the rod out on the silt, that carried on throughout the night and I was beginning to worry that perhaps something was wrong, when finally at around 4am all the carp activity causing the liners, generated into a take. A pretty 26lb mirror came to the net, following a lengthy, energetic fight, that saw me get a proper soaking from a heavy rain shower, but I was well pleased all the same.
This pretty 26lb mirror was a bonus fish from the bottom bank
The following week, both Doc Martin and I had taken the Friday off work to try and beat the weekend rush of anglers, by turning up on the Thursday, as well as having a longer 3night session, but when we drove into the car park to find it as full as ever, all the talk on the way up of which swims we’d like went right out the window. Another angler was packing his gear into his car, ready to leave, and said that only the stalking swim on the bottom bank was left on the pit I’d been concentrating on, the other pit that the Doc had been applying his efforts to, was not as busy. Gutted! Taking a day off work had made no difference, and I still found myself setting up down on the bottom bank in the stalking swim. At least the wind was blowing onto this bank, but with someone fishing the end trees swim, I was unable to cast to the silt spot located the previous week. Nothing materialized from the first night, but things were looking up, the guy in end trees was packing up for home, which would free up the 50 yard silt feature, although I did decide to move to the end trees swim and cast to the silt from there. Leaving my marker float out in the stalking swim, showing the silt spot, made finding it again from end trees easy, albeit a longer cast, I also found that the furthest band of gravel ran some 30yards towards ends trees, and a hook-bait cast just onto the nearest edge of it, earned two takes out of three the first night in end trees. It was the silt spot that the produced the other take as well as the better fish, and one of my targets, a carp known as ‘The Black Mirror’ for obvious reasons, spawned out at 34lbs but its not the weight so much that matters with this fish, as its dark looks that are stunning.
The stunning ‘Black Mirror’
Another nice fish from the silt spot at 26lbs
The next night saw a further four takes, all of which coming from the silt spot, a nice 26 mirror the best of the bunch. Doc Martin had also managed to get onto the pit a couple of swims up the bank, and also bagged a PB mirror at 35lb 14ozs, so happy days all round, and the trip home was far happier than the glumness we had felt on arrival. Like I say, effort definitely equals reward.
Doc Martin with PB mirror at 34lbs 14ozs, Happy Days!
Well onto the Fox Experience show, where my son Thomas and I, bravely accompanied Mike ‘Spug’ Redfern on the Mainline Baits stand, and I have to say we thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. It was good to help out some of the enthusiastic anglers, both young and old with a few tips on using the Mainline range on display, as well as, go through the uses of various rigs and how to tie them, with the aid of a couple of fish tanks.
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Manning the Mainline Baits stand at the Fox Experience Show
Many of the anglers manning the show, stayed over, lake side at Willow Park, so it was good to meet new people, and once the Indian take away was washed down with a beer of two there was plenty of stories and tales to keep everyone entertained. A fair few tales came from Spug, with some very, lets just say ‘Interesting’ out-takes from his first book ‘Carping Mad’, which is certainly set to be a one of kind read, but defiantly a much needed alternative to the ‘Caught this from this lake’ type of book. So if you’re up for a laugh, and not of the faint hearted this is a must have book, and believe me, you will have never read anything like this selection of carping tales from the likes of Lee Jackson, Martin Ford, and of coarse the one and only Spug, anywhere before!
My son Thomas, star-struck with Mick Brown
Between the Madras and stories, there was still time for a bit of fishing on the well stocked small lake at Willow, where a floater set-up, saw Thomas take three carp off the surface, before taking over young Tom Makers rods to nail another six on the deck! Thomas made me an extremely proud dad over the whole weekend, when I could not have blamed him for being a little over excited, being surrounded by so many of the faces of angling, he simply became one of the boys, although he was completely star struck in the company of Mick Brown, who was a very nice bloke, posing for a photo and autographing his predator book. Another dad who must also be very proud is Mr Andy Maker, not just because his son Tom is such a capable angler, but equally for how he handles himself, with a very level head. Taking my son to one side for a bit of spodding tuition and then changing his reel handles over from right to left, so Thomas could use his rods, was not something he had to do, or I think many other anglers would, considering the show had finished for day, but unprovoked he did, and that counts for a lot in my book.
Spodding tips from one Tom to another
For all the details of what went on at the Fox Experience Show, visit foxint.com or for details of Spugs book ‘Carping Mad’ go to calmproductions.com.
Well that’s it for now, so until next month, tight lines and enjoy your fishing.
Cheers
John |
Now add a rig ring and secure with an overhand knot.
Next thread a sz8 or 9 long-shank hook through the ring and the tag end of braid through the eye of the hook so the rig ring sits at the end of the hooks shank, just short of the bend.
Holding the braid in place, thread a couple of inches of a 12inch length of Soft Illusion, through the hooks eye and tie off a 6turn knotless knot.
Trim off both tag ends behind the eye of the hook.
Add an inch of clear shrink tube, cover the knot and steam to an aggressive angle. 
Tie the hook-link straight to a swivel, or make an overhand loop knot to the over end of the hook-link for quick link swivels.
Protect and sink the knot with a little rig putty.
The finished rig that works well with various balanced and bottom baits.