Brace yourself for "The Cell" - John Kneebone

Since the beginning of 2007, I have been fortunate enough to be using the new bait from Mainline, the bait now known as The Cell. I feel fortunate for a good reason; that now, nearly a year later I can appreciate just how important using a bait of The Cell’s calibre has been to the enjoyment of my fishing, it quite simply caught Carp!

The Carp in question, around a 100 in total, inhabited a large lake of some 70 plus acres, surrounded by steep hilly banks and all in all this lake is not the easiest of venues, but for me and the other local anglers, it is the best Carp water, close and available to us.

My year began well, having landed a 26lb Common and two Mirrors of 18 and 23lbs in the first three sessions with The Cell, these sessions had been either a single or two night weekender, so by mid February having taken a week off work I was looking forward to the prospect of a longer stint at the lake, on the quieter mid week nights.

This 23lb fully scaled mirror, one of the first to fall to The Cell!

With low clouds, mild temperatures and a steady 20-25mph southerly wind blowing down the lake into the North Bay, I had set up in a swim called “The Big Step” which after passing a couple of small swims, occasionally used by a match angler, is the first swim you come to, along the woodland footpath behind the North Bay.

The North Bay

Conditions were great for this swim, coupled with the fact I’d recently had a few on “The Cell”, I suppose I should have been expecting to see some action of the Carp kind, but instead I was in my usual mood when up at the lake, there to enjoy it! Ok yes, I was confident, I think you need to be when you fish, but although there was the odd prolific session at the lake, it was really a “Fish for one fish at a time” type of water and that was my aim, to catch one Carp, I didn’t care which one.

In any case I was there to enjoy it, and as it was half term week (The reason for my week off work) my son, Thomas, was accompanying me for the first two nights, before a stay with his mum, then returning for the last couple of planned seven nights at the lake. The fact that Thomas and I were to spend some time together meant, that this time would be enjoyable, whether a Carp was caught or not!

Being a single Dad, working full time (Thank God for Grandparents!), as well as a keen Carp angler, meant that having one of my children with me when fishing at the weekend has become the norm. Both Thomas (9) and my daughter Tamsyn (7) share my enjoyment for all things outdoors, the adventure of camping out is something they do not like to miss, they have started to fish themselves and being able to pass on the pleasure of angling is certainly a large part of my own angling pleasure.

Only a couple of hours into darkness of the first night in the Big Step, Thomas and I shared another moment of angling pleasure in the shape of a 26lb common. One night in to the session, the target of catching a single Carp, was achieved, then, surpassed! When the following night, a second Carp was caught, this time a mirror of 27lbs.

Both fish had come from takes on the left hand rod, casting just in front of the overhanging trees that lined the deep margins and main feature of the swim, the lead would be felt down to a “Thud” signally the “Snow Man” rig was correctly on a gravely strip at the base of the otherwise, silted drop off.

With a dozen or so, 16 and 18mm baits, some half, some whole, thrown over the rig, another couple of  handfuls of bait were trickled in, a few baits roughly every ten yards along the margins, from the swim down to the tree snags in the North Bay a couple of hundred yards away. This was done at last light when casting out, again at first light or after a take, since the first take had come at about 1am, I started to set my alarm for 1am to continue the baiting at the same regular intervals, little and often.

The deep margins of the Big Step making it possible to keep fish in the net rather than use a sack while preparations for weighing and photo’s were made. 

As Thomas left for his mums on the third morning, the lake became busier with the head of mid week anglers turning up, although conditions remained good the extra pressure seemed to be taking its toll, the Carp were still showing in the area, but the extra lines, fashionably cast at range, was enough to put the fish off, from drifting into the North Bay and patrolling the Margins.

The next couple of days and nights were quiet for everyone.

On the fifth morning of the session, a few anglers were packing up to leave, I was sat on a bucket watching the water for signs of Carp, wondering if the ease in angling pressure would see some fish back in the North Bay, when I was joined by Adam, the angler who was fishing the next swim up from mine. He was on his way back from the opposite side of the North Bay, having had a quick chat to one of the guys packing away.

He didn’t stop for long as he was keen to get the rods back out, thinking, as I was, that the drop in angling pressure, might allow the Carp to be more active. Although our conversation was brief, Adam did say, that while at the other side of the bay, he thought he had seen a Carp roll, right at the back of the North Bay by the snags.

If the spot Adam thought he’d seen a Carp, had not been one of the places I had been trickling in baits, I may have thought nothing of this information, but having kept up my baiting timetable over the past four days, there was a chance that a fish or two had tapped into the regular meal down on the tree snags.

 I thought a complete move from the Big Step was a bit hasty, as it had produced the only fish of the week so far, but a couple of hours with a single rod, could be worth a go.

The tree snags at the back of the North Bay

A little hesitant of fishing 2-3 feet of water in February, the depth by the tree snags, when the average depth of the lake is 15 feet, I took a small amount of tackle, net, mat, buzzers, bait bucket and two rods down to the two small “Match Man” swims.

After making an easier, short cast, from the swim closest to the snags, I waded along the margin, letting out line with the bail arm open, to the other swim that offered open water to navigate a fish too, and more chance of landing a fish should I get a take?

With the rod on the buzzer, I placed a bobbin onto a slack line, one rod in, time to sort out the other, I thought. As I turned away from the set rod, the sound of Fox buzzer, followed by the sight of the bobbin, bouncing on a tightening line, had me reaching back to grasp the rod!

Having been wading in the margins seconds earlier! I was back in the drink again! With side strain pressure on the rod, the fish, giving good resistance came towards me and the open water, away from the tree snags. A few short runs later, I slipped the net under a large, bronze, common Carp and new PB of 34lb 4oz!

A new PB! 34lb 4oz! My first thirty on “The Cell”!  

Photos taken and fish returned, I catapulted a couple of pouches worth of chopped boilies along the tree snags, waited a few minutes, before repeating the process of casting from the closest swim then wading to the next, open water swim.
If there were other fish still on the spot, they would be more likely to return from being spooked by a few baits, slowly settling to the bottom, rather than the splash of a rig (Lead, PVA bag of baits etc) hitting the water.

Again the rod was set and I began to describe the capture of my PB Carp to another angler and good mate, Colin, who had seen me in and out of the water like a yoyo and come to see what all the fuss was about.

I was just getting to the bit about the take no sooner than I had put the rod in the buzzer! When Colin stopped me mid sentence, with the words “Look its away again” Sure enough the bobbin was dancing a jig to the sound of the buzzer, with chest waders still wet from the casting manoeuvres I was back in water, holding steady pressure on the side strained rod. 

Despite a heart in your mouth moment, with an inquisitive swan, the rod pressure slowly brought the Carp to the open water in front of me, it was already clear from the resistance that this was a good fish, but when it made a powerful roll on the surface I could see that it was a large, silver common, known as “Lumpy”.

The further thrashes on the surface followed by a confirming comment that it was indeed “Lumpy” by Colin probably gave me a few more grey hairs, but when this large common, finally went over the cord of the net, tension was replaced by elation as my Reuben scales indicated a new PB of 38lb 8oz!  

My PB had been broken twice in half an hour!

A new PB! “Lumpy”38lb 8oz!

A single rod! The Cell! A brace of 30lb+ commons in February! Nuff said!

The 24lb Mirror, in superb winter condition.

Another common of 18lbs came to the net later that day, followed by moving the rest of my kit into the previously ignored swim. The remaining two days and nights of the session produced another three Carp, all mirrors of 21, 24 and 29lbs, the tactic of fishing a single rod, for a short period of an hour or so, and resting the swim the rest of the time, the successful method.   

As I left for home it started to sink in, I had trickled my way through 5kilos of “The Cell”, little and often, day and night, and had enjoyed a red letter session as a result!

From the time that “The Cell” had arrived from Mainline, freshly rolled in 10kilo bags, I had been following a weekly routine of baiting up areas around the lake, normally on Tuesday and Thursday nights and again after fishing at the weekend.

These areas were mainly spots between the swims, margins patrolled by the Carp; basically anywhere that was not a fishing spot. The designated swims were strictly avoided, with the exception of a swim at a narrow section, halfway down the lake that the Carp would certainly be passing through, but was no longer fished because as I was told by other anglers “The fish don’t go there anymore”.

The idea being that whatever part of the lake the Carp may be in, they would come across “The Cell”, in small quantities of a dozen or so baits, safely feed on them, perhaps only eating one or two baits, before continuing about their business, with the opportunity of finding another handful of baits not too far away.

Bait only ever being found in small amounts, in numerous areas, meant that feeding Carp could quickly clear a spot of bait, but finding another spot of bait, within twenty yards, or even the other end of the lake, would be actively encouraging the Carp to search for food, more importantly “The Cell”.

The regular application of a quick meal on these spots, coupled with the fact the meal is located in an area away from fishing spots or swims to be consumed safely, the Carp should, over a period of time, become confident with the bait in this case “The Cell” and ultimately associate it as part of their normal diet.

Once the Carp are “On” the bait, I would be able to fish any swim on the lake, feeling confident, that should Carp become present in that swim, they would not be as wary of a bait they had grown to trust, despite it being in an area they are probably wary of, the swims! And the chance of a take is dramatically increased!    

This style of approach was to be significant through out the year, having had a result in the North Bay; the area was stitched with anglers for the following weeks. I had fished the area with a single rod, now that it was bivy city; the angling pressure simply moved the fish away to other parts of the lake.

Next the narrow part of the lake, with the swim, nobody fished, provided a few fish, including another thirty, until once again the swim became popular and its vacancy no longer guaranteed.

A productive spot could not be guarded from others, or relied upon, pointing out the importance of an approach that targeted the Carps confidence of a bait, regardless of where it was found, equally giving confidence to fish any area of the lake.   

As the year progressed the Carp were clearly becoming more and more confident with “The Cell”. When the fishing situation or conditions were not the best, for me at least, it was noticeable that “The Cell” could still sneak one out.

An example of this was when I took my son, Thomas, up to the lake one day after school, to try out his new Fox rods. The air pressure was sky high with the weather hot and sunny, so not surprisingly the angling paternity present on the lake, had not seen any action, not until an hour later when Thomas landed a 19lb 8oz common!

Beginners luck? Maybe, I prefer to think that the caught common, upon finding Thomas’s hook bait, had taken an item into its mouth it associated with food rather than an angler’s bait, the difference needed for a take on a tough day.

Thomas with the grin of a born angler! His first Carp from the lake, a PB 19lb 8oz common on The Cell!

Tamsyn with one of her match winning Roach!

Unfortunately, this was not enough to prevent being out fished by my daughter? I had caught a new PB mirror Carp, a proper old lump at 37lb 10oz, Tamsyn was accompanying me at the time and had been enjoying some fishing of her own and had masterfully caught several Roach.

Later we were talking about our fishing and I remarked how pleased I was with the capture of the mirror, not expecting Tamsyn to reply,

”But Daddy I’ve done better than you”

Like all good fishermen, hands stretched apart a little further than the length of the fish being described, I politely explained how my fish had been the biggest!
Only to be quickly deflated and amused by the response of,
 
“Yes but you only caught one! I caught seven!”

What can I say? Except this is proof, that the pleasure is in the fishing, the captures are a bonus!

Another PB on “The Cell”! My best mirror 37lb 10oz!

Despite all the rain through the summer months, the warmer temperatures moved the majority of the Carp to a shallow, reedy part of the lake. The mostly lethargic Carp would stay, seemingly motionless in the reeds though out the day, only the odd back or tail tip of a Carp, proud of the water surface, giving away their presence.
                                                       
Climbing the bank side trees and looking through Polaroid glasses gave a better view of a rare chance to watch and try to recognise some of the fish. This gathering of Carp also gave the opportunity to run a little experiment on “The Cell”.

Standing in waders tight to a small, lone, bush at the end of the reeds to mask my outline, it was possible to watch the Carp at close quarters, as the occasional fish passed my position, going from the reeds to some overhanging trees near by.

At arms length I dropped a handful of “The Cell” on to silt in front of me, a few minutes later, again with the aid of my Polaroid glasses, I could see a 20lb+ mirror approaching, oblivious to the presence of myself or the bait.

Now in front of me, about 6-7 feet away, slowly gliding along, without the movement of a fin, the mirror stopped, turned towards me and proceeded to devour the boilies, colouring the water with blooms of silt, only two feet from my boots.              

“The Cell” a food source style bait, designed to provide nutritional values for the Carp, had already showed its quality; by the fish I had caught, but what was interesting when witnessing this event, apart from the enjoyment of seeing a Carp actually eat the bait, was the way the mirror had “B lined” for it.

The mirror had halted before being quite literally “Led by the nose” to the bait. “The Cell” contained a mellow, creamy smell to the human senses and obviously by the reaction of the Carp, released a compelling, sensory attraction when submerged in water.

This shallow part of the lake, was also cordoned off as a nature reserve area, by a pair of parallel ropes, kept on the surface by a number of buoy’s and fishing in the reserve is strictly not permitted.

Thankfully the vast majority of anglers abide by this rule, giving the Carp a place of sanctuary, when they need it. Often recently caught fish would be seen here, sulking, but recuperating. The Carp used the shallow water amongst the reeds to spawn and without a close season; this sometimes-stressful ordeal was made easier, free from angler’s lines.  
 
The two swims, one either end of the nearest rope, sectioning off the nature reserve from the rest of the lake, would receive a huge amount of angling pressure, being the closest swims to Carp filled reed beds and nearly always occupied.

The ropes were a real line in the sand; angler’s one side, 3-4 acres of water and the Carp on the other. The Carp certainly knew they were safe on their side and the ropes, with over cast, snapped off line and rigs hanging from them, certainly signalled where their side ended.    

Ahead of a five-night session, on a warm, sunny August day, I was at the top of one of the bank side trees in the nature reserve, as this was the obvious place to start looking for signs of Carp. Sure enough, once the perspiration of climbing the tree stopped steaming up my Polaroid’s, I could clearing see a number of Carp below, some deep within the reeds, while others in small groups of two or three fish, slowly cruising along the edge of the reeds.

It was Monday morning, so without a weekend angler in sight and the mid week anglers normally turning up from Tuesday onwards, both rope swims were empty. After promptly getting myself down from the tree and racing the gear around to one of the rope swims, I was ready to get the rods out.    

The buoys along the nearest rope made excellent markers, but over time, the consistency they offered, to get a rig and freebies on exactly the same spot, over and over again, by every angler, had increased the Carps awareness of where the rope was and where to begin showing caution to feed.

With this in mind I chose to use the buoys as points of reference rather than markers, using a buoy to firstly line up, but always cast ten yards to the side, would still have accuracy and hopefully lower the guard of any Carp, a little confused as to why the dinner- plate had moved!

Confidence was sky high with “The Cell”, I knew the Carp loved it and felt this gave another string to the bow of my approach; I could pill it in and confidently fish over a big bed of bait, a method rarely used on the lake.

So with one rod in the margins, down to the rope, another to be moved about as a “Roaming” rod, the central rod, ten yards off the buoy was fished over a healthy 5 kilos of Cell boilies, something else the Carp were not familiar with on the rope.

As the setting sun lowered the temperature, the Carp would venture out from the cooling shallows, after dozily basking in the sun through the day, the Carp became increasingly active as darkness fell, splashing and rolling each time further from the reeds, moving towards the ropes and the rest of the lake.

Although an enjoyable spectacle, this show of Carp, repeated each evening, did not bring a take until the third night, when the central, heavily baited rod produced a known 30lb+ mirror, down in weight, spawned out at 29lb 12oz.

The initial 5 kilos of free offerings on this rod had been topped up with another kilo of “The Cell” each afternoon, around 3pm when the Carp were visible less active. Now that this rod was off the mark, I decided to use the roaming rod in the same style, casting ten yards to the side of the next buoy along the rope, with a kilo of boilies over the top.

Waking up the following morning from an uneventful night, I was beginning to worry that maybe I’d over cooked it with another rod fished to the ever pressured rope? Or had I applied too much bait?

Just in time to justify my previous confidence, I had a take! The heavily baited rod was away again. I’d been straight on the rod, trying to prevent the fish getting to some tree stump snags it had bolted for, with the tackle at full strain, something had to give, thankfully the ping on the line I felt next, was as it came over one of the stumps with the fish now kiting away from the snags.                      

Using the depths of up to 16ft of water in the swim to its advantage, this fish combined weight and power to hold the bottom; any turn from the Carp, effortlessly took line, slow and steady. With no change from 15 minutes of gaining 10yds of line only for the fish to cruelly take it straight back again, my arms were beginning to ache and I was wondering which fish this was?

It was in the back of my mind that I’d seen the lakes big fully scaled mirror, down in the reeds the previous day, having climbed the nearby trees each day after baiting up for a quick check on the Carp.

Still attached to a Carp that felt like it had an anchor for a tail, the situation was about to change dramatically, when a couple of bleeps from one of the other buzzers were followed by single toned wine, the roaming rod that I’d moved to the rope was away!

Already playing a good fish, possibly the “Biggie”, on line probably damaged on the tree stump snag earlier was nervy enough, without the sight and sound of line being stripped from the spool of another of my rods. The second fish was making for the nature reserve and must have nearly reached the far end of it, before the wining buzzer silenced and the fish started kiting in an arc back towards me.

Not relishing the prospect of playing two fish tangled together and with fish No1 showing no sign of being ready for the net yet, I worked my way down the bank trying to get away from fish No2, making some shouts for assistance, frustratingly unheard, to an angler further along.

Staying focused on fish No1, thankfully was a good decision, when the rod finally took control, 30 minutes of plodding around on the bottom, could no longer be sustained, a large Carp came firstly to the surface, short of the energy to boss its way back to the bottom, was guided to the net.

One down, one to go!

The big fully scaled 32lb 8oz, another thirty to “The Cell”!!!

A few pumping winds on rod and reel took up the looping arc of slack line, formed by the kiting runs of the Carp and direct contact with fish No2 was restored. Fighting nothing more than the clutch of the reel, had taken little energy from a fish, determined to make sure my already aching arms were going to be well and truly wrenched.

Ten minutes later, another good Carp was taking a gurgling gulp at the surface and fish No1 was introduced to fish No2 in the net.

Now with the help of another angler both fish were safely un-hooked, weighed and sacked in the margins. Fish No1 was the big fully scaled I’d seen the day before at 32lb 8oz and fish No2 was a linear at 31lb! Nearly an hour on from the first of the takes, I took a deep breath and realised what had just happened.

I’d received a double take! Both Carp were mirrors! Both 30lbs plus!

Another brace of thirties, this time mirror Carp, on “The Cell”!!!

Another 30lb plus brace on “The Cell”, made complete with this 31lb linear!!!

The heavily baited rod produced the only known Wild Carp in the lake from the recast and the following, final morning of this memorable session the large bed of Cell boilies could not be resisted by another Carp, a stunning 28lb 10oz linear.

The perfect way to end the session!

This lovely 28lb 10oz linear, made it “5 from 5” on “The Cell”!!! 

As summer made way to autumn, followed by chilly signs of winter, fishing at the weekend had the uncanny habit of matching high air pressure fronts, brought in by cold East or North winds. Un-altered, the Carps appetite for “The Cell” continued throughout the changing seasons, not reflecting these sometimes difficult conditions, further captures and sessions of note were enjoyed.

Tales of which remain for another day, as I hope what you have already read, is evidence enough to confirm the point I began with:

“The Cell” quite simply caught Carp!

Enjoy your fishing,

John