Mr Angry Old Carp

Fished Straits this evening, the lake was quite busy and the weather wasn't helping either. Decided to fish the cave swim with tigers in the shallow area and meat to the deep opening. With very little interest being shown by the carp a blank was on the cards, but with half an hour to go the meat rod produced an old 14lb common. With the light fading and the carp acting very grumpy I was unable to get my picture. Seems the lake maybe getting a bit tougher as the season is moving on?

Mega session at Laundry lake!

I took thurdsay and friday off work and thursday afternoon Graham and I went down to Laundry lake. It was overcast and spitting with rain but very mild and we had a scout round the lake which was only being fished by 3 others. We found a few carp milling around at the deep end so set up a swim apart down there and were set up by 1.30pm.
We'd only been fishing about half an hour when I had a take on a bait dropped into the margin on my left. The fish slowly powered out into the lake and I knew it could be a good one. We netted after I finally got it to the bank and I had my first twenty of the year, a common at 20lb 9oz! What a start!
Just 10 minutes later Graham had a common of 14lb 12oz, then it went quiet for a bit.
At 3.45pm he had a 16lb 2oz common that put up a great fight.
Then just half an hour later he hooked what was obviously a good sized fish. As it came near I saw it was a long mirror and started joking that he had hooked 'Blackspot' which is probably the best known fish in the lake and usually comes out as a mid-twenty.
After a bit more leg pulling from me I netted the fish for him, and lo and behold it was Blackspot! What a monster it was, up in weight at 27lb exactly and a new PB for Graham.
After having a twenty each we were well pleased but more action followed after a quiet spell of 3 hours when Graham netted a 13lb 10oz common.
At 8pm I had a peach of a mirror at 18lb 8oz, then just 20 minutes later Graham had a mirror of 15lb 2oz that did most of it's fighting on the unhooking mat.
At 8.30pm I hooked one of the hardest fighting carp I've ever caught, a common of 17lb 6 oz that took 20 minutes of mad fighting to land.
Finally as we were packing up I had a 15lb 8oz mirror to end a great afternoon.

Second Again !!

2011 Chairman’s Carp Cup

"This year’s match saw all 18 contestants turn up to fish the 24 hour carp match at Straits Mill. Fish could be soon cruising at both ends and along the centre of the lake. Luckily the rain stopped in time for the draw and allowed the entrants to set up before we had four hours of continuous rain, some of it torrential. This was followed by intermittent showers that stopped in the early evening.

The weather didn’t interfere with the fishing and a total of 18 carp were caught. The winner was 17 year old Sam Yates who landed 5 fish for a total weight of 80lb 7oz including one of 22lb 9oz and won the holiday donated by Etang des Landes. Second was Graham Johnson with 5 fish for 63lb 10oz and third was Dave Twitchett with four fish for 57lb 10oz."

Maybe next year.....

Short Laundry session

Wednesday evening saw me down at Laundry lake for a short session. It was quite blustery and I headed to the far end of the lake next to the old irrigation outlet pipe. There was only a couple of others fishing by 8pm. At about 8.30 I had a fast run from the near margin and hooked a fish that immediately went under the old pipe! After a short grating sensation the hooklength parted. After re-tackling and casting out I soon had another take and after a short scrap landed a mirror of 12lb. 
I stayed right up to last knockings but no more action.

Super Margin

Fished Straits for four hours this afternoon had two carp on the meat in the margins. Both commons a 13.5lb and a smashing 16.5lb!

Evening session at Laundry lake

On tuesday evening I went down to Laundry lake for a 3 hour session. The lake was fairly busy and I walked to the opposite end of the lake to get a spot. There seemed to be a few fish milling about close in including two commons that looked like mid twenties. The low cloud soon gave a good downpour and people started packing up. I fished both rods close in the deep margins. At around 8.30 I had a belting run and hooked a good fish that ran right out into the middle of the lake! After a great scrap I netted an 18lb 8oz mirror, getting soaked in the process. As it got dark the rain eased up and at 9.30 I had a slow run and struck into a fish that came in like a bream but was a 16lb 8oz common. 
Still no twenties for me but still some decent sized fish.

The "Two Tone" Leather !!

After a heavy night off rain I bagged this stunning "Two Colour" Leather at 22.12lb. Taken on boilie fished to the left side off the large pads at late morning.