Bait: 14mm Red Berry Popups & 16mm Red Berry Hard hookers
Rig: Chod Specials
Date caught: 4th July 2009
Location: Abbey Lake Cambridgeshire United Kingdom

After being up all night listening to the crashing of the spawning carp and landing green balls of slimy weed containing 3lb tench i was right knackered and so i spent most of the day sleeping in the bivvy. I did try to tempt my quarry with some floaters but the carp were so engrossed in spawning they just ignored them, leaving the fat coots to get even fatter on the feast.

Evening came and my thoughts turned to my baiting strategy. Since the carp were not interested in feeding during the day i had resisted putting in much bait however the nights were a different matter. Day time temperatures had been in the high twenties to low thirties for the last three weeks but now the nights were cooling and this gave me a chance.

The carp would no doubt be getting hungry from all their exertions and so i decide that if i was to make an impression on them then putting in a handful of boilies wouldn’t do it. It had to be alot but at the same time not overfeed them so the answer was pellets and hemp.

Hemp will stay around in a swim for ages as its such a ‘mass particle bait’. The carp will continue to search out the succulent grains until everyone is gone. Coupled with the instant attraction of the feed pellets i had an ideal baiting strategy to keep the carp searching but not overfill them.

During the night i was pestered again by tench rolling around with the bait until they had dressed themselves in a ton of slimy weed. At around 3am i lost another good carp on the left hand rod and this time there was no doubt about the cause, a line break. Once more that gutted feeling overwhelmed me as the realisation of a good fish lost sunk in. I returned to the bivvy for the second night in a row gutted, leaving the rod where it was and just crashing into my bag.

Dawn came and the alarm sounded again with another one of the smaller stock fish however I still felt gutted at losing the second fish and the capture of a stockie did little to cheer me up.

An hour later and the alarm sounded again but this time on the right hand rod out in front of me on the clean area at the top of the channel. As soon as i took up the strain the line parted like Cotton leaving me completely dazed. Stripping off the line on all the spools reveled the problem. The line was shot to hell, all three spools. I changed two of my rods over to braid with 2 meter IQ leaders and chod specials and popped them back out on the areas i was fishing. Sitting in my bivvy i drank a cup of Coffey and pondered on my situation.

It had been a mentally tough session for me for sure. From seven runs i had caught four fish which to my mind was a very bad score indeed. Obviously i wanted to catch the bigguns but not catching them and losing the ones i’d hooked was depressing to say the least. Then the phone went.

“Alright Mucker” came a cheerful voice over the phone “hows your luck?” it was Gary Spencer ringing from one of his lakes. ”Oh you know” i said, “Yea” said Gary. He went on, “mines been good, really good” “Oh yea” i said knowing something was in the wind.

“What you had then Gary Spencer” i enquired ”A 41.2lb Mirror mate on your Goldfish boilies!”

I had breakfast and started to clear away the kit for an early departure back home when the right hand rod was away again. I can tell you that when i picked up the rod i fully expected the line to snap but it didn’t! The carp surged off to my right down into the channel and as it did so i lightened the clutch on my reel. I did not fancy losing this one, not with all the kit still to pack and the long journey home still to complete. I think if i had it would have been the last straw but luck prevailed and a few minutes later i slipped the net under another one of Abbey lakes commons.

Finally i had got it right and so after all the disappointment i ended up leaving but ready to fight another day.