Carpworld 349 October 2019

DAVE LANE

CHRIS BALL

THE MERE AND THE BLACK MIRROR

BACK IN THE DAY – SAVAY LAKE

THE ORIGINAL AND STILL THE BEST

WIN

AGE UGG L NEW FROM

inside

AN UNCOMMON OCCURRENCE

BEN WALES RECOUNTS HIS SUMMER SPENT CHASING A COUPLE OF LARGE AND ELUSIVE COMMONS FROM A CHALLENGING LINCOLNSHIRE PIT

TH WOR .85 7 2 £5

OCT – 2019 Issue

349 £4.99

O L I D AV I E S

SAMIR AND CLAIRE

T H I N K TA N K

O L I L O O K S AT H O W A N D W H Y H E H A S R E F I N E D

T H E C A R P L I F E R D U O H AV E J U S T 7 2 H O U R S T O

IS THERE EVEN SUCH A THING AS THE ‘BIG FEED’

T H E M U LT I - R I G T O A P O I N T W H E R E B Y H E R A R E LY

U N W I N D, C L E A R T H E I R H E A D S A N D R E - E N E R G I S E

A N Y M O R E ? O Z H O L N E S S A N D C O . C O M PA R E T H E I R

FEELS THE NEED TO USE ANYTHING ELSE

ON A WHISTLE-STOP TOUR OF CENTRAL FRANCE

APPROACHES TO THE CHANGING OF THE SEASONS

ALSO: TIM PAISLEY LOZ EAST DAN CLEARY JOHN PRITCHARD PAUL FORWARD ROB TOUGH DARRELL PECK IAN CHILLCOTT

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No Swansong Ben has spent this past summer chasing a couple of rather large and elusive commons from a challenging East Midlands pit Ben Wales

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estled six miles south of Lincoln on the southern edge of a large group of park lakes lays a remarkable seven-acre sand and gravel pit. It first caught my eye back in 2017 when Lewis Spencer graced the Anglers Mail holding aloft a seldom caught 40lb common of jaw-dropping perfection. 12 months later the same face popped up again, only this time he was holding a different mid-40 common from the same venue. Enquiries were made and although I was told I would have my opportunity, you never believe it until you actually have the ticket and first wet a line. That opportunity for me came in early 2019 and on the 17th May I had my first visit to what had been described as ‘the promised land’.

I remember the first walk so very well... I knew there were three swims on the Pub Bank, but couldn’t even figure how to access them. Pacing up and down the car park, I finally plucked up the courage to straddle the iron fence in the beer garden. The first swim I came to was occupied by a nice, informative guy who also happened to be blessed with the world’s finest name – Ben. He’d not had anything, in fact he told me he’d never had anything, but he had seen fish and that put a skip in my step. Once I had passed the neighbouring swim I came to a little snaggy bay and one thing we all know is carp like woodwork, so I gave this area a thorough look, but despite climbing every possible tree I failed to spot anything of note.

Moving on to the next swim, which is situated at the other side of a large section of unfishable bank, this entails coming out of the pub car park, up a short road, right onto the main road, passed the bus stop, right again up a public footpath, then LEFT

One of the many bars in the lake

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OLI DAVIES

IT’S A LONDON TING Oli Davies may be best known for his abilities behind the camera, but he’s no slouch when it comes to getting the rods out himself and when he does, he puts his faith in one particular rig for the majority of his fishing

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pecky’s

Progress

This month sees Darrell splitting an 8-night social session with his good friend, Derek Harrison, between a French canal and the Orient, where hopefully he could serve up something of a thank you for Derek’s help over the years

Darrell Peck CARPWORLD

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I’m always busy through the summer months and as a result I rarely get the chance for any social fishing. However, during June there was a reasonably-sized gap and I’d scheduled in an 8-nighter with Derek Harrison, with the destination undecided at the time we put the dates in. The week before this session I was filming in France and on the last night I fished a short section of canal after having been plagued by small commons at another venue. I hadn’t fished this canal previously, but I knew it held at least one big fish and with most of the canals in France riddled with carp, I thought I might be able to winkle one out for the cameras. The section wasn’t particularly big in terms of either its width, or distance between its locks and with the sun out I thought I might stumble across them by wondering the towpath. I walked its length without a single sighting, but what did stand out was a heavily weeded bend. On canals it’s often a job to know where to start, without seeing fish, as it can all look bland and samey. However, this corner absolutely screamed carp – the outer part holding the weed and as the barges cut the inside bend I knew the bottom would likely be hard there. With nothing factual to go on, I felt it was the most likely starting point.

I wheeled the barrow to this corner which was about two kilometres up the towpath and placed it in the shade of a giant oak tree. A few hundred metres back I had passed a German angler on the opposite bank and having seen me, he wandered up to see what I was up to. “Have you seen fish here?” he asked.

The word ‘no’ had barely passed my lips when suddenly a big, black shape appeared directly between us. Bear in mind at this point the canal is just 30 metres wide. Initially I thought this fish was a cruiser, but in that same instant it had appeared, it continued to rise, breaching the surface up passed the gills.

As it sunk back down, huge 50-pence piece sized bubbles were released and then came the realisation it was very likely the big mirror of this section. I had been looking directly at it as it had head and shouldered, clearly seeing its distinctive head shape.

The German guy, Bjorn, then asked if I had pre-baited this spot and when I said I hadn’t, he said “You’re lying!”. At that point I wasn’t keen to be talking across the canal, and so gently raised my fingers to my lips, indicating that we should be quiet now.

With no night fishing allowed, the plan was to fish until 11pm and start again at 5am. Just knowing that that fish was around, made the sense of anticipation incredible. As I was rigging up the rods several more fish topped. Placing the rods was done by simple underarm casts, exactly where they’d shown. Unfortunately nothing happened that evening, or the following morning, but with the full moon approaching and the free time already blocked out, I suggested to Derek we should come here for our session. With Derek in agreement, upon my departure 10kg of 18mm Link was deposited exactly where the big mirror had shown.

I met Derek on a beautifully hot summer’s afternoon and after drinking a couple of cold beers in the shade of a bridge, we wheeled the gear around to the swims. As I was getting set up on the inside of the aforementioned bend, one of the lock keepers drove up the far bank coming to an abrupt halt opposite me. He could clearly see carp in the weed and was pointing and shouting “Grand Poisson” whilst gesticulating at the water beneath him. At that point I hadn’t seen anything myself and it instantly brought that warm glow of confidence that they’d probably been on the bait in my absence. Long story short, nothing happened that evening and in the morning the swim felt dead. I expected some fish to return to the weed once the sun rose higher, but it didn’t feel like there had been any

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BELOW

The week before I had once again hopped on the train for a jaunt to France

feeding activity here. I had the feeling the fish had disappeared to my left for a feed. I fished up until about 10am before getting bored and then went for a walk down towards the locks. Locks always stand out as obvious features on any section of canal and look particularly appealing in hot weather with the fresh oxygenated water spilling through the gates... and right on cue, a big fat mirror jumped clean out tight against the opposite bank! Enough said. On arriving at the locks with my gear I had to wait a little while for a zander man to vacate the spot. Once he had, I flicked my rod down towards the lock and the second close to where the fish had shown earlier. The bottom here was all gravel because when the gates opened the flow was so strong it removed any form of debris. Well, saying that, I did wind in an old guest chair covered in zebra mussels that somebody must have launched in at some point.

Not long after placing the rods a few fish appeared on the surface near a metal platform between the locks and it was obvious I was definitely in the right spot. That evening I had a plain 32lb mirror and the following morning, a lovely scaly one of the same size. Both takes had come on the rod cast towards the metal platform near the locks and close to where the fresh water was spilling through. Both had also fallen to white 18mm Banoffee wafters, but on closer inspection they’d been heavily whittled away by either crays or poisson chat. With this in mind I switched to tiger nuts and baited quite heavily. I spent the downtime tying a few rigs in the shade of a small tree as fishing through business hours wasn’t possible here because of the boat traffic.

That evening, just as I was beginning to question whether they would return, a big fish crashed out 30 yards away, around the middle of the canal. I decided to bait there as well and gave them 20 pouches of tiger nuts, in the dark, ready for the first light recast. At first light I was back at the canal and shortly after casting out, the rod close to the gates received another take. This fish shot between the metal posts of the stage and dumped the rig immediately. It had all happened in the blink of an eye and realistically I’d not had time to do anything

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John ‘Vinny’ Pritchard

Stick to your guns With the list of targets running dry on his existing syndicate, John Pritchard sought a change of scenery and following a chance encounter, a few phone calls and a short wait, the die was cast

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D ABOVE

Manton’s Diamond Scale cemented my decision to look further afield and make a fresh start elsewhere

uring the summer of 2016, it was clear my time on Lincolnshire’s Manton New Lake had come to an end. Although one or two of the A-Team had eluded me, repeat captures were becoming the norm. I’d wanted the Black Common and Diamond Scale for a while and bizarrely caught them both on the same morning. This cemented my decision to search for pastures new.

It was at the Northern Angling Show that the big pit at Girton was brought to my attention.

Jamie Clossick put a band together for the afterparty and kindly invited me to play my guitar.

Before we set up, I checked in at the DNA stand to see the guys. When the following season was brought up, one of the team said “You should take a look Vinny, it is right up your street”. We blasted a few songs out and it was great to play with the guys. Due to logistics, we only had one rehearsal.

We were a little rusty, but after a couple of pints I think the exhausted exhibitors enjoyed it all the same. I left Manchester with a little seed in my mind and a bit of digging to do.

RIGHT

The Girton complex is situated just outside Lincoln on the county border with Nottinghamshire

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The Girton complex is run by Classic Carp Limited and one of the partners is Anthony Sylvester. I’d met Anthony previously as he conducts fishery management and had actually netted my own fishery previously. I have to say that Ant is one of the good guys in carp fishing and is involved in some stunning venues. After a few messages and having had my references checked, I paid my subs and became the proud owner of a Girton ticket for the spring of 2017.

There are four lakes on the complex: the Sailing Lake, George’s Lake, the Cove and the Main Lake. The sailing lake is a huge, sparsely stocked and very wild lake. George’s is around 20 acres and again is a little unknown. The Cove is 10 acres and was originally part of the main lake, but was backfilled and separated; with this now being an exclusive day-ticket. The main lake is 70 acres in size and the one that most members target. Having only been involved for two years, I’m not an expert on the lake’s history, but as far as I know, this is the general idea... Whether it was stocked, or fish migrated through floods (the River Trent is close by and severe floods have been reported), there are a small number of originals in Girton. For some time a group of anglers had fishing rights until the site was purchased by AJS. I’m not 100% sure on the numbers, but AJS stocked some fish after the purchase, but without question the most talked about are the Pendle View trio. These came from a fishery just north of Blackburn that turned into a holiday complex. The three fish, named Measles, Tutti and Butthead were safely moved to Girton at weights of 38lb, 39lb 14oz and 49lb 10oz

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By my side

Samir and Claire Arebi have been flitting back and forth to the continent in search of unpressured carp and unspoilt vistas for a number of years now. Although the majority of Samir’s recent escapades have focused on his fishing with friends, they were together again recently when one such trip came up trumps

Samir Arebi

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IN THE SPECIAL 350TH NOVEMBER IS SUE Mike Kavanagh’s Rigworld Mike sits down for a long overdue chat with the one and only Frank Warwick Dave Lane Dave recounts his quest for the Burghfield Common

Adam Whittington Adam has shunned any form of attention over the years.

However, he has a variation on a theme that he really wanted to give some exposure. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to meet the Nora rig!

Also... Kevin Clifford, Chris Ball, Julian Cundiff, Loz East, Paul Forward, Ian Chillcott, Darrell Peck, Jim Wilson, Myles Gibson, Steve Briggs, plus much much more

Tim Paisley The Big Interview with Chris Yates – Part 1

Next Month On sale: Friday 18th October 2019 | Subscribe now to have next month’s issue delivered to your door! www.gifts4anglers.co.uk

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