Simon Irons

Field Tester

0

The annual pilgrimage to a lake in southern France, not far from Limoges, in a sleepy little town called La Coquille was to be home for the week and the location of my latest carp session.

Arriving on a rainy Saturday, the lake looked its usual gorgeous self, with the summer leaves glistening with the fresh rain.. Setting up on the left side of the lake on a grassy swim, I had a great vantage point of the lake and also a lot of features to aim for. Foremost of these was a nicely cut back section of over hanging trees, providing the wary carp plenty of refuge and cover.

Having altered several items in my end tackle this trip I was more than confident that the improvements were going to be beneficial and provide me with extra fish on the bank. No action was forthcoming on the Saturday evening, despite the rods being out from 5pm, although if i'm honest, I was knackered from the 12 hour travel.

Sunday morning saw me waking to a 26lb common, a great start and proving that M1 will work anywhere in the world.

The remainder of Sunday saw another 3 fish banked 23b 2oz, 8lb common and a stonking 36lb 11oz mirror.

The changes made to the terminal tackle were subtle but seemed to be proving positive and infact the takes were at times almost violent...Having used lead clip systems for years I decided to use a inline lead with the insert removed, instead placing a tail rubber over the hook length swivel sliding the lead over the rubber, giving the lead minimum grip so as to more or less fish the hook length free running. In addition I pinned down the suffix camfusion hook length with korda sinkers, the length of this was also altered to around 12" to allow for leaf litter and mild silt in the swim. Instead of using leadcore I swapped it for new solar contour heavy leader braid which performed brilliantly.. the hooks too were scaled down, size 10 korda kurve shanks stayed put in every take over the week.

Monday saw the action continue with 6 fish banked 17lb common, 22lb 4oz mirror, 14lb common, 27lb 8oz mirror called the parrot and to top the day off I netted a 35lb 1oz mirror.

Tuesday was just as hectic with fish 20lb 2oz, 23lb common, 15lb common 26lb 4oz common and a midget 7lb common.

Wednesday using rigs identical as earlier in the week and baits identical saw another 4 fish netted, 23lb mirror, 17lb common, 13lb common, 20lb 4oz mirror, doesn't sound much, and granted compared to the earlier days it was harder work, but my excuse was temps were in excess of 30 degrees.

Thursday i was expecting to be hard work also, however the fish had other ideas, 12 am i was awoken by a 23lb mirror, minuets later after recasting i had a screaming take from a 16lb 2oz grass carp.

Thinking the day could not get better i had a screamer from my right hand rod that was cast into the margins fished with a pva bag of M1 pellets, halibut pellets of varying sizes add to that a dash of tuna and some home made chilli hemp. The fish hooked took off and torpedoed across the surface like a marlin, eventually yielding I slid the net under a magnificent common of 31lb 6oz, a PB.

All this before 6am, what else could the day hold for me. Replacing the rod in the same margin location I settled back in the bivvy for another hour or so sleep, However 30 mins into the snoring the right hand rod shot off again, This fish felt different, it was glued to the lake bed and didn't want to give any clue as to its size, giving the 2 3/4 powermesh rods a good work out I eventually moved the lump into higher water and 10 mins later had a lump in the net, lifting it to the mat I knew this was going to stretch the scales, pulling the weigh sling strings to a whopping 42lb 2oz of mirror carp. Yet another PB. 2PB`s in one morning.

Ignoring the rain pictures were taken and I popped in the lake with the ENORMADON mirror for a few wet pictures before reluctantly letting her slip back into the depths. 11am came with eggs bacon tomatoes and sausages as a brunch type meal, refuelled and with renewed swagger due to the mornings action I decided to rest my swim and head to the other side of the lake, no buzzers no whistles n bells just rod reel bait ... locating some fish margin feeding in about 2ft of water I lowered a pva bag of the same mix with my 3 bait hook bait attached. Sitting back not really expecting much I saw a huge bow wave shoot across the surface and then my reel scream, the fish felt like I had attached a bag of church roof lead to the rod. The fish turned and ran towards me, coming to the surface, his head popped out the water followed by a huge shoulder , the mouth big enough to fit a coffee cup inside and the shoulder substantial enough to stick a saddle on I knew once again there was a large mirror carp on my line. The mirror gave up and wallowed in the net, it was again a whopper, and weighed in at 41lb 6oz, a fish known as NELSON, Shaking like a leaf the pictures were taken and NELSON went on his way.

Friday was quiet and after the day before I wasn't really expecting too many more, but did manage to pop out 3 more carp to 17lb.

The totals for the week:

30 fish total
2 x 40lb+
3 x 30lb+
13 x 20lb+

and the rest were singles and upper doubles.

By: Simon Irons