Simon Irons

Field Tester

0

Winter is a tricky time to catch carp at the best of times, never mind when the lake you choose has a particularly difficult bottom to fish. My lake of choice is called Sand lake and it deserves that title due to it being the dredge pit for all the other lakes on the complex, this has left the bottom of the lake with a super soft sand substrate with a sandy colour haze hovering just above the sand. These factors combined with very few features or hard spots make this lake a tricky place to cast your rigs and actually getting a rig to even perform and present a bait.

Late November I started the winter campaign on Sand lake. And had some success with numerous upper doubles. These catches continued over the Christmas period and new year including a stunning 13lb mirror on new years day morning after waking up to a -8 overnight frost.

January was much the same with upper doubles putting in appearances here and there while no other anglers were catching.

During February I only managed one session on a different complex. That 12 hour session was to say the least hectic. Within 20 minutes of casting out the first fish was in the net. Only 7lb, but considering the ice had to be broken to get a bait out, it was a good start. I spodded out around 3kg of C1 pellet hemp and maize over a spot I found which dropped into a gulley around 2ft deeper than the rest of the lake. By 1 p.m. I had had 10 carp on the bank all falling to C1 popped up. The next fish was the biggest of the day and was a nice result for a frozen lake it weighed in at 17lb 8oz and is my biggest from that lake to date. They don't actually get much bigger in that lake. By the time I packed up the count for the day was 13 carp on the bank. Nice for winter anywhere.

Heading back to Sand lake in late March the weather was horrible. Cold North East winds pushing driving rain into my swim of choice. I chose swim 1. Swim 1 is sort of untouchable by any other swims on the lake and I feel the carp like the safety of that area. The second reason I chose swim 1 is that it has a sort of funnel effect in terms of where the fish can go. To my left is a road side bank that has no swims along it ,so a natural safe haven the middle of the swim has a deep 10ft channel that the carp love to feed at the bottom of, and the right has a reed covered island that has a safe area cut back in the reeds that other anglers seem to ignore.

With these factors in my armoury I settled into swim one for a 12 hour session on Monday March 14th 2016. Casting to the areas mentioned above I settled back for a cold days fishing. As it turns out I would not have to wait too long. After casting out at 7.30 a.m. I had a slow steady take at 7.40 a.m. from the right hand rod tucked into the reed safe area. The fight was nice too with the carp keeping really deep until the last moment. It popped its head up and took a final gulp of air. As soon as I saw it turn it was evident it was a fish I have had before. “The long common” this time however it looked bigger. Indeed it was 27lb 5oz, the biggest weight it has been caught at to date. Happy with that result no other fish came out that day or for any other anglers for the next few days. I managed to pop down on Thursday 17th of March for an afternoon session. Again casting to the same areas but with only 5 hours to get a result. One more time waiting was not for too long 40 mins after casting I netted a lovely 18 lb common. Resetting the same rod in the same place an hour later the rod was away again, this time a real dark common if 19 lb. Very happy with this short session I packed away just before rain bucketed down and winds picked up, blowing straight in from the North.

Work stopped any other sessions until Sunday 20th of March, swim 1 was free when I turned up and the winds had dropped to a light North east with bright conditions. Far from being warm though. The rods were set up and the rigs that I had been tweaking since fishing Sand lake over the last year were cast out to the usual spots. It was another 12 hour session but hopes were high. Around 10 a.m. after an uneventful start the right hand rod took off like a train. Lifting into the fish it felt different to all the other fish I have caught from the lake. It felt heavy, very. The fish fought like a demon. Taking line at will and kicking its big paddle tail like it had no idea it was hooked. Eventually it came closer but I still had no idea what I had hooked. Due to the water colour from the sand you can’t really see too much until its in the net. When the net did slide under the fish I could see it had huge shoulders and a big head. Leaving the fish in the net to rest after the battle I set up all the weigh gear. It wasn’t until I went back to slide the carp into the sling to lift it out I realised it was quite a lump. The scales pulled round to a fabulous 31lb 15oz. This is a new UK personal best for me. Beating my pervious which was 30lb 2oz also from sand lake last June and was a stunning fully scaled that I had targeted for almost 6 months.

Normally I do all my own photos but as luck would have it the lake owner drive passed and I managed to flag him down to take some great water shots of the catch. Pictures taken and fish returned the rod was recast. An hour later I was away again, I really had not expected any thing else but I slid the net under another known fish called “The old warrior“ at 14lb 3oz.

The 31lb 15oz was not only my personal best UK carp but it is the current Sand lake record. All the fish were taken on either C1 or M1 both were doing the business on the lake. The rig was a version of the hinged stiff rig that I have tweaked to combat the sandy goo of the lake bed. Hopefully there are plenty more surprises in sand lake waiting for me in 2016. But with the owners having dug a bigger carp lake and stocked it with fish to 40lb I could be leaving Sand lake for others to try while I move on to the new lake.