 Lee Jennings - First English Thirty
It was almost two years ago now when I thought I had caught my first English thirty pound common but the scales swung round to 29lb dead! I was far from disappointed as she looked awesome in an almost black colour, she was well proportioned and gave me a well remembered fight, but I still wanted my first English thirty common. However, it was something I ended up putting out of my mind after countless near misses, and besides it wasn’t worth wishing away every target so quickly, was it?
The lengthy Christmas break was going ever so slow and I really needed to get out and on the bank again. The need for angling gets stronger everyday when you’re away from it, especially when you’re seeing the same old faces over the holiday (no disrespect). My poor old friends putting up with countless phone calls off of me going on about how I cant wait to get out, and how I’m going to do this different from that this year to catch this and that. I mean we all do it but I’m talking repeat phone calls here! This year hasn’t exactly been the ideal year for me when it comes to angling, I have been out less than expected because of other commitments and that’s why I’d like to apologise for a late article.
First wet lines of 2008
It was late February when I first got out this year and the fact that I had not angled over the winter meant I had nowhere to go that would boost my confidence as nowhere had really been receiving the bait I was using. With this in mind I was regularly checking the whether until a nice whether system sprung up. Towards the end of February and strong SW winds were due down in the Kent valley, and knowing they were the first big warm winds of the year I took the opportunity and decided on a lovely 5acre gravel pit which I had kept an eye on the previous year.
The first night was slow although I heard a few fish in the night but by the morning they had slowed down and weren’t showing, my guess was they had moved back off the wind already, away from the very pressured end (every swim occupied because of the winds) and were down the causeway end in the tree lined calm water. I moved down there and had the whole end to myself; I decided on keeping a nice quiet approach and flicked a couple of baited rigs on some close in hard spots in a silt gully of around six foot. I slacked off the line completely and sat back. Sure enough the odd bubble started to arise in the calm water but by 4pm I was really aggravated and I had no fish for the album. I gave up and was just about to lie down and the right hand rod ripped off, she gave me a lovely fight and went 31lb 8oz on the scales, a first English thirty pound common and, well I’m still ecstatic now! Backing off the wind didn’t only work for me, my cousin popped down that evening and also managed a bite 5 yards from the bank the next morning but sadly the fish dropped off. I managed to get a good look at the fish up the margin during the fight and I recognised it to be a fish that my good friend Billy caught earlier in the year, which was a mirror of 29lb.
Post Thirty pound common
Last year I received a ticket, as you know, for an undisclosed gravel pit which I targeted for about four months. In that time I managed three bites, which I spoke about in last years articles. I was really happy with the results I had, and planned to go back as soon as I could the next year, this didn’t go to plan as quickly as I had hoped for, but I’m back now and after two nights I’ve already managed my first bite so it’s all well and good.
I had been speaking to David at the Bait & Feed Company long and hard about bait and once again he came up with a solution for me, as he knows I love my fishmeals in the warmer months, and directed me towards the Smokey Mackerel 42 which is based on the Particle 42 groundbait but contains fishmeal, and also a little bit of milk protein, with other natural extracts including the legendary Robin Red which gives it its lovely colour. Once the bait is broken open you can see all sorts of roughage and take it from me try some, I’ll certainly be using it until David’s genius creates another splendid bait.
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Smokey Mackerel 42 |
Particle 42 Pellet |
First session down the undisclosed lake and I took 5kg as baiting in my angling is a must. It’s a weedy pond and the fish can so easily become pre-occupied on the naturals you really have to try and get them on your bait, and I don’t mean fling 5kg on one spot where you’ve seen a few fish show. Thirty baits on 50 different spots is better that 5kg on one spot that way you’re going to get more fish sampling your bait over a wider area of the whole lake. I appreciate that some of you can’t afford to buy large amounts of bait but David’s baits are a good price, give him a ring on the office number: 01920438338.
The first session went well, no fish but I found a good few spots to focus on and even managed to get a fish feeding in the edge at the far end of the lake under some overhanging willows, as you can imagine that boosted my confidence on the new bait straight away. The fish was around mid twenty in weight and looked absolutely stunning. I made the effort to walk round the lake every couple of hours and being nearly thirty acres in size with some, let’s say very natural terrain it wasn’t easy. Put it this way you have to wear trousers and long sleeved tops in the baking sun as to not get stung and cut by the brambles and what not. I think its important to say now while discussing the terrain of the lake that while on my tours baiting up I notice the weed coming up quite heavy, and found a few of my good spots near large weed beds and snags so I’m also going to up my tackle this year and I was speaking to Nigel at Rig Marole and he said he’s going to sort me out with some bits that will certainly handle the job, so if anyone had the same problem this year with weed snags or just simply wants some strong reliable tackle contact Nigel via their website www.rigmarole.co.uk. I’ll be using the tackle from now on so I’ll let you know what I think in my next article.
Back to the angling. I returned the next week for another one night session all prepared for a long walk round with a nice amount of carp food from David in hope to bait up and spot a few carp to help decide where I’d fish for the night. After I had stashed the gear closer to the lake in order for me to make a quicker move when I did eventually spot the fish, I set about my trek towards the shallows. I climbed a tree opposite a spit half way down the lake and saw three fish cruising over a shallow plateau that came out from the point of the spit and watched them head towards the second bar on there way up to deeper end of the lake which was in the total opposite direction to what I was heading. I decided to carry on moving the way I was going and bumped into a mate Martin who had landed a 26lb mirror early that morning of about 10am, who explained to me that he had started seeing a few fish move their way back up to the deeper end, I acknowledged this after what I had just seen myself at the spit and decided on making a move back up their as after Martins 10am bite I was sure they would be back the next morning which meant following the second bar towards the spit and over it into the shallow end of the lake. You’ve probably guessed it, and yes the second bar was what I was thinking. This meant fishing in a little cut out swim up from the main swim where the gear was stashed and flicking two baits across landing them nicely on top of the bar. This section of the bar was only three foot under the surface with about 8 foot of water either side, and across the top laid a nice layer of thin silky weed. In order to avoid this engulfing my rigs I lengthened them to about 10 inches, used a 2oz lead and used two nuggets of PVA foam around the hook. When cast I would let the baited rig hit the top of the bar and immediately slacken off the line in order to reduce the tension down the line to the rig thus not pulling the rig into the weed instead letting it gently lay over it.
I got two rods in position and felt greatly confident for a morning take, and when Billy came to join me in the main swim for the night I even predicted a definite morning bite. The evening was a good laugh as it was the first time we had fished together for a while and after some wonderful barbequed 88% beef burgers I decided on a nice lie down. I woke at around 5am, rolled over and had a nice look over the water to see a couple of fish cruising down the lake, it couldn’t be long I thought. Roughly 40 minutes later the right hand rod pulled up tight followed by a loud slosh from the fish rolling on the bar. There was snags to the right had side of me so I kept the pressure on as the fish tried to swing round towards them and managed to just get her through. I caught the sight of a dark common just before it plunged deep and took 20 yards of line, after a repeat performance as above I coaxed her into the net that Billy done a good job with first time. After a very exciting moment of weighing a pictures it was time to put her back, she left me breath taken with a great smile. I’d had my first carp of the year from the lake on my second night, to me that’s an achievement. The weight was irrelevant but she went 23lb 8oz.
Conclusion:
(Bait and Baiting)
I understand that fishing can be a slight bit frustrating due to the weed at this time of the year, so I strongly erg you to fish sensibly when it comes to the right tackle, and in order to keep your spots fishable try and keep them clean. Investing in a different range of pellet at different sizes from 2mm to 12mm is a good start, this allows for different break down times, which keeps the fish grubbing around. The small pellets fall through all the strands of weed that lay over your chosen spots and the fish push through the weed to get at the pellet, thus clearing the spot. Using a decent pellet mix in conjunction with your chosen boilie also gets the fish sampling your bait over your chosen spots which enables the fish to build confidence when feeding. Also any other small particles are good for keeping spots clean. Even if you’re worried about catching tench and bream or getting pestered by small fry, just bait up at the end of the session over your chosen spots and other fish other than carp can do a great job in cleaning your spots for you.
In the paragraph above you’ll notice I used the word ‘decent’ when I spoke about pellets, well take it from me a good quality pellet makes the difference from the cheap kind, and they are better for the carp in terms of better quality oil used in the pellet.
I use a mixture of David’s Mini Betaine Combo and the Marine Pellet Combo with some of the all great Red Devil pellets added, this is my favourite pellet mix. I’m also in the middle of trying out the Particle 42 pellet and I have to say I’m very impressed; it creates a lovely carpet feed for the fish and is obviously great when used with the Particle 42 boilies.
If you want to make your angling easier this year try creating a few spots of your own, or at least keep previous ones clean, and the main thing is keep hauling in the carp!
If you want to get some further advice on pellets boilies and other bait items give David a call and he’ll put you right.
Tight Lines
Lee Gennings |
