Fishing Location – “The Carp Pond”
With the end of the winter and the start of spring just around the corner we have been lucky to get some mild weather before the season really begins. We chose Saturday as it said that although there will be a cold start to the morning it should turn sunny by lunch time. We had decided to give one of our local lakes a visit and see what the fishing is like this time of year.
It wasn’t as cold as i thought it was going to be at the start and there seemed to be 
very little wind. When we got to the venue there were quite a few fishermen already scattered around the lake. Although the weather was mild the water was freezing cold and way too cold for the fish to be feeding. As we know most fish will feed less in colder waters as their metabolism slows down so they tend not to eat as much as they would in the warmer months. This was beginning to show as no one seemed to be getting any bites.
Brian had decided to fish the open end feeder on STEALTH Fast Sinking Camo-line that we got from Total Outdoors and it seemed to do the trick. It was only about ten minuets into our fishing when Brian struck into a nice size common carp around 8 lb. He managed to catch it on maggot witch turned out to be the main bait of the day. Not content with hooking the one it was only about an hour or so afterwards when he managed his second fish of the day just as big as the first hitting the 7 lb. plus mark.
I had decided to fish one rod on a Chod Rig backed with the Fluorocarbon Fishing line from Total Outdoors with a Peppermint Pop-up and another rod on the Waggler. I
did start off with a method feeder but thought better of it when i saw how much weed was in the water. The waggler turned out to be spot on and i started hooking into small Roach and Bream after spending half the day trying to get the swim going and the fish feeding. The carp rod had a couple of knocks, where i think the bait was being picked up but then dropped again, and then on the 3rd nock the line zipped off and i struck into my first and only carp of the day weighing 7 1/2 lb.
My set-up on the carp rod was simple, i was using 45 lb. Core Zero leader that i got from Taska in a competition online and i was using a running Chod system with a size 10 Choddy hook with a peppermint pop-up. This with the Fluorocarbon fishing line gave it the perfect presentation and it worked like a charm. All in all we had a brilliant days fishing and considering the cold water temperature and the fact that none of the other fishermen were catching, I think we did very well and I, for one, can’t wait to pay this lake a visit when the warmer weather comes. It’s now time to start preparing for our next adventure! Tight Lines and Wet nets…
