by Martyn Russ a.k.a. Voodoo
What was a spur of the moment decision by my mother turned out to be a great day fishing. We decided to pay our local fishery a visit and spend the Sunday fishing. My mother had chosen the over flow pond to fish as it was where they keep the main stock of baby carp before the move to the main lake and it makes for a great venue for people who love to fish the pole or waggler. My mother who loves pole fishing was over the moon with non stop action all day and also catching loads of nice size carp.
I decided to fish the carp pond for the day. I was shocked to find how shallow the carp pond was as i spent a while checking the depths of the swims with a marker float. The main depth was just over 2 feet rising to 3 feet in some areas with a very small patch hitting 5 feet. I decided on a swim just next to a weed bed just at the point where it changed form 2 to 3 feet. I put one rod out on a bottom bait and the other on a chod rig. i decided on these methods as it was the best way to see if the fish were feeding. The bottom bait was enclosed within a pva bag full of pellets on the hope on bringing on a quick bite whilst the other rig was a free running chod on silk core leader. The hope was the chod rig would lay neatly over the weed allowing the carp to see it easier and with a white peppermint pop-up it would be easier for them to make out in the murky water.
I had a few line bites showing me that they were there feeding and pushing the lake bed around looking for food and hitting my line so i decided to pull in the bottom bait rod and change the set-up to a zig rig with zig hook aligner in black with yellow sponge to imitate a wasp or bug. I set the length at just over a foot and sprayed the rig with nectar juice before casting. It wasn’t long before i was getting a couple of line bites before the rod suddenly burst into action and i had a screaming run. I struck into a very feisty carp that took me a good 20 minuets to tire out before landing, a lovely 11lb carp. For such a lovely fish and a little lump it didn't half give up a fight.
It was only to be expected that after catching my first carp on the zig rig i decided to put both out on similar rigs. It was about 2 hours after that my second rod burst into action and i ended up catching a nice little 3 – 4lb carp. We had been lucky as the weather was great at the start of the day and the sun was out shining bright so the fish were in the upper part of the water. After lunch everything seemed to quiet down and no one else seemed to be getting any bites apart from a guy called Martin from Penarth who was fishing next to me who ended up catching a nice 8 – 9 lb. carp. I continued fishing the zig for a while and ended up catching a tidy little bream weighing around 1 – 2 lb. and just before packing up and after changing back to a bottom bait, fishing a cell boilie, i ended up catching the smallest bream ever to be caught on boilie and considering its head was the same size of the boilie i think it was trying to be a little greedy..
I had a brilliant days fishing at Cefn Mably lakes in Cardiff and i will be going back soon to take on the main lake with the biggest carp in. Now that i have got used to my new gear and tried a few different tactics its about time i took on some bigger fish and will now challenge myself to see if i can get myself a great personal best (PB) by the end of the year.
Wet Nets & Tight Lines ………
