Fishing Republic : Catching My PB Carp

During the summer I was fishing the Oak Lake at Boldings Pools fisheries in Shropshire. I started early by getting to the pool at half six. As the fishery doesn't open till 7, I decided to have a walk around the pool and find the best peg where a lot of carp were surfacing to feed. After finding the best pool I set up my shelter, rod and bait. During the summer months, and especially on warm days, the carp seem to prefer the surface and upper levels of the water for feeding. To ensure a high catch rate and a higher chance of success I use a simple set up involving a piece of floating bread and a hook. This technique is also known as free lining.

I use a Shakespeare 2.5lb test curve carping rod and 18-pound line. The reason I use strength equipment as I have had many loses on the lower poundage line from quick running fish and snags. Once I had baited the area up with a few pieces of bread I waited for the fish to start feeding. Within five minutes a large collection of different sizes and breeds had surfaced and were gulping down the bait. I began laying in the bait and had a few catches ranging between 1 and 3 pounds. I noticed that I was catching these smaller fish as I was on a small specimen hook, so I upgraded to a size 10 Korda Kurv shank B, this allowed me to be more specific with the size of my hook baits and also the size of the fish I was catching.

After an hour of pulling out more carp around five to six pounds, I again decided to stop and rebait. This time dropping a few balls of bread down into the depths and adding systemite blackcurrant mist. This was very useful on the surface as it seeped out along the surface leaving a wide sent trail. Again, the fish began to top and gulp down the bait faster than before. However, I noticed a difference in the size of the carp feeding. These were a lot bigger. At which point I decided to throw in another piece of bread coated in the blackcurrant mist. I threw it out just in front of the biggest carp I could see, the thing took the whole piece right back and then began I a fifteen-minute fight. Finally, the fish submitted and came into the net. Once put on the scale, I was amazed to see 15 pounds. When I consulted the fisheries manager at the end of the day, they were amazed as the largest they had out of that pool in the recent years was only 10 pounds.

Mike Forster