Lucky Tel - Shaun Mitchell

I arrived at Cromwell lakes full of anticipation as a couple of months worth of plans were about to be tested. Day ticket water carp can easily be amongst the hardest to catch in the country, under constant pressure and then you have the added problem of nearly always fishing over matey in front of you's spod mix.

And then we have the age old debate of whether or not we should take a bait boat? Myself I'm a traditionalist in the fact I like pursuing old fashioned methods and quite retro gear, my pride and joy being my Nash build Amorphous whiskers and Fox SX buzzers. However, carp fishing seems to have changed a lot in the past decade, with little edges that would have put you as one of the best anglers on the lake now not so valuable, when the bloke in the next swim can boat a rig out with more accuracy and speed and ultimately put fish on the bank. My stubbornness has without doubt cost me fish on Sandhurst, when if I would have employed a boat would have put me in with a far better shout of a bite. I will tell you what we did later…

Arriving at the lake I was met by a strong south westerly, whistling into the bank and our faces as we made our way around to the few pegs covering the middle of the lake. The Sunday prior to the visit we did a recce of the 18 acre Nottingham based lake, and Sunday night everybody was off. I and the old man rubbed our hands in glee at the prospect of the lake to ourselves, added to the fact that we spotted a mahoosive mirror of around mid thirties basking under a tree you can imagine we couldn’t wait to get back.

I decided that I should do the night in my swim, which was situated right on the end of the wind into a deep bay that went to about 18 feet deep. Sods law had meant that there were no less than 6 other anglers on and A1 point, which is a big fish swim, was gone. Nevertheless fish were still spraying as they leapt out of the water, at around 100 yards out in front of the 4 swims in our vicinity, only one of which was occupied.

They seemed to be moving onto the wind (having done our research we knew this would happen), so I decided that the first thing I would do is get 3 sticks attached to my favourite maple 8 pop up rigs and get them cast out… little did I know the sheer depth of weed I had out in front of me. Rods set up, then home, the conditions had changed drastically in the three day trip I had just done, and it was now overcast and quite muggy, still good fishing conditions but I preferred the storm that had been brewing an hour previous, especially as it was a new wind.

I was sure to do a half lap of the lake 3 times a day as I had baited up a few likely looking marginal areas, and fishing silt pits with this clear water was something very novel. All those tales I had read even from a young age by Terry Hearn were becoming clear as to why he could watch his quarry. I am very much a fan of marginal work, and if I can catch them close in I would do this every time over casting 80-100 yards to fish for them. These areas had to be checked but were not visited by any carp – problably the damn tufties clearin them out, even under the snaggiest of bushes!

Two days past, the old man had got a bait boat and we still had no bobbin action. We arrived on Sunday and it was now Tuesday, so much for a short session we thought we might as well sit it out until we could get the move to a swim which could reach where the fish were congregating. This was to my left and a couple of swims down. In hindsight I should have moved onto the spare peg on A1 point, as not so much as a roach farted out infront of me. On Tuesday morning I had a slow dropback, quickly out of my bag, hit it and nothing there… what ever it was I would never find out, I hope this wasn’t to be my last chance.

Every time I would wind in it would be thick with weed. I started by casting 2 rods, and boating out one. You may wonder why I had started using a boat. My father in his shrewdness had read Rob Maylin saying a boat was an essential part of the modern day carp anglers armoury, seen Ian Russell use one and catch down on Sandy and then Tel himself said they were essential in today's era. I as I said earlier am old school but the angling greats had spoken, and who am I to argue. The more I looked at it the funnier it became, as it was obvious if we did not move with the times we simply would not catch.

I finally gave in after being told all of this, and we got a Viper mark 3 delivered to the lake, along with another matey who went on to catch the lake record of 42lbs which I was lucky enough to witness… nuff said on the bait boat row! I will add though that I use the BB as and when it was necessary. I used it on Cromwell because the fish were showing at around 140-160 yards out. Anything I could cast I would do, but we all go carp fishing for one reason, and that is to catch fish, so in technical terms there are no rules on how we catch.

On the Tuesday evening my Dad’s tally was 2 tench, both nailed, a perch at around 100 yards which he had cast back out after the tench, and also 3 eels as he was using the mag-aligner. I had on the other hand nothing. For me the no brainer was moving onto A1 point which had produced all of the 6 fish caught since we arrived.

I put the kettle on and had a smoke, whilst waiting for Yim Yam to move of the point. My dad made the decision to move as well, even though he was debating staying where he was. We are big on team work on day ticket venues, as a lot of my fishing on local lakes in personal. If we club together then we have a better chance of catching. Wednesday night, and we couldn’t understand the depth finder and contour finder, and dropped on what we thought was gravel but turned out to be even more weed… what a nightmare!

What you will notice with any of my articles are they are laid bare and far from glossy. Carp fishing is a jigsaw puzzle and you do mess up, it isn’t all plain sailing and any angler no matter how well known will have ups and downs on sessions and completely balls things up, this is ok providing you learn from it, and you get better on each session, and any saying they don’t are not being truthful and therefore not educating the reader.

Thursday get the rods spot on determined not to have another blank. Gravel spots found for 2 rods and the other placed in light weed, all with my favourite boilies and particle mix, a real noddy goes carp fishing with the boat, but I will explain my conclusion on what makes top anglers top anglers even in the boat age where anybody can get the presentation right.

10.15pm right hand rod has a couple of bleeps and then a one toner… am I dreaming? Pick up the rod and wind down, tighten the clutcg, - text book, play the fish over all 6 rods and into the far left bay of A1 point. Playing the fish from the jetty it takes about 3 screaming runs and then it has enough and like a dog on a lead is coming closer to the spreader block – I dare not even look – I lost a fish on Sandhurst at range and could never put it to bed until I caught a big fish, and this felt like a very good fish. Dad nets it and much celebration erupts – ‘GOTCHA!!!’ goes out the Korda cry. I start running around, getting the unhooking mats sorted, weigh sling etc. Up she comes, and onto the mat. We weigh her at 30lbs 6oz, Karen the owner must see the Canon flash light pumping away as the trophy shots are completed, it’s a new thirty and I get to name it… I think for a second and then come up with Tel, as In Pursuit Of The Largest Terry's book was a massive influence on me with my carp fishing and getting as serious as I am (of course with your excellent tuition Gaz – Dad)

I couldn’t really tell you about the next few days as I was on such a high… a personal best fish, and I spent the next few hours smoking away, and the old man brings me back a bottle of Stella to celebrate. No more action and the fish move back up the lake…. Friday night at 4am dad has a run hits it and nothing there, blames his bivvy door – quack quack, very amusing as I was telling him just how good these netted doors are and he said could not get out quick enough – ah well I had my thirty!

Saturday morning his same rod goes again that I boated out half asleep, this time he’s in and after a short but spirited fight with the fish kiting around he lands another mirror, this time of 31lb 8oz. Gotcha!! Goes out the call.. a bit of banter over the weight but both of us chuffed with a thirty a piece on what was previously looking to be a blank.

My final thought would be that when you are boating stuff out, get it different from every one else. We caught using boilies bagged so it sunk like a stone and was a ‘one-sucker’. Incidentally we caught both fish on non gravel patches and it just goes to show if the fish are there then you have a good chance of catching them. As I said earlier the edges top anglers still have is there observation. The boat is a tool. How many anglers do we see set up in a convenient swim, boat out to a tidy marker and sit on a load of slop for two days? We settled for a nick one fish at a time approach and it proved to be very good, 8 bites in a week all from one swim, we had two of them.

Hopefully next time will yield more results, time will tell

Until next time

Be lucky

Shaun