Simon Irons

Field Tester

1

Given the opportunity to get away for a few days, my wife and I jumped at the idea. It was not to be anywhere too glamorous, however it did have the option of casting a line into the water. We had a static caravan on the outskirts of Skegness on the east coast of England. I knew of a water I had fished as a teenager with limited success back then, only managing 2 fish up to 14lb. But it was still a capture from a new lake. Our first day was spent sorting out the caravan for the week ahead, with a plan to fish Tuesday Thursday and Friday of the last week of October 2016.

The first day started well, with a Barbel of 5lb 5oz taken on an M1 boilie. The rest of the day was quite quiet but I managed 4 carp but once again the biggest was only 14lb. I knew the lake held bigger due to the cafe on site having pictures up on the wall with other anglers captures up to 30 plus lbs in weight. Not deterred by the first session of the week I returned 2 days later at 6am with a renewed vigour and enthusiasm for the day ahead fishing. Casting to a small channel it was only a matter of minutes before the right hand rod lit up, making the delkim scream. Unfortunately it didn’t feel very large and indeed it wasn’t, at only 6lb. This was followed up, about 10 minutes later on the left rod with a 7lb mirror. But with 2 on the bank within 30 minutes of arrival it looked like a good day ahead once the sun was up.

The next fish didn’t arrive until 9.45am, once again on M1. It felt better but snagged me behind a marker buoy used by holidaymakers while out on motorised boats in the summer holiday season. The fish was lost. But the rod was away again 10 minutes later. With a fully scaled mirror of 14lb 10oz. A truly stunning carp. There is something special about dipping the net under a heavily scaled good condition mirror carp, it’s certainly not something I will ever tire of.

Just as well really as by the end of the day I had caught 3 heavily scaled mirrors all of 14lb + ounces.

By the time the afternoon had ticked round, 8 carp had been banked and 3 lost on various hidden underwater snags. The start of the afternoon was slow. The fish seemed to wise up to the M1. So with that in mind I switched the bait to a bottom bait of manilla but I snowman’d the rig with a fluro sbs squid and octopus bright orange pop up. The switch was pretty instant. I’m unsure if it was the colour of the bait or the flavour but, whatever the cause, it had worked. 5 more carp were caught on session 2 of the week. The best was still to come.

About 4pm I had a take that lifted the rod clean off the bite alarm. Luckily the butt grip held firm. A chunky common had my fluro hanging out of its lip. Netting it, it looked bigger, but the scales once again went 14lb 9oz. I seemed cursed to only catch fish of 14lb and under from this place.

Worrying about the fish sizes carried on until 4.45 when I hooked into a fish at around 35yards in the entrance to a boat channel used to keep the holiday fun boats secure. The fish tried it’s best to snag me around the mooring but this time I won. 5 minutes later, and after a rod tip battle, the net had its prey. It was bigger and it too had a taste for sbs squid and octopus pop ups. After checking the weigh sling was at zero on the scales I hoisted up my latest capture. Fortunately the scales behaved this time and pulled round to 20lb 2oz. Yet another stunningly clean common carp. Finally I had broken the 14lb curse. 12 carp in total were landed by me that day.

With the final day of the trip still ahead of me it was looking good for more stunning scaley carp. The last day of the vacation brought with it a warm breeze, once again pushing into the bay I was fishing. Getting to the swim at 6am, it was still dark and the stars were twinkling for all they were worth. The early start was needed because, by 6.15am, 3 other anglers had arrived all jostling to get as close to my swim as possible, or so it seemed.

By 7 am the rods were in the water and by 7.30 I had already had 2 mirror carp both weighing 8lb. Still the squid and octopus was doing the trick for these wary fish. I am still unsure if it was the smell of the bait or the fluro orange colour of the pop ups they were attracted to but, either way, I’m just glad they found the boilies better than anyone else’s down there that week. The end of the day total was 9 more carp banked to 14lb 9oz. No other anglers caught a single fish that day, so to get 9 out I was very happy.

Unfortunately I lost 4 others too, on snags. The 3 day session total was 25 carp on the bank for me, including a lake personal best. Not massive fish by any standards but thoroughly enjoyable.