12 February, 2024 | Carp | Articles | News

Ian Russell’s Diary January 2024: Terrific Tri Lakes

Ian Russell kickstarts his 2024 campaign with trips to Dynamite HQs both in France and the UK, followed by an emotional session at Tri Lakes with a good mate in honour of their late fathers. It turns out they would both do their dads proud during their stay!

Ian Russell says…

Happy New year to you all and what a month January has been weather wise!

We have been either frozen over or incredibly flooded out so as you can imagine, very little fishing has taken place but those that know me will also be aware I constantly busy myself anyhow.

The first piece of news was that I sold my van so I was without a vehicle for a good few days whilst waiting on delivery of a new one, so if the weather had been good I was still without wheels.

Just as my latest vehicle acquisition arrived myself and work buddy Steve Coe were off to Rapala/Carp Spirit HQ in France to get some new product filming done. This is only the second time I’ve visited HQ and true to form it was with six inches of snow on the ground and minus 5 in the day time –  BRRRRRRRRRR chilly ehh?!

Anyhow, the filming was completed and we even managed some Okuma footage as well. The French guys headed by Max looked after us royally and then it was home time.

Upon my return I was treated to a lovely surprise from Matty at Total Carp to see my Oxlease 38lb Mirror was on this months front cover – Thanks lads!

Cover star!

The new van was then swiftly collected from Lee Johnson in Essex who had lined the rear whilst I was in France and I was set for fishing.

My Total Carp feature was booked on my mate Nev’s Blasford Hills Lake but on arrival we found it was frozen so an even longer journey up to Suffolk Water Park followed and we set up on M2 which amazingly had no ice on it at all (YET).

The temp fell to minus 6 overnight and to see how we fared you will need to see the issue in Total…

I then spent a day up at Dynamite HQ in Nottingham for a meeting with Marketing Manager and mate Stewart to plot our year ahead and to collect my spring bait order. A really productive but enjoyable day’s work I must say. It’s always nice to visit HQ and touch base with the chiefs.

The weather by now was unseasonably mild so at last I was able to make a plan for a fishing trip. Now every January, myself and friend Micheal Poulter plan a 24 hour trip in memory of our late fathers and this year we looked at returning to a venue I had not fished for about 10 years or so with that being Tri Lakes in Yateley. In fact, my last trip was with a very young Max Hendry who was at that time a reporter for Total Carp and late into the dark hours, Max let out an ear piercing scream… On investigation he had encountered one of the 2 alpacas that roam the lake when the complex gates are locked. For me this was hilarious as these lovely animals are completely harmless and incredibly friendly!

Onto present day and we arrived around midday and paid our day ticket for 24 hours and weaved our way through the farm yard area to the lake. Choosing a point area with 2 adjacent swims, we quickly sorted our kit. Magnum bivvys were erected and the kettle switched on whilst we decided where to place rigs.

Bait prep ahead of my session with Michael.

I had a little bowl area to my left between 2 islands and this was to be my target area. Chosen rigs were size 6 Medium Curve Razor Point hooks with my Ian Russell 12mm Choccy Malt pop ups on with a few squashed Hot Crab & Krill 15mm boilies and a handful of sweetcorn as well.

Theses were placed in my new little bait boat that Dave Levy and Paul had kindly sent me and I fished a rod on the edge of both little island margins. Micheal went for open water with similar tactics until, whilst his back was turned, I spotted a very large carp launch itself out on his extreme left by the end of an island and I persuaded him to get 1 on it ASAP lol.

Thanks to Dave and Paul for the boat!

To be fair he needed no encouragement and sent his little boat sailing away. We laughed the afternoon away and just on dusk I saw some carpy movement close to my left hand bait and within minutes I was having a tug of war with what felt like a rather large carp. Now last time I fished here the average size was 15lb but upon scooping this up, we were very pleased to picture and weigh a lovely 27lb common.

Ian Russell with 27lb of Tri Lakes Common

Trap reset, it was then Micheal’s turn as the rod he had moved was away and again a large common revealed itself as the bait thief at 26lb 12oz. We were well chuffed as this trip does carry a lot of emotion for us.

A nice hot coffee was needed but before that the same rod for me was away again and a low double splashed its way towards us. What an awesome trip so far!

Low double in the net!

With the coffee and doughnuts consumed, Michael’s same rod was away and this was a very long tussle which saw me scoop a very large ghost common up. Now Tri Lakes is well known for its Ghosties but this was a Hippo! Much whooping and laughing followed as we weighed and pictured a new PB Ghostie for Micheal at 32lb – How incredible and we both thanked our late fathers.

A lovely 26lb 12oz common for Michael.

That was the end of our action as the temperature plummeted below zero yet again. With daylight the owner Kevin walked round to see how we had fared and the little troop of sheep, goats and 2 alpacas came wandering past lol.

With that we thanked Kevin and packed away having had a lovely trip with some amazing carp caught – here’s too next year’s trip Michael!

Well that is January done and dusted so onto Feb next eh. Onwards and Upwards!

Ian Russell