3 October, 2023 | Carp | Angler Blogs | Articles

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Ian Russell’s Diary September 2023

Arguably Ian Russell’s busiest month this year, but what a month it was! After getting work duties out of the way, Ian had 48-hours for some personal fishing and boy was he rewarded…

Ian says…

This year really has been my busiest by far since joining the Dynamite Baits family. Granted, I also source my own work but I have never been one to turn work (in the angling world) away.

So my point being, after last year’s phenomenal year’s angling, I’ve had very little time to focus on some personal fishing. Although my work sees me on god knows how many different venues per annum, they are not venues I would choose for my personal angling.

So onto September and yes you’ve guessed it – it was bloody busy!

First up was doing the presenting for Linear in the BYCAC Final on Oxlease. This is something I will always do on behalf of Linear.

On camera patrol this year was Lee Collins and that tiny little chap Finley Tod Hunter. Great guys to work alongside and the weekend was as per fantastic.

Next up for me was something I had wanted to do for ages and that being an Underwater project with Elliot’s Cypography.

Junction 12 was the venue they selected for me and to say it was an eye opener would be an understatement. Not where my rigs are concerned as they behaved exactly how I believed they would when touched by Mr Carp, but their behaviour above a baited area did open my eyes and also the lake’s ravenous rudd shoals played a huge part in mopping up the bait!

So to watch how I underwent a roller coaster of boredom, anxiety, frustration and ultimately euphoria, you will have to wait and watch Cypography once the editing has been completed.

Then once recovered for a couple of days myself and Steve Coe were off to Anglers Paradise for a few days filming for Dynamite Baits. The lovely hostess Zenia greeted us with the biggest smile you can imagine and showed us to our Villa which would be base camp for the trip and store our camera equipment.

During our stay we caught so many amazing fish to camera and laughed the whole time. Steve is such great, funny company whilst at the same time ensures we get the work finished. Again, keep your eye’s peeled on the Dynamite YouTube Channel as there are some really funny parts including a Black Swan trying its hardest to bite Zenia’s Butt lol!

 

My Total Carp Trouble Shooter Feature this month saw us return to Albans Lake’s Farm Lake and it was action from the very start for myself and client Matt. This is a great complex of lakes if a good few bites are what you require.

Now you remember at the start of this write up me bemoaning my lack of personal fishing this year, well my over-busy diary presented me with a 48-hour window for myself. So my chosen venue was to be K1 as I had not fished it for a couple of years.

Early morning as it got light, I was stood on the K1 bridge which overlooks about 90% of the lake. The only carp shows I saw were in amongst a whole gang of bream shows which ironically were in front of a swim called ‘The Bream’.

So I toddled off to the van and grabbed my kit. Once in the swim, I set up 2 x solid bag rods which consisted of 3mm Halibut Pellets with my new 12mm Choccy Malt pop-ups on the rigs. I know this area well so when a rather large carp showed itself I knew the area was clear.

After injecting lots of Tiger Nut Oil into the bag, I whizzed it out to where the carp had shown. The other rod with similar tactics was dispatched to the right onto an area I had caught well from in the past.

Not long after and a good friend of mine (Terry Dean) waltzed into the swim and we laughed about old times until maybe an hour later, the rod cast to the showing carp trundled off.

From the get-go this was a good heavy carp and other than a minute of stale mate with a weed bed, all held and a very large carp rolled over the drawstring.

Much punching of air followed before we weighed her up with Terry reading a weight of 40lb 4oz.

I stayed put in the area but with only 3x mid double bream to show for my troubles, I was itching for a move the following morning.

I had seen a few good fish show at range on a bay with a swim called ‘Dog 1’ in it so I was on my toes. Arriving in the swim, it was immediately obvious that a large group of carp were present.

Again, 2 solid bag rods were dispatched to areas I had caught well from in the past. Not 10 minutes past and the most extraordinary 6 hours fishing had begun and between midday and 6pm I received 12 takes – landing 9 carp all on my 12mm Choccy Malt pop ups in bags of yet again 3mm Halibut pellets.

The resulting action of carp landed consisted of the following:

Mirrors of: 14lb, 24lb, 25lb, 41lb and 41lb 14oz

Commons of: 26lb, 34lb, 27lb and 39lb 2oz

To say I was pleased would be an understatement obviously!

The action only ended when another angler set up opposte and started spombing. This bay will not tolerate this and after telling him all mine were on bags I was amazed to see Spombing going on but each to their own.

Anyhow, I stayed overnight but realistically knew it was done.

That my friends brings me to sitting here writing this up. October for me holds some more exciting trips including the South Vs North Berners Hall competition and a filming trip to my friend Neal’s lovely Johnsland Fishery in Devon amongst other commitments.

Until then – Tight Lines!

Ian Russell