1 March, 2023 | Carp | Angler Blogs | Tips | Articles

Layfield Lakes: Ian Russell’s Diary February 2023

With his hernia recovery complete, it was time for Ian to get back to the fishing and for his return trip he headed to Norfolk’s Layfield Lakes with his good mate Tony. Lots of banter was shared not to mention a few bites – including the capture of a very special carp that was yet to see the bank…

Ian says…

Well as previously stated most of February for me was a settee and Netflix job having just had my Hernia operation and recovery time was very much needed, so when I actually felt strong enough to move slowly but go angling I called up my friend Tony Bond who had secured me a guest session on his syndicate complex called Layfield Lakes in Norfolk.

When in Norfolk, always nip into Wensum Valley Angling!

A 48-hour trip was set and off I trundled for the 160-mile journey. It’s always lovely too spend time with Tony as we share the same warped sense of humour. So we set up on one of the smaller lakes on the complex and readied ourselves.

We both chose to fish to the far margin so we could amble round and bait on top of our rigs once set up.

I chose to bait up with CompleX-T crumb and red maggots with size 4 Ronnies and Red Hit N Run wafters flossed with 10 maggots over the top. Tony was using similar tactics except putting one rod mid water where we saw some bubbling.

It was whilst I was baiting up that I saw a great big white carp milling around not too far from where one of my rods was positioned. When I mentioned this to Tony he said it was a big ole Chagoi that since its stocking a year ago had yet to be caught.

Now, it was here when the usual Russell banter kicked in with remarks like ‘The White Whale will be mine!’ which, I believe I battered Tony’s ears with all day LOL.

It was 1am when one of Tony’s rods was away with an upper double mirror and whilst sorting this out we made comment about just how mild it was for mid February. The next take came at 9am, again to Tony but this time to the mid range rod which he had placed on the bubbler the day before. It just goes to show it pays too keep your eyes peeled!

So Bacon rolls were discarded and a lovely mid 20 common joined us on the bank.

Tony’s Mid 20lb common came off the mid-range rod.

It was at this moment the banter from Tony started about being 2-0 up! But you guessed it and it wasn’t long before Karma played its part and one of mine pulled up tight at 11am.

When I lifted into this fish it exploded on the surface and I was sure I saw a large white flank but thought better of stating so in case I was wrong.

‘Is that…is that the White Whale?’

this fish really did not want to have its picture taken and stayed deep for a good while but when we did finally catch sight of it Tony’s face was a picture… It was the White Whale LOL! All I could say was ‘of course it is’, in jest of course as we were both completely taken aback by this carp.

So on the mat it went and a weight of 33lb 6oz was recorded and the camer,s clicked away whilst I smiled like a demented Cheshire Cat.

The afternoon was mostly spent chatting with the on-site bailiff Terry and my eldest son Sammy who, living fairly locally, had popped over to see us as well. A truly great day indeed!

At around 5pm I repositioned all rods with fresh rigs and large handfuls of crumb and maggot were soon deposited over the top of them. We had a lovely evening meal of fresh cooked curry that Tony lovingly made and at 8.30pm the same rod of mine was yet again bent into a fish.

Now there is also a mid 40lb common in this lake so the banter flowed freely about me, being the lucky sod that I am, being attached to it! Again, this carp fought really hard and I was actually beginning to think it might actually be it when up popped a lovely scaley mirror. Much laughter followed and Tony scooped him up.

Terry and a few others popped over and a low 30 was fussed over for a few minutes.

Then choccie pudding was quickly consumed and before long I crashed out extremely content after having caught a couple of 30lb fish on my first trip back out.

I couldn’t help mentioning first though that my 2 were considerably larger than Tony’s… Again, Karma kicked in and at first light Tony helped himself to a low 20 mirror which now meant we were even on fish numbers…not accumulative weight 😉

That saw the end of our 48-hours and it was time for that long drive home. Many thanks to Darren the complex owner and Terry for making my stay so welcoming. Of course, thanks also to my great friend Tony for looking after me as I wandered about much like Ozzy Osbourne!

My next trip was for my usual Total Carp Feature and we were to be booked onto Linear’s Hunt’s Corner through the Catch It app.

I met Phil our client with Dan Murrel the stand in TC Editor whist Matty holidayed in Thailand. We set up in pegs 2 and 3 with Phil in 3 as we had seen a very large carp show there.

We were initially booked into 7 and 8 but a quick change of swims was made seeing as the lake was totally empty. All set up, we ran through Phil’s Trouble Shooter requirements.

Now, to see how we got on you will need to check out next month’s Total. Suffice to say a very good result was had!

Tight lines people – Ian Russell