Steven Coe: Brasenose 2 Bangers

Dynamite videographer Steven Coe recalls his latest session on Linear Fisheries’ Brasenose 2 where he banked no fewer than 41 carp using zig tactics!

Steven says…

How do you go about catching 40+ carp?

Arriving at Linear Fishery on Friday afternoon, I’d had in my head that I wanted to fish on B1 but having a preconceived idea doesn’t always means it’s the right one. One of the best features about Linear is that you always have the options of different lakes.

After a little drive around the complex there was a fair few pegs that gave me access to the main bowl area of the lake on Brasenose 2. For anyone that knows the lake well, will know that the fish tend to spend a lot of time out in this area.

I eventually settled on a peg known as the “Long Chuck” and with the light dropping, I got set up and cast out three zigs to the centre of the lake. A lot of people don’t have the confidence to commit to three zigs let alone three zigs at night. For me, Zig fishing is one of my favourite styles of fishing and when you get it right it can be super deadly.

What made me zig fish? Upon arrival at the lake, the air pressure was quite high, there was no wind, it had been a warm-ish day but the skies were clear and it looked like it was going to be a cold one, there was no signs of any carp and we were due a full moon which turned out be proper bright.

All of this in conjunction with coming off the back of a super cold spell in the UK the week before, everything pointed to the fish being out in the middle and up of the bottom!

With that said, the temperature did drop considerably throughout the night but this did not turn the carp off. The rods kept going throughout the night and by morning I had banked five fish and refined; depth, colour and the location where the fish seemed to be holding up.

As day broke, the fishing slowed until the sun had a chance to rise into the sky. By 9:00AM though, we were in full flow, the rods were going again and it was just a case of keeping in the rhythm.

One thing that I started to do on the Saturday morning was spray each zig with the “Supa Stench” atomiser spray. This is something that has been a part of my fishing since the development stages of the product.

When it comes to adding stuff to your zigs like liquids, oils, worms or maggots, there is a time and a place for it and you have to read the situation. Some days the fish might be really switched on to the hatch, and if you start spraying flavours and adding maggots to your zig than it can have a negative effect. But a lot of the time in the winter, adding the right attractant can indeed increase your bites.

Probably the most important factor when trying to put a big hit of carp together is preparation. If you want to make the most of the action then you need to have rods in the water for as long as possible. For me, once it had got to the “silly level”, I cut down to fishing with two rods and then have another two all ready to go with fresh zigs already attached – then its just a case of casting a fresh one back out as soon as the fish is in the net.

In preparation for this session I tied up 200 zigs and this meant that throughout the whole of the session I did not need to tie one single zig! It may sound like a lot but practice makes perfect and it saves you so much time and allows you to spend more time on the stuff that matters – playing carp!

That Saturday was just incredible. Time flies when you’re having fun and I was catching non-stop, carp after carp! I carried on fishing up until 2:00AM before winding in the rods and getting some well needed sleep.

The following morning I cast two rods back out to the zone and before I had finished setting the bobbin on the second rod, the first one was away. This fish turned out to be 30lb+ and just the perfect start to the day.

By this point I had banked 30 carp and it didn’t seem like there was any signs of slowing. Interestingly, I had two more fish before it died.

20 minutes went past without a bite, I knew something needed to change. Observing the weather and the conditions, it was a lot warmer and you could feel the power of the sun pushing through the clouds. In my mind there was no doubt that the fish had risen high in the water so my response was to up the zig length on one rod to compare the results.

The higher zig went almost instantly and after landing the fish I just knew that that was the move and quickly put both rods on the same depth. We were soon back into the carnage!

I continued catching up until 3:00pm by whitch point I had banked 40 Brasenose 2 carp. Probably my best ever winter session and one that will stay with me for a while.

Total carp banked: 41

30lb carp x4

20lb carp x23