A moment that will stay with me for life – Ashley James

29 Settembre, 2017 | Carpa | Articoli | Notizia

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After fishing three different lakes in three nights and walking around another five in and around the Nord area in France we finally found a lake we all had a buzz for and after a little bit of research we discovered that there were a few decent sized residents in the 60/70 acre public lake.

We decided to fish on the side of a westerly wind as we were unsure if the fish followed the wind or not. Two rods were cast to a shallower area at 25 1/2 wraps that was around 17ft deep which I baited with a bucket of Mixed Particles, Tigernut boilies, half a bag of the White Chocolate & Coconut groundbait and some Tigernut stick mix to create a cloud as it falls through the deep water. The second set of rods were cast out to another spot at 28 1/3 which was around 15ft deep. This time I baited with a mixture of CompleX-T,  Crave and the Source in 15mm and 12mm. I also used a mix of Grubby groundbait, GLM groundbait, 6mm and 4mm Source pellets and the Source groundbait.

The first night was quiet, not even a single show from a carp but that never dampened our spirits. I woke up the following morning at first light and managed to spot a few shows just past my spot, that got the heart pumping… but by 9:30am all the fish activity in the swim had stopped, we weren’t sure if it was for the good or bad but we kept our confidence high. While we were sat around the swim passing time I received a take at around oo:30 on one of my rods. The moment I picked the rod up I knew it was a decent one due to the pure fact that I just couldn’t stop it, but once the fish had made one manic run I finally started to gain some line back. After a good hectic ten minute battle with the fish trying to go round a storm pole in the margins my friend, aka ‘Angry Brett’ finally lifted the net over the first carp from this venue. I was absolutely buzzing to have a bite from somewhere we knew so little about. Once we put her up on the scales they showed a respectable 40lb 8oz making it a new overseas personal best for me. A moment that will stay with me for life!

Once we had done the photos I re-baited my rig with a Tigernut Wafter topped with half a Tigernut dumbelll pop-up and cast it back on the spot. I knew I needed to top the spot back up so I gave them half a bucket of Mixed Particles, around 1kg of Tigernut boilies, quarter of a bag of the White Chocolate & Coconut groundbait and half a bag of the Tigernut stick mix.

Over the following few hours we saw a few more carp jumping at around 250 yards so that picked our confidence up even more. Night started to fall on our second night and we all decided to have an early night.

The following morning I woke up at 6am to see if I could spot anymore carp, unfortunately no carp were spotted but waking up at that time in the morning and watching the lake is always worth it just for the views. I sat up with a cup of coffee when I received another take at around 8am. Another knee shaking battle and my mate Matt finally slipped the net under the second fish from this venue. Absolutely buzzing!

This one was slightly smaller but just as impressive at 31lb 8oz. A CompleX-T Wafter tipped with half a Crave Fluro dumbell pop-up produced the bite for me that morning. We got a few quite snaps and then slipped her back hoping for another bite. Unfortunately no other bites came during that day but we were still seeing a few out in the middle. We all felt like there was hope for another bite during the second day but no bites came to any of us.

Night started to fall for our third and final night and the atmosphere was alive!! The lake looked the best we have seen it, flat calm and with a crisp night sky, it couldn’t have looked any better for a bite. With the temperature starting the drop suddenly we decided to get off the bed. We woke up for our final morning and all I can say was I was gutted to be leaving! The lake was well and truly alive and the fish were jumping everywhere! I must have had around three or four shows over two of my rods in the space of half an hour but unfortunately it was time to reel in and head off to the tunnel, I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Ashley James