Wednesday, 13th.February

Thorn Lake

10.00
Out fishing at long last after what seems like forever…

Thorn Lake is a day ticket water and I am here for one reason and one reason only - it’s got bloody great carp in it! Not just big. HUMUNGOUS! There are fish in here which would not only shatter my PB they’d blast it right out of sight! As I have mentioned in previous blogs my current UK PB has stood at 34:12 since 1977 and I am truly desperate to break it. I don’t care whether it’s from a ‘carp puddle’ or not. I don’t care what its parentage, nationality, genetic origins or anything. If it’s over the ‘magic figures’ then I can let this monkey on my back clear off and let me get on with my fishing in peace and tranquility without having to worry anymore.

The lake itself is 5-6 acres and has a shallow end and a deeper end. I slung the marker float out and found six feet so I use the term ‘deeper’ in a relative sense.

The reason for my choice of swim is based on a recce I did last week when I saw a 25 and a 37 caught. Talking to the regulars, they all suggest the deeper end is to be much preferred during the winter months - hence my choice. So I am at ten-and-a-half wraps, straight out, with a maggot approach using a very simple rig:

A 12mm ‘Sticky Baits’ Signature pop-up is balanced by a size 6 Curve Shank hook and a number 3 shot.

This is fixed to a short length of 20lbs. Uncoated braid and Albright-knotted to a length of 20lb. ‘semi-stiff’ coated braid. I’m not particular which one - Korda Semi-Stiff or Fox Coretex Tungsten are ideal. The overall length of the rig is ten inches and six maggots are threaded on a length of dental floss and tied to the loop in the hair.

First, thread three maggots on to a sewing needle and pass a short length of Bait Floss through the eye of the needle.

Then, thread another three maggots onto the needle the other side of the Hair Loop ; using three or four Overhand knots, pull the maggots down into a ball to sit on top of the pop-up.

Loose feed in the form of maggots and corn is deposited by Spomb (about 10 in total) and all three baits are fished as tight to the spot as possible.

There is some activity out there; I’ve had one or two line bites but all now seems quiet. Happy with how I am fishing I feel I can do very little to improve what seems to be a very efficient way of fishing.

11.00
The Curse of the New Rods… Why is it that every time you change your rods you have blank after blank before you actually catch something? Other anglers of my acquaintance tell me this too so it can not be just me!

Hope I don’t have to wait too long.

11.30
Definite ‘show’! Out to the right and about half way across.

14.00
Had a bit of a switch-round and re-cast. Phil next door to me had a fish on a wafter so I’ve put one out on a simple mono rig. This is very much how I like to fish at Moulin de Gassas for there, there is no need to use anything more complicated. I’m hoping it will be the same here.

14.15
Anyone who says “don’t you get bored with nothing to do while you are waiting for a fish?” Just doesn’t know anything about fishing! Take this morning…

So I'm sitting in the bivvy, having a cuppa, when Phil (who is fishing to the right) turned up in obvious distress. He was disoriented, confused, and in need of medical attention - he didn’t know what day it was but remembered he’d been hospitalised at Christmas for a brain haemorrhage. Alarm bells ringing!

The only thing I could do was advise him to go home immediately or at least get picked up since his current condition was obviously linked in some way to the surgical procedure he’d had - a stent inserted in his brain to deal with an aneurism which had burst (Aneurism - a ballooning of the blood vessels forming a ‘pocket’ which if burst generally results in death).

I was really concerned about him and urged him to ‘phone for help but he later said that he’d had a cup of tea and felt better. I continue to check on him however although he seems ok at the moment. Bored? You must be joking!

17.00
Positional change due to seeing several ‘shows’ a bit closer in. Now fishing at 8 wraps, all 3 rods tight together on the same spot over which I have spodded maggots and corn. Not too much though - about eight or nine ‘midi’ spombs.

I should have had a take by now... There are fish out there but they are just not picking up my baits.
What have I done wrong?

Sky clear; it’s going to be cold tonight. One last cuppa before it gets completely dark.

22.00
Late night cup of tea… it’s as quiet as the grave out there. Not surprising. There’s ice on the bivvy and although it’s freezing cold it’s a beautiful night with the stars twinkling like diamonds in the sky.

Winter carp fishing is bloody hard going - but it does have its compensations.

I already have a plan for the morning - solid bags. I have some tied up and all ready to go; they’re the ones with the plastic corn balanced with a No.7 hook. I’m going to use a couple of these, with a pop-up rig similar to what I’ve got out there now, minus the maggots.

Thursday, 14th.February

Everything frozen solid here this morning; lines frozen to rods (and to bite alarms). There’s ice in the kettle, and the ground is as white as snow, there was such a hard frost!

No action during the night. I lay in bed listening to the owls hooting (of which there were at least two types - a Tawny, and one other with a very high pitched call).

As promised, the solid bags are out in the pond and I shall fish the rest of the session with these. It’s a chance however to review the maggot tactic which failed to produce anything at all. Rig-wise I was happy with the presentation although I did note the maggots on top of the pop-up add weight which tend to make the thing sink.

I feel I should have caught and on reflection I think my baiting strategy may have been wrong in that I put too much out there. Although two pints of maggots may not seem a lot, this coupled with the corn may have been enough to scare the carp if they have grown fearful of beds of bait. There is a tendency that having purchased two pints, there is the need to use most of it rather than throwing it away in the lake at the end of the session. It may as well go on the ‘spot’ as in the bin. Phil to the right of me had a fish on very basic tactics - wafter fished over a light scattering of boilies, so this at least demonstrated that the ‘sophistication’ of the maggot tactic was not necessary in that instance.

My search for a tactic I have total faith in goes on. I’m leaning more towards the solid bag approach and at the moment have two out on the plastic corn balancing a number seven hook, and one with my conventional 12mm pop-up rig.

I think the small bait is definitely an advantage. The small bait matches the corn over which I am fishing and stands more chance of being accepted as a smaller food item.

09.30
Feeling very depressed about my fishing right now. The past twelve months has seen the worst set of results in the whole of my 50 years of carp-fishing. I have literally not had a bite from a carp in the UK since last February.

My solution to this extended run of blanks has been to work harder and harder; I’ve read articles, watched Youtube videos, studied other anglers on the bankside and yet it has all been for nothing. I honestly feel like giving up carp fishing altogether since there seems little hope of catching anything.

Hand on heart, I feel I am fishing as well as I have ever done and yet the results are totally eluding me. Why? I just can not put my finger on it.

I have always believed that everyone who goes fishing for any length of time will sooner or later get lucky. Even if you fish trip after trip and catch nothing, sooner or later Lady Luck will eventually grant you a fish or two. If you are fishing well then you may well have a ‘red letter’ day. In the past I have even fished badly - and still caught. I got lucky. At the moment this seems reversed and I am most un-lucky.

10.15
Kettle’s on. Bovril is in order. Sometimes tea doesn’t do it (or you’ve run out of milk), it’s then that I turn to the Bovril. The carpy-est drink this side of ‘Yorkshire Tea’ there is!

11.05
I thought I was away!… turned out to be a monster of a line bite which shot the bobbin straight up to the butt - and then back down again. Pity I can not stay but my time is up…