April 10th.2019
Burrows, Paddlesworth, Peg 11
11.20So finally, after all the house renovations have been done - the knocking down of walls, the plastering, bricky-ing, painting and decorating, I can at last bend my mind in serious fashion to my carp-fishing.
The past six months have been stressful to say the least but at last Christine and I can look forward to a more settled future. The finishing of the house has coincided with the arrival of a new ticket for which I have been waiting three years. It’s for the Paddlesworth Complex at Snodland in Kent run by the Kingfisher Angling and Preservation Society (KAPS). There are four lakes on the complex - Burrows (which I am fishing now), The Pads, Rugby, and the big fish water which I ultimately have my eye on - Pollard within which fish go to forty pounds! Well above my PB which still stands at 34:12 caught in 1977; 42 years ago!
Kingfisher Angling and Preservation Society
Burrows is said to be a ‘runs’ water and has fish to thirty pounds and talking to one member, he said “if you can not catch them in there you will not catch them anywhere”! No pressure then? What if I blank? At least I can use the excuse that it’s my first visit and I don’t know the water!
This just about sums up my state of mind at the moment - making excuses for a blank before the session has even got going.
I haven’t caught a UK carp for over a year - the longest I’ve gone without catching a carp since I started carp fishing fifty years ago. To say my confidence is ‘through the floor’ is an understatement, but as Leon Bartrup says ‘all it takes is one bite’.
Conditions however are not good; a chill, easterly wind is blowing and temperatures are down at around 7-8 degrees. Tactics-wise I have gone for helicopter lead arrangements and ‘German Rigs’ on one baited with a Krill Wafter, the other, a Cell Wafter. These have been cast at ten wraps + 1 yard across to the far side, just short of the tangle of tree branches and brambles which run the length of the far bank. It’s out-of-bounds over there and not surprisingly, the fish patrol along its margins (so I’m told) although there are snags which you must be wary of.
Over the top of my hook-baits I have catapulted twenty boilies; this I deem to be a reasonable amount given the very cold conditions; I can’t see that they’d want a lot of feed, it being so cold. I’ll play it by ear and top up if I get a fish.
The sun is shining, the sky has finally cleared after days of dull, dreary, rainy weather, and all is well. Time to get the kettle on…
12.30
A mini-drama has just unfolded on the lake.
A father and son duo turned up and began fishing down the lake to my right. The lad (who is about ten years old) was sent round to the far side to bait up whereupon four or five geese set upon him, taking umbrage at his presence. They were up the bank, wings flapping, having a right old go at the poor lad who was absolutely terrified - screaming and hollering in terror! I felt so sorry for him poor little mite; geese can be intimidating creatures to the very young and I’m not surprised he was petrified. I haven’t heard such anguished cries in a long time. - the fear in the boy’s voice was really upsetting.
I set off for the far bank intending to go and help but turned back when Dad had embarked on the ‘rescue mission’. Poor lad; he won’t forget that encounter in a hurry. I hope it doesn’t have a lasting effect on him, making him frightened of large birds in the future. Such traumatic episodes can give one a complex.
It’s very windy; I think the BBC Weather App gave it as 20 mph for today. On a lot of carp waters this is ideal conditions, I wonder if it will be the same on Burrows.
14.00
Replaced the left-hand bait (Cell Wafter) with an NS1 yellow pop-up on a Ronnie Rig. I figure the Ronnie will sit up off the bottom better than the Wafter. Left the Krill Wafter out on the right-hand rod as a comparison. Cast the pop-up slightly to the left of the baited area so effectively it is fishing as a single rather than over bait (like the Krill).
14.45
Just slung a marker float out to a spot about half way across and it’s ten feet here. The slightly deeper water may be more to the liking of the carp than the shallower margin spot. If there’s nothing by the morning then I shall change tactics to fish this deeper water.
15.40
There are waters (such as Thorpe Lea in Surrey) where bait size is critical. I first encountered this many years ago on there when I fished next to a guy who took nine fish to my zero. I found out what he was using and it was a ten mil bait. As soon as I trimmed down one of my 14 mill-ers I had one. This was due to the almost universal use of small spodded items such as maize, hemp, and corn. Might be the same on here so I have gone onto my own ‘Wafter Rig’. This consists of a ‘Korda Supernatural’ hair in 18lbs. BS, Albright knotted to ‘Korda Semi-Stiff’ in 20lbs. The fineness of the Supernatural allows the small wafter to behave in the way I want it to; the stripped back coating of the ‘Semi-Stiff’ is still too stiff for my liking. Rig is completed with a Fox size 5 Curve Shank hook.
16.15
Change of tactics, rather forced on me by a major mishap - I decided to change the right-hand rod to the Wafter Rig I have just described and unfortunately landed in the brambles opposite. Lost the lot. Since I have no replacement helicopter rig I have had to put out a solid bag half way across with a scattering of boilies around it. This is not too sad since I was going to try it tomorrow morning anyway. Just trying it sooner that is all.
16.30
So I’ve gone ‘the whole hog’ and put the other bait next to the pva bag with a light scattering of boilies over the top. The spot is about half way in line with the big tree.
17.30
More tactical changes… I managed to scrape together enough ‘bits’ to make up another helicopter rig and have managed to put out the Wafter I originally cast - into the brambles and branches and have baited over the top with twenty or so boilies (Richworth Type-R, 15mm Amber Cream).
Members who I'd got talking to were adamant that you need to cast as close to the trees and brambles as you dare!
Now I’m confident of a bite. Things at last feel ‘right’ it always takes a bit of time ‘feeling’ yourself into a new water and you’re bound to make a few mistakes along the way. It’s just a matter of altering things until you get the ‘correct’ response from the fish.
I have no idea whether they're any good or not!
It’s tea-time. Time to get the grub on!
18.00
Are there actually any carp I this lake?… I haven’t seen hide nor hair of one all day!
18.40
The sun is beginning to sink behind the trees - there is no sign of the wind dropping and since the sky is clear there is every prospect of a freezing cold night. One hoodie, one fleece, and one quilted jacket on; should sort it out!
April 11th.2019
04.45(Very) early morning cup of tea…
Awake for most of the night planning what to do next. There has been no action whatsoever on the rods all night although there have been a few loud crashes from fish moving on the lake. Most of these seem to come from up the lake to the right and early in the night I resolved to move at first light. The problem however is that because there are so few pegs and their spacing is not ideal, the options for this are limited - zero.
Although ‘Father and Son’ and one other are the only ones fishing they are both occupying ‘key pegs’; the peg I am fishing (eleven) is also a ‘key peg’ so although one, maybe two pegs are available, they are both awkward and too close to the occupied pegs to make fishing ‘comfortable’. It’s like this on a lot of lakes; there may well be availability - but choices are limited because preferred options are few, for all sorts of reasons. What to do?
06.45
So I was up before dawn, watching and listening. There’s a show! Out to the left, in line with The Point; five minutes later there’s another - this time to the right out in front of ‘Father and Son’. Which one to go for? In view of the fact that F & S probably had baits in the vicinity and if I cast towards them I’d be poaching, my preference was to cast towards the showing fish to the left which was at about six wraps or so.
I got a bait right on it immediately. It'd be bad angling not to.
Two pop-up rigs are employed; one a multi-rig carrying an NS1 pink pop-up and my own combi-rig version with a white pop-up. Six baits (and six baits only) have been catapulted over the top. This was a tip given to me by my good friend Phil Baker who has often warned against the perils of over-baiting which can kill a peg stone dead if the fish are not ‘having it’.
Confidence has returned. At least I have seen fish and have put baits on them (it).
11.30
Session restart…
‘Son’ came along to tell me he and his dad had caught five fish including fish of 20 and 23. Enquiries revealed they had both come off a margin spot out to their right in very shallow water. So the fish were feeding after all…
I decided to see if there was anywhere to move to and by pure chance, number one was free. So I am now installed for the second half of the session.
One bait is at 11wraps+0.5 yd. over to the far side, the other bait is currently lobbed under the tree to my right. I did distribute half a dozen boilies over it but the ducks had them virtually as they hit the water!
12.15
Change of plan. ‘Father’ has just had another take, this time from the far bank.
The essence of the thing seems to be to cast as close to the far side as you dare; this obviously takes practice; currently, I’m wrapped at 11 + 2 for the left-hand rod and 11 = 1.5 for the right-hand rod.
16.20
Not a thing has happened all day. My expected take just hasn’t materialised. Am I too short? I’ve cast as close to the trees as I dare and yet I may still be short of the mark. It would appear that in this game a miss may as well be as good as a mile.
At the end of the session I’m going to take the rig off and see just how close I can get.
16.30
Away over in the distance I can hear an ice cream van that must be driving round and around the town playing the same tune time after time after time! If I hear the “just one cornetto” tune again it’ll be too soon! Pack it in! It’s winter you fool! People don’t want ice cold desserts in the winter, they want something warming and appropriate for the time of year!
17.40
Both baits recast with the ‘Ronnies’. The right-hand is at 11 + 2.5 and the left-hand is on the limit at 11 + 3. This latter took four attempts! Two were short, one went in the trees, and last a beauty of a cast that went right in and is a dead cert for a bite! Come on!
Both baits are the Northern Specials 12mm Pink NS1 pop-ups.
The secret to the whole business is a cast that is low and ‘flat’, and keeping the rod-tip down to the water to decrease the angle of trajectory. When it works it’s a bite!
18.15
The question of how the carp move around in Burrows is an interesting as well as an informative one. More than one member has described the wholesale migration of carp along the tree-line; but what direction do they go in? Left to right, or right to left? And what happens at the end of the tree-line? Do they turn around and go back the other way? Stay at the end they’ve migrated to? I imagine some sort of mad contra-flow going on where carp keep bumping in to one another as they swim in opposite directions!
Do they move by circulation? By that I mean that there is either a clockwise or anti-clockwise rotation of groups of fish and if this is the case this implies a route taken by the carp which is off the tree-line and may be along the margins of the near bank. ‘Father’ has had at least two fish in the margins in very shallow depth of water. Depth-wise the lake is pretty flat at nine feet (although I don’t know what it is in this peg - I broke my marker float so can’t measure it). If there is circulation then a certain amount of predictability is potentially advantageous.
19.00
There is activity on the lake! The far tree-line and down the bank to my right. One fish moved in the gap where my right-hand rod is - there’s another, down to the right again.
19.25
I’ve recast the right-hand rod again and brought it right in so that it’s no more than five wraps or so out from the tree. My reason for doing this is that a fish rolled on this very spot and it would be very bad angling to not do so. Six or seven boilies have been scattered around the Ronnie.
My impression is that the activity of the carp is generally to the right of where my baits have been. I’m leaving the left-hand rod because it’s in such a good position but in future I would fish to the right rather than straight across.
April 12th.2019
07.15Nothing doing during the night. I came to the conclusion my baits were in the wrong place - the concentration of activity was down the corner to the right, a long way from where my baits were. So I have this morning cast at 13 wraps towards the swim in the corner having seen fish move there. I wonder if this act however is enough to spook them out of it?..
08.15
As the session draws to a close it’s time to pause and take stock and try to anticipate the way forward.
I’m very pleased with my Ronnie Rigs. In the past I’ve had great difficulty matching rig components for 12mm. Pop-ups but it seems the combination of a size 6 thin wire hook with a micro hook swivel and size 8 quick change ring swivel balances the 12mm Northern Special pop-up, so much so that they sink perfectly slowly.
More of a problem is putting baits in the right spots. My session on here has taught me the value of casting to the right spot and observations reveal I haven’t been doing this - I should have been much further round to the right, even further to the right than the swim down in the corner. Every peg is going to have its ‘spot’ and it’s a matter of learning which are the best ones in each case. I wouldn’t ignore the margins however.
09.40
Fishing Burrows, from the standpoint of it still being early days, amounts to compiling a dossier of spots in each peg. For instance, this is the spot I would go for in Number One Peg:
It’s interesting what ‘Father and Son’ has said on his walk by this morning. Even half a yard can make all the difference between a pick-up and nothing. I suggested that repeated casting might spook the fish completely but his opinion was that they retire into the snags and sit there until they are ready to come out.
interestingly, he has had all his fish bar one on the margin spot to the right of his swim (‘The Stones”). Most of the time he has blanked on the far bank tree-line.
I’ve put a mark on the peg wooden frontage from where wrapping distances should be taken (near the angle iron).
It’s 13+1 to the left-hand side of the Corner Swim. And 13 + 3.25 to the right of the corner swim.
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