I had two places to choose from, thorpe lea, a very well stock pit with carp to mid thirties, quite an easy venue provided you can cast the distance. The other venue was Thorney Weir, a harder but still quite well stocked venue with carp to over 40lb. Out of the two Thorney is the better venue to fish as the carp are stunning, but as I hadnt been fishing for so long, I just wanted a bend in the rods, so off to Thorpe Lea it was.
I arrived at the lake at around 09:00, it was quite busy, busier than I expected, with pretty much every other swim taken. I left the tackle in the car and went for a wonder round to see if I could spot and fish. All the spots I had earmarked were taken. On the M25 bank I spotted Ian Russell doing a spot of tuition. A few swims on along the M25 bank there was a couple of guys with a mid double on the bank, I continued my walk around and saw nothing in the way of fish movement, until I approached the car park bank, where there was a guy playing a fish, again it looked a mid double in the net.
As I made my way back to the car, I had pretty much made my mind up to leave and make my way to either twynersh or to thorney weir, but as I got to Peg 5 (the one which commends alot of water including the area off the point of the island and the start of the gravel bar which runs from one side of the lake to the other) there was a
guy packing up, he had been in peg6 and was tutoring a guy been in peg 5 all night. I got chatting to him and he said the fish were having it out on the bar, he suggested popped up plastic corn over spodded particles (I thought they were banned there??)
As he was just leaving I decided to give it a go and grabbed my gear and jumped into peg5.
Rigs were very simple, 15lb mainline, flying back leads, leadcore leaders, 2.5oz leads and 18lb braided hooklengths of around 6inches. The lines were fished slack with the bobbins laying on the floor.
Bait on the long range rod was a single piece of popped up flouro orange corn, with a small piece of putty jus underneath it on the hair, so it was only just popped up. Bait on the shorter range rod was my favourite tigernut boilie. Both rods were fished with tiny pva bags with 3mm swimstim pellets.
The long range rod was cast around 100 yards, just off the point of the island up on top of the gravel bar. The second rod was cast along to the margin of the island where it sloped off to 9ft into a silty spot.
Around half hour after getting to rods set, I had a few bleeps on the long rod, which resulted in nothing, so a recast and fresh PVA bag was recast to the same spot.
10 minutes later and the spool going into melt down on the take, I had a 14.04 mirror on the bank. slipping it back with out too much fuss.
Rod recast, and another screaming run resulted in me losing the fish half way in. On inspection the hook had straightened out!! This was quite a common occurence when I used to fish here before, because some of the fish have damaged mouths, they have real hard lips and its my belief that the hook point doesnt penetrate into the lip resulting in the hook just bending out.
I had tried a variety of different hooks a few years back and it happened with most of them, so I was confident it was nothing I was doing wrong.
Anyway, another recast back on the spot and it was away again a short time later, resulting in a manic battle from a mint conditioned Common which proceeded to wipe out the rods of the guy in the peg next to me!! It was my first common from the lake, in fact the first common I have ever seen from the there!! The weight, immaterial really being in such good condition, was 8.08.
I was more than happy to have had 2 fish on the bank even if I had lost one, it had been quite a while since the rods had taken on their fighting curve, and it was good just to be out.
Rods back on the spot again, and half hour later another sreaming take resulted in another hook straightening!!! I was using size 10 owner c5 hooks, brilliant hooks and unltra sharp, so I changed over to a Fox long shank in size 10 which is a slightly thicker gauge than the owner.
Another PVA bag put bang on the spot was taken a little while later, this fish taking line straight from the off with the rod hooped over, I knew straight away this was a better fish.
To my luck, the fish decided to kite left, instead of right so I only had my left rod to worry about, but as the lines where slack I didnt worry too much.
I must have played the fish for about 10 minutes, before a mass of line and branches surfaced with my rig attached to, then about 10yards further on was the fish on the surface.
The fish had obviously been trailing this mass of line and twigs and caught my line.
Anyway I had to somehow bundle it all into the net, thankfully the guy in the next peg, even after I had wiped his rods out previously, was on hand to net it for me. Once in the net,I unhooked the fish and hoisted her up onto the scales. Registering 21.08, I was well happy, I would have been happier to have hooked the actual fish in the mouth, but I had my rig in the area that the fish was and landed it after a 10 minute battle, so I counted it as my fish!!!
Shortly after the twenty I had another take, again on the corn/long rod a fish of around 14lb was duly landed and returned. With a bait on the spot again, it was away again, this time really beating me up kiting through the guy rods to my right wiping them both out, so I managed to bundle the fish of about 16lb into the net and released it without even lifting it from the water as I was in a right mess tangled up with this guys lines!!!!
Now Im not complaining about this guy really, he was new to carp fishing, he was only fishing half the distance of where I was catching, but I was fishing directly infront of me, and this guy was fishing to his left, even more so when I was actually catching as his rigs started creeping closer towards me until that last fish when his rigs were only a few yards from my lines, so its no wonder I caught up with him.
I cant really blame him though, the fishing is so tight at Thorpe Lea its difficult to find your own water to fish in without encroaching on someone elses water, which is why I chose to fish where I did. I must have apologized to him loads of times, he didnt seem too bothered, but I felt bad.
I kept telling him to get his rigs out at a longer distance, but I dont think he was confident enough in trying the cast that far. I did however "lose" a few plastic pop up corns to him at the end of the day though when he ask to pinch a couple, lol. I felt it as the least I could do seeing as I had wiped him out 3 times.
I had one more run before packing up, but I lost that fish to a hook pull. You never can tell in there as the fish fight so hard, but it felt a good fish, and judging by the big boils on the surface I think it might have been, but you win some and you loose some!!
Next time you I think will be over to Thorney, It seems a well stocked pit, and maybe a little trickier than Thorpe Lea, which is good, seems like a logical next step, I dont want an easy water anymore, I would rather try my hand at "proper" carp fishing in a gravel pit with immaculate conditioned fish. From what I can make out Thorney is very clear, resulting it some really nice dark fish. I have seen a pic of an almost black common from there so that has spurred me in to getting over there and giving it a go.
