Warwickshire Avon - Betty Swollocks and the Wrong C

With the weekend’s river carp session a bit of a washout and the lovely weather returning, 19 degrees warmer in fact compared to a few days ago (34 degrees and too hot for me). For this short evening session I decided to return the lily pad sanctuary to see if the carp were more active and hopefully were revealing themselves. The plan was to use a bait dropper to deposit a bed of maggot, wax worms, pellet and broken boilie in the ‘blinkers on’ swim where the last session I’d spotted a couple of carp and then fish a sleeper bolt rig set-up with a hi-viz corn topped cell boilie on the hair.

A float laid on the lilies with breadflake or lobworm on the bottom would usually be my stalking / exciting method of choice but the amount of small fish attacking the hookbait last weekend was a sight to behold, it was a of non-starter. The swim was chocker as within 5 minutes of the large piece of flake resting on the bottom the greedy little blighters would have attacked it so vigorously it would break away from the hook and return to the surface. A lobworm just resulted in little Perch. The boilie could be left without issue and would be a waiting game.

The main rod was a water weighted bubble float with a highly visual piece of bread crust on the hook which would be coaxed down the stretch amongst  the flow and flowering nymphaeaceae, to try and coax them out chum mixer would be used as loose feed.

To accompany me on the trip my mate Simon was ditched for a couple of small cans of Fursty Ferret...it was f’ing hot and humid one that’s for sure. 

With the bait dropper sorted I set the sleeper rod and went for a wander. This time after throwing some dog biscuits out a few carp were milling about and they even had their backs out of the water, as quick as they turned up though they disappeared. Again wait and watch and they will eventually give their location away. As I was crouching down I even spotted a couple of carp which looked about 7lb literally next to my feet, you’ve have even possibly have scooped them up if you were quick enough.

At 8.45pm with an hour or so left I eventually found a couple in the middle of the stretch, there was a gap in the reeds and also it was less suicidal as it wasn’t as thick with lilies. After a couple of missed takes (me being premature) I positioned the bubble float on a lily pad and watched and waited with my hands under my legs. Sure enough a huge disturbance in the water and a fish was on, it had hooked itself on the weight of the bubble float. This was a decent carp, the water is incredibly clear and it looked a mid double and a dark as you like common, it looked a fantastic river fish. After a few lunging runs I felt I had it under control until it went for a one last dive for cover, I had to give it some gip and then the ‘bang’ the fish was off, you f****** w***** as I threw the rod down. Upon inspection the knot had failed at the swivel, nearest the rod tip. I cannot remember the last time I had a knot failure, a nightmare.

For the last half an hour I moved to the end of the swim and fed dog biscuits and bread. Initially small fish were topping but then a few larger fish had moved in. Again I positioned the bubble float on a lily and waited and watched. It didn’t take long either for a fish to engulf all the bread and a fish was on. It was a Chub, sadly the wrong C.

It was nice to catch it off the surface but being over gunned for a Chub it didn’t have much of a chance. I didn’t bother weighing it but it looked 3.5lb or so. I left with a wet net and another ‘the one that got away story’ to be added to my ever growing collection.

Back to the drawing board. They ain't easy these carp, but I've caught one before so I will spend more hours targeting them. I've not given up yet. Sadly it's going to be next week now as I'm looking after the kids all weekend. Incidentally not even a beep on the sleeper rod.