Come hell or high water

Banana Steve · #1 01-25-2010, 09:54 AM

With Ben and Lee both talking about fishing Crockerton and with me SO wanting to get out, I decided that I would join them. I arrived at 7:30 to find both Lee and Ben discussing their options on where to fish. Ben fancied Peg 16 on the far bank, Lee choose peg 6 and I opted for peg 3.

(Ben on peg 16)

My methods for fishing were to be 2 different options. The left hand rod: Boilie with fake corn with a PVA stick with crushed boilies. Right hand Rod: A maggot clip with a PVA bag with Maggots.

(Left hand Rod Set up)

The right hand rod had the same set up but with a D rig with the Maggot Clip.

Both my rods are Hyperloop Barbell 1.75tc rods with I find in the winter perfect for the carp as they are very forgiving.

I have found that the golden rule for Crockerton is not to fish too far out. So both rods went out at around 20mtrs. I left each rod out for an hour and then brought them in and re-attached a new PVA bag, and re-casted in the same spots. I did this up to 11:00 on the hour every hour the reason for doing this was to hopefully encourage the fish to feed. As the morning progressed I missed a bite on the Boilie rig. At around 11:45 whilst talking to Lee in Peg 6 my remote alarm started to go off, so a quick dash back to my rods to see and hear the reel churning away, with striking into the fish I felt the knocking of the fish then nothing. My heart sank as I thought I had lost the fish, but as I wound in, I felt the fish kick again, the fish must have turned towards me and that’s why I thought I had lost contact. I took my time playing the fish with not wanting to lose the fish, Both Lee and Ben watched as I played the fish, Lee commented that the fish was a good size, and jokingly said that I was milking it

I must have played the fish for about 5 to 7 minutes when I finally I slid the fish over the landing net. There it was the first Carp of the Year a Cracking Mirror of 12lb.5ozs.

With congratulations from both Lee and Ben I settled back into my swim and re-casted. The fish was caught on the maggot clip, for which I had placed 10 maggots and 2 rubber maggots.
This had been the first time ever using the maggot clip and I was very happy with the result.

As the day wore on I only had one more bite and this was on the Maggot Clip again but the bite was lightning fast and that made me think that could have been a Bream but nothing came of it. I even had a bank guest watching me or maybe they were after my maggots as well, for which I kindly gave some to him.

Lee headed home at 12:00 and I promised Ben a lift home. And by 3pm it was getting cold so I called it a day and went home, dropping Ben off first and headed for a warm Bath.

I really enjoyed the day and I was very chuffed about the Carp as well, and also the 1 ½ Points as well. Here looking forward to the next trip