Fishing report from: Mark & Family

A good week’s fishing with plenty of carp including 3 x 40lbs + and 2 x 100lbs catfish

This week we welcomed Mark, his Dad John and friend Brad to the venue for the first time. The guys had fished in France many times but they were really impressed with the place on the lake tour which is always nice to hear.

It didn’t take John very long to get into the action with two carp on Sunday from home swim. One was a mid thirty, the other a very pretty homegrown special in the low twenties range.

The first big carp fell to Brad. After seeing some fizzing over in no carp corner, he rowed out a small trap of Scopex Squid and just a couple of hours later it was away. After a really intense fight the mighty Sub slipped over the cord and it was a very much job done as far as he was concerned. Brad was really impressed with how hard our carp fight.

When I called round on Tuesday, Mark was getting hassled by the small kittens which can be a pain at this time of year. We drain and net them every two years when they are removed but it’s impossible to get them all. I suggested that Mark move over to our vegetarian option and this dramatically improved the situation. Mark landed two really nice mid thirty mirrors before the week was out.

Unusually, none of the guys were really interested in the catfish but if you fish Scopex Squid, there’s always a chance of picking one up as the catfish absolutely love a bit of squid! Brad banked the biggest (weighed) specimen of 108lbs. By the end of the experience he totally understood why we are really specific on the materials used and knot testing.

John also had an epic experience! His 2.75lbs TC rod (not recommended!) wasn’t much help with his beast and it took him over 1hr to land. In the end it was unhooked in the water and let to swim off. They guessed the weight at around 100lbs.

If Sammy is hungry it’s normally a good sign that there are plenty of bites to be had. This week was no exception but rather unusually, dad John was the only angler to catch him, no less than 3 times! John was certainly doing something right as he ended up top rod this week.

Bait and Rigs

The guys caught well on Scopex Squid bottom baits and popups (trimmed down). A switch to vegetarian pellets and Nash particles really helped reduce the number of captures of small kittens. Rigs were mostly mono hair and mono D rigs tied with the 20lbs Nash Bullet. The lead system was a version of my shock & run setup.