10' Carp Rod & Abu Garcia Cardinal 654 GT

This month's blog starts at Kilburn Lake with my friend Dan. He wanted to see if fishing is something he'd like to do. He turned out to be a helpful gillie and keen spectator.

I started float fishing red maggots in the margins and landed some Roach, before casting further out. It wasn't long before I caught my first Carp of the day, shortly followed by another. I cast in the margins and deeper water and had a pleasant day with good company, although I'm not sure Dan will take up fishing due to "those maggots".

My next visit to the bank was to Mill Dam, which in my experience fishes really well...or not! On this occasion, not! I did land plenty of small Roach float-fished on red maggots, but after my previous visit when I landed some nice Bream, I was a little disappointed. However, the weather was nice, and it was good to be on the bank.

The final session this month was at Allestree Lake. I've been meaning to do more leger fishing, so I took the 10' Carp rod I bought from Steve Wooley at Ashbourne. I paired the rod with the Abu Garcia Cardinal 654 GT I bought at the Antique Tackle Fair at Redditch. I also took a float rod and Mitchell 300 reel to fish in the margins with some sweetcorn. I legered krill boilies, rebaiting every hour but without any runs.

Allestree is one of those large, difficult estate lakes, and I find it quite intimidating sometimes due to its size. I usually only fish there for the annual fancy dress charity match. However, it's a venue I want to fish more at to build my confidence on larger waters.