July Shenanigans

This month's fishing began at Woodrows, one of the Earl of Harrington Angling Club waters. It was a sunny Monday, and I had the place to myself, except for another angler fishing the nearby River Derwent.

I fished my Lee of Redditch split-can rod and Hardy Altex reel on the float with red maggots on a size 14 hook. It was a lovely, quiet day with just the sound of the birds, the wind in the reeds and the occasional splash of a fish. I caught loads of Perch and Silvers, and I felt transported back to a simpler time with my cane rod and Altex reel.

The next session was very different. I've just bought a Golden Green 10' Carp Rod with a 2lb test curve, which I was keen to use. I chose a local day ticket water I haven't fished this year and know the biggest lake has lots of Carp, Bream and Tench. I set up on Kingfisher Lake at Birch House Lakes, and although it was quite busy, I found an accessible peg in the corner where the wind was in my favour.

I set up my unnamed 10' carp rod with an Abu Cardinal 157 reel and two pieces of corn on the hair-rigged hook, which I swung out to the right margin with some free offerings. I tucked into my sandwich. I kept looking at the rod tip and bobbin for signs of interest. Suddenly, the bobbin dropped, moved right up, dropped again, and the spool screamed as the line tore off.

I dropped my sandwich, picked up the rod and struck into the fish. I tightened the rear clutch and put some side strain on the rod to bring the fish under control. After going out towards the middle of the lake, it turned and came towards me, going straight for the left margin and some lilies. I managed to keep the fish out of the lilies and reeds before it dashed into the depths, where it stayed for a few minutes and then came to the surface. After some more toing and froing in both margins, I managed to net a very nice Common Carp, which gave me a great fight.

After my sandwich, I set up the new Golden Green rod with the Abu Cardinal 654GT with hair-rigged sweetcorn bait, and cast out into the left margin. Not much happened for a while, and I noticed other anglers weren't catching, so I read my book and drank tea as the afternoon wore on. I'm currently enjoying Carp Fever by Kevin Maddocks, and as I read about huge Carp, my rods fished on my behalf.

Suddenly, the left-hand rod tip swung round, and the spool screamed. I was into another fish, giving me a similar fight to the first, and eventually netted. An angry Common Carp which didn't want to be photographed, so I put it straight back.

A week later I was on the windy, rainy banks of Mill Dam, another Earl of Harrington water with another tin of sweetcorn. I've had mixed results with sweetcorn, but it's a good, cheap bait. I wanted to leger fish again, and for this session I paired a 9'6" Daiwa rod with the Mitchell 300 I stripped down and painted earlier this year. Next to that, I had a 9'6" Billy Lane Swing Tip rod and an Allcocks Delmatic Mk2. With hooks baited with sweetcorn, I waited under my umbrella. It was a short session, and both rods had action with a nice-sized bream.