Determination in carping

Determination in carping

How many of you have set out at the beginning of a new season or a New Year and thought about what targets you want to achieve?

Whether it is to have the biggun out of your targeted water or to simply get a run, everyone has their own preferences of targets as they do for what water to hit. I know when I started my carping a few years back everyone was fishing runs waters, catching loads of littlen's and enjoying it as they should. I know of a couple of people who were catching 20's before they were 14, which is fine but these boys were instant anglers. As much as I would have liked to have a 20 at that time I opted for a challenge, I went on to a small 30 acre water some of you know as Aquatels. With its mixture of fish and its relatively low stock level when compared to its size (plus the fact it was free back then) it seemed to be the perfect challenge, so set out to get a fish from it. Easy enough you might think, you obviously don't know the lake very well.

During my time there I have had to endure many blank weekends and a fair few 4-5 day sessions during the holidays, it was during these times I had to keep optimistic and sheer determination to crack the water kept me at it week in week out. Although this may seem a bit stupid to most of you who read this but I put the majority of my knowledge of fishing and fish behaviour down to those blank sessions. I looked at it in the way, I may not have caught, but I've learned something new. I gradually learned from my mistakes and built up an understanding of the lake itself as well as its inhabitants.

Eventually my work seemed to be paying off, and I landed my first Aki's fish an 8.5lb Tench. This came on a night when I lost two other fish and struck into numerous harsh liners. From that day things seemed to look up a bit as I knew my rigs were working fine as I plucked out Bream after Bream until the end of the summer when I landed another specimen Tench of 7lb. By this time I was glad things were working out a bit better as by now Tone had taken over the running of the lake and so I was paying to sit there and blank.

Again things died off and my determination kept me turning up at the lake three or four times a week just observing the water and baiting up a few select spots.

On the 30th of November I arrived at the North end of the beach only to be greeted by a bailiff telling me about his conversation with Dave Levy the week before. He told me how Mr Levy had said, 'no carp will come out of Aquatels during December'. That was enough, out came the glug pot and on went a well glugged semi buoyant Nashy F1 into a PVA bag of crushed F1 along with half a pot of F1 boilie dip and was cast out to the clear gulley.

At approximately half seven the following morning (December 1st) I got out of my sleeping bag to what I first thought was a Bream until it ripped the line off the bait runner. The next thing I knew I was playing a rather lame carp until it edged closer to the net, that's when it darted off but after a second my heart calmed enough to be able to get the landing net cord under the fish....'YEEESSSSSS!!!' There was nobody else on the water to aid in the photo taking but at 14.03lb of immaculate winter common it didn't bother me too much. The newly named 'Spot' was mine, and first blood was drawn!

I spent the rest of the winter breaking ice around my rods and sitting it out until my ticket finally came up. Was I going to leave Aquatels or give it another go for one more year and see if I could pluck something else out? I opted to return with new targets, the first of which being to catch my first 20 and the second to catch one of my target fish. I didn't renew my ticket until May '03, and so by then I was really under pressure to make up for lost time!

My first session of the new season was to be Friday 9th to Saturday 10th of May. I started off in the 'Gate Swim' fishing no more than a foot from the bank under the willow leading into 'The Essex Pool'. I knew fish did come in this close as I had spent a number of nights the week before just quietly watching them move in and out of the pool across the small gravel patch I had baited with jolly green giant. However like all best laid plans this plan was not to be. It was on my 3 foot Rok Lobsta Zig-rig to a rolling fish in the open water that I had the first run of the season, no more than 5 minutes after casting towards the fish. Unfortunately the carp God didn't seem to be impressed with something I had done and the hook pulled just a few seconds into the fight.

The night went on with only liners on my margin rod so early Saturday morning I wondered around the banks searching for the carp. It soon became clear that they had found there spot for the summer in the 'Essex Pool', so I moved up into what was soon to be named 'Kevs Hump' by a few of my friends.

I presented my baits in big PVA bags full of carp pellet and crushed boilie into the only two clear spots I could find amongst the thick weed and lifted my rod tips and slackened off my lines in an attempt to keep out of the weed. My right hand rod was cast to a foot round clear spot tight up against a thick weed bed. It was this bait that was picked up at about 4am the following morning by a carp that had obviously decided it no longer wanted to stay in the Pool and tried everything to get back through the gate and into the main lake. Eventually it calmed down and I was forced to drag it through a weedbed down the left hand margin and into the small clearing in front of me.

Further into the water I went now up to my thighs in silt. In amongst the large pile of weed I knew there was a 20. Once out of the water and on to the mat, I still had no idea what type of carp it was. I cleared the weed to unveil a stunning fully scaled mirror that went 20.04lb on the scales. I ran down the bank to wake Joe Bailey who came down to help with the photos but at 4 in the morning neither of us were properly awake (cheers Joe).

My summer continued to go well and I went 5 sessions without a blank which as far as I know isn't done too often on Aquatels.

I now look back to all the times I had too sit there and endure the wind, rain, cold and sometimes damn right freezing conditions and wonder how I'd have felt if I'd had a 20lber a year or so earlier on a small runs water? I can guarantee it would not have been half as good as the feelings I felt after completing my targets from this water. I could have so easily left and fished else where but determination to not have the water beat me kept me there every week.

Your bait and rigs might be perfect but determination is what drives us in the end.