Now Thats how to start a Spring Campaign

I arrived at the lake just before first light Tuesday morning and had a walk around the lake to see if I could see any signs of the carp’s location and was somewhat surprised to see so many anglers on as it was midweek, despite being unable to see any signs of the carp’s whereabouts it was clear they were on the feed as a number of anglers I had spoken too had already caught.

With this in mind I chose to fish a swim I knew well and had had quite a few fish from in the past, it was also a swim I had baited up regularly over the winter so I knew the spot was clean and seen allot of bait and hopefully allot of fish activity, so all three rods went out with small mesh bags of crushed boillies to keep the disturbance down to a minimum, now all that was left to do was stick the kettle on make a brew and sit back and wait.

I didn’t have to wait long, before I even managed to finish my brew the middle rod screamed off and after a short dogged fight I slipped the net under the first fish of the session, not the biggest in the lake at 17lb but a stunner all the same.

The rod went straight back out on the spot, again with just a small mesh bag and before I even got a chance to sit back down the same rod was off again but this time the fish was not happy and tried to wrap around a tree twice before I eventually slipped the net under a slightly bigger mirror weighing in at just over 19lb

17lb mirror	19lb mirror

The swim then went quite for a few hours so I decided to put a bit of bait out to see if I could bring the carp back in, so 15 spombs of Hemp, sweet corn, and boilies went out over the spot. After an hour or so without any action I was about to reel the rods in and put fresh bags on went the right hand rod screamed into action and I could tell from the fight that this was a bigger fish. After what seemed like an eternity I finally got the fish to the net and in the clear shallow water I could see that she was indeed one of the big girls. As I slipped the net under her she gave one last flip, rolled over, spat the hook out and was gone leaving me gutted with nothing but a bare hook in the net.

Putting the disappointment behind me and with the light failing I put another 15 spombs of bait out which turned out to be a bad move. Although I did manage to land a small carp just on last light I was plagued by Tench for most of the night landing 3 of them.

The morning bite time was nearly over and as I hadn’t received any action I decided to put some more bait out but because of the tench activity I elected to leave the Hemp and corn out and just put out Whole, Halved and crushed boilies and this seemed to have an immediate effect as the right hand rod sprang into action and I was soon slipping the net under the first fish of the day.

With the fish safely lying in the net I was about the get the rod back out to the spot when the middle rod was almost pulled out of the rests and I was soon slipping a net under another angry carp. This double take turned out to be 2 biggest of the session at 23lb and 24lb.

23lb mirror	24lb mirror

With no more action it was time for my first spring session to end but with a total of 9 bites landing 3 tench 5 carp and losing a carp at the net it’s not a bad way to start a spring campaign