28 Fish in Five Days on The Blitz

We arrived at our chosen venue on the 3rd of July, a ten acre lake with heavy weed beds and a scattering of islands, and walked straight into a wall of heat. The gauge was reading 37 degrees when we pulled up, and the forecast for the rest of the week gave us no reason to think it was going to ease off. Bright skies, no wind, and water that felt more like a bath than a carp lake.

Conditions like that will beat a lot of anglers before they have even clipped up. But I had come armed with a mix of Blitz and Elips products, and I knew that if I could find the fish, I would catch them. That confidence in the bait is half the battle when everything else is stacked against you.

Two things shaped my approach straight away. The first was the heat. In those temperatures the fish were up in the layers through the middle of the day and switching off completely, so there was no point burning energy fishing dead water. The second was the crayfish, and there was an insane amount of them. Anything sat out there for hours was going to get stripped, plain and simple.

So I made the call early: fish short, sharp windows at dawn and dusk, and let the lake rest in between. Quality over quantity of hours.

My opening tactic was a Blitz dumbbell fished on a German rig, presented over a bed of glugged pellet and crumb. On paper it should have been a banker. In reality it gave me two very quiet windows and not a lot to show for it. The crays were finding it before the carp did, and I was not getting the confident pickups I wanted.

That is the point where a lot of anglers dig in and hope. I have learned the hard way that hope is not a tactic.

I stripped it back and went in a completely different direction. Balanced 20mm Blitz boilies, fished on a size 6 noodle rig, with just a scattering of loose baits around the hookbait. No big beds, no crumb, nothing for the crays to sit and feast on. Just a big, bold, buoyant bait sat perfectly over the top, and enough free offerings to give a passing fish a reason to stop.

The first fish came quickly. That was all the confirmation I needed, so I stuck with it.

Over the next five days I caught in every single short session I fished. Every one. Dawn and dusk, in and out, bait down, fish on. The Blitz boilie kept doing exactly what I asked of it, and the noodle rig kept resetting perfectly every time.

The final tally:

• 28 fish
• 1 x 43.10lb
• 12 x thirties
• 12 x twenties
• 3 x doubles

By some distance, my best ever French session.

The lesson here is not complicated. Read what the lake is telling you, be honest when something is not working, and have total faith in the bait you are putting out there. The Blitz range gave me a bait the carp wanted and the crayfish struggled to destroy, and in 37 degree heat over five days, that is exactly what won me that session.

I will be continuing to use The Blitz Range in every session going forward.

Thank you, Hinders.
Carl