I arrived at my current syndicate lake coming nearly last out of the draw . I was prepared for the worse as I knew I had to be in a certain couple of swims. To my disbelief I managed to secure the swim I had in my mind. It was an area that had plenty to go at. Offering snags, shallows and gullies it was the perfect place to spend a couple of days. On arrival a chilly easterly was pushing it’s way up the lake and straight into the area I was set up. The temperatures had been in the mid twenties the couple of days prior. I felt although it wasn’t the best wind to be fishing on I was sure this swim was the correct choice.
I plonked the gear into the swim and set about getting the rods out first. I soon had the rods in position opting to just flick out bags and minimum bait to start with incase I could get a quick bite. I planned on a better lead around the swim in the afternoon. The remainder of the morning passed by uneventful so In the afternoon I set about searching out the swim and finding some likely looking areas. Luckily I soon located the areas I was looking for. I opted to fish Betalin tigers as hookbaits. This was to be fished over around a kilo of hemp, chopped tigers, whole tigers and the new test bait (C-FOOD). I went to sleep that evening feeling confident as I could have given the rubbish conditions it had been.
It wasn’t until 2:30am I received a take on the left rod resulting in an upper double mirror. I unhooked it in the net and sent it on it’s way. I repositioned the rod and at 4:30am the same rod was away resulting in a cracking scaly mirror of 31lb 8oz. The more morning feeding spell I felt had passed and the sun was high in the sky. Around 9:30am the left rod was away once again. The take was aggressive as was the fight. After around a 15 minute tussle I finally slipped the net under a stunning long mirror of 35lb 8oz. A truly incredible carp with big plate-like scales scattered all over its impressive frame.
The rest of the morning passed by quietly. Usually I would have reeled the rods in by lunch but today with a strong wind hammering into the swim, I thought how good it still looked for another bite. Out of the blue around 4pm the same left rod buckled in the rest. Once again the fight was incredible in such shallow water. My size 5 Fox beaked wide gape hook held firm and finally I scooped the net under a carp of incredible beauty. Again another 30 for sure. My thoughts were proved right and at 32lb 12oz it was my 3rd30 of the day. I couldn’t believe my start on the new syndicate. I followed it up the following morning with a low twenty mirror.
During my stay on the syndicate lake I was to be the only one to catch a carp the whole trip. I felt truly honoured to catch carp of the quality that I did. The new C-Food clearly doing wonders and is being proven as an instant bait.
Catch a biggun
Craig Runham
