Josh Bennett Update

As is usually the case with carp angling, numerous priorities sometimes get in the way of the angling we want to do. As a result I have been trying to find any way to get on the bank recently and although nothing of any great mass has graced the net folds, I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I've had.

I have been on a two week residential training course at work recently and after studying most evenings, I managed to find a local lake to spend a night in the hope of keeping sane amongst masses of paperwork. Theale fisheries Island Lake is a small pit of two acres or so with a stock of around 150 fish. It was ideal to spend an evening and I utilised solid bags amongst relatively persistent weed growth. By using a bright hook bait and my usual mix of Little Gemz 50/50, I also injected the solids with Tuna Oil to enhance the pulling power. 4 spombs of little gemz pellet and my chosen boilie accompanied each bag and it also was nice to put some new tackle to the test I had recently received. In the early hours a mid double mirror woke me up just before my morning alarm call and return to work. Luckily I passed the course and celebrated with a zigging trip to a local reservoir with some friends.

I immediately spombed a sloppy mixture of bait over mid depth zigs at a comfortable range of 70 yards. Using differing colours of foam, I simply dipped each hook bait in Betalin before casting the rig to the area. Nice, simple fishing. Between us we had a great day and I personally had over 30 fish in just shy of 8 hours fishing. No monsters, but it was great fun. 

Finally I have just returned from a weekend carp match. It was the final match of my season and its been a relatively successful year; reaching finals in all three of the match competitions we've entered. With an average draw we had targeted a third place finish this time around and happily we achieved just that. We caught just shy of 250lb worth of carp and despite both torrentially wet and freezing conditions bagged ourselves some money and a trophy each. An acquired taste is carp match fishing, but I enjoy it and will be doing a couple again next year. Again, solid bag tactics were the order of the day and bright pink hook baits were once again employed with my 50/50 mix. By steadily trickling in a mixture of 10 and 14mm boilies over the top and regularly replenishing the bags, we had once again close to if not over 30 fish (I forget now I'm going grey!). 

In the mean time, with the first few frosts hitting the country it will be back to the syndicate in the hope of finding their winter holding zones before it gets too late. Wish me luck and I'll hopefully be in touch over the winter season.