One of the best commons I've ever caught

It's a bit of a bold statement that title, I won't lie but after joining a small club in the south east with a few waters to choose from I decided to stay away from the more popular busy waters and focus my time on one of the quiet little lakes. The club has one of them non disclosure thingy's on it so we shall call it The Wood. It's only 1.5 acres in size, tree lined all the way around, ten feet in depth and full of lily pads and snags.

Its one of them places that because it's a little bit tricky it gets forgotten about and nature is starting to take it back. So apart from some fencing to stop non members getting in the place it looks wild! There are however a couple of old locals that fish the place religiously and on a number of occasions i tried to get a bit of info on the place but they weren't so willing to share. All i ever got from them was " you're wasting your time down here mate, there's nothing worth catching in here" Turns out that ain't the case!

After befriending a guy on a local day ticket water he showed me some pictures of a few fish he was lucky enough to catch from The Wood. In fact he was the reason why when I joined the club The Wood was my venue i wanted to target. Even tho none of his captures were monsters... they were Dark, Scared up Scaley old warriors. So as these regulars were spinning their yarn, i was remembering them pictures that fella had showed me and i was formulating a plan.

Over the course of the next three weeks i visited the lake after work a couple of times a week just for a couple of hours and watched the water. Cooking my dinner on the bank and with a marker rod and a bare lead i found a few likely areas. I raked the bottom for any large snags or crap on the bottom and pre baited with plenty of Jungle Mix boilies soaked in a matching liquid food.

My first two overnighters were uneventful. The air pressure was through the roof! and for the beginning of June it was mega hot during the nights and if it wasn’t for the old mozzie zapper i swear the mozzie’s would of eaten me alive! My work overnighters are quite short, i dont like using the term but i quite often do a quick overnighter. I normally don’t get to the lake until about 7pm and I’m packed up and away again by 5am, so chances are i would be missing bite time anyway but hey! There's always a chance right?

  

It wasn’t until my third session that it finally started to come together. I finished work on a Friday at my normal time and after driving round the back roads like Collin McRae i arrived at the lake just after 7pm. To my suprise the lay-by was empty and i had the whole lake to myself! So i loaded the barrow and headed off down the far end to my my baited spots. The air pressure had dropped well below a thousand and the temperature was in the low teens. The mozzie’s where still in full force tho! I took my rig off and cast my left hand rod onto the far bank, walked around the other side to looped on my rig and hand place with two handfuls of crumbed, chopped Jungle mix boilies and 2mm pellet under an overhanging tree. The right hand rod had a solid bag full of the same mix on and was underarm flicked onto a clear spot on a marginal shelf. With the traps set the bivvy was up, bacon had been cooked and the kettle was on.

I was awoken at 3am to a back drop on my left hand rod.... yes it was a bream! Those things are the bane of most carp angler's lives. It's my own fault tho, i knew there were in there yet i still used small pellet and crumbed boilie. Knowing that if i wrapped up at seven and a half wraps i would drop my rig just short of the overhanging tree, so i decided to loop on a solid bag, clip up the rod to seven and a half wraps and cast it back out. I sat back down, put the kettle on and within five minutes i had another back drop and yet another bream! With a fresh solid bag on I recast my rod, finished my brew and crawled back into my pit.

At 6am while laying on the bedchair, finishing off my third brew and scrolling through Instagram, the bobbin on my right hand rod dropped to the floor. This rod had remained motionless since i had put it out at the start and thinking it was just another bream i made very little effort to rush. As i stood up the bobbin hit the rod blank! Sending my alarm into absolute meltdown. Good job the clutch was quite tight as the rod tip ripped round to the left in an attempt to dart into the lily bed. It was trying to bury its head around the roots as i could feel it grating against the leader every time it lunged to get further into the snag. After what felt like twenty minutes which in reality was probably only forty seconds i managed to steer her away from the lilies and out into deeper water. Not wanting to rush and risk the chance of losing her i took my time playing her. she stayed low in the water and every now and again i'd get that sick feeling as the line would ping off the fins. After a slow and steady battle her head was up and i slipped her over the net cord.

It’s by far not the biggest fish I’ve ever caught, but one of the most rewarding ones. Despite how awesome this self take is the pictures really don't do her justice. Unfortunately that was the only fish of that session and i had to pack up about mid day to attend a family event. Since this capture iv'e only been down there a handful of times, the place had a massive oxygen crash and the club decided in their infamous wisdom to cut down 85% of the tress! and to stock a load of carp between five and ten pounds. It use to be you walked through the gate, down the hill into the woods with the lake smack bang in the middle. It had a deafening quite eerie feel about it but at the same time felt quite magical being there. Now you can see the whole lake from the car park and because the smaller ones are getting caught often its attracted the match anglers, poles and seat boxes everywhere! The older ones are still being illusive and rarely getting caught, well if there are people ain't publicising it on the club. I might give it a few years and see how it matures, might even give it another for one of the dark old commons.