First Carp Of 2010

Last weekend,the mrs and I hit up White Springs, just outside Swansea for the day. Nothing was brought to the bank that day, but we fancied trying somewhere different. Due to having to goto Birmingham Sunday night for a gig, I decided to fish there again for 24hours this time, from Saturday 8am to Sunday dinnertime ish.(instead of fishing the syndi near brum and drive all the way home to shower before driving back to the gig) It was a a pretty clouded over day and was cold even though I had enough layers. It got milder as the day went on and the fog cleared from around the water within the hour.

When I got there I had a good selection of swims to choose. I already had one in mind from the last trip, but I choose one that went out on a kind of point and it had alot of water in front to work with, and the closest swims to do me were quite a way off, so noone could interfer with me or annoy me, like they tend to do on day ticket waters like this.

I spent a good half hour slamming a marker about before setting the rods up, to try and get a idea of what was going on under the water. There was a few hard spots, and a few gentle slopes but that was about it. I had 2 islands in front of me, so it would be rude not to have a bait tight to one of them. The one then was position on quite a small hard/gravely area in open water, and the third was on a deepish margin spot.



Not much activity in the day, with very little fish showing. I think I heard someone on the far end of the lake get a take, but didnt find out if it produced a fish.

I was tucked up in the bivvy by 8ish as it got pitch black, listening to Radio 1 and warming myself up with a curry and constantly drink cups of tea.

The rods were icy and the net was frozen to the mat!





I drifted off until 2:30am when I had a few single bleeps followed by a screaming take on a the margin rod.(i was in shock for a few moments due to not having a run for a while now) After a slight struggle to find the zip on the bivvy door and putting my boots on, I lifted into a nice fish. It kited around a bit, taking only about 20yards of line. It stayed very low in the water when playing it out in front of the peg, but I eventually got her in the net. When I lifted the Reubens and she was 29lb bang on, i was chuffed.



First fish of the year, and what a beauty. After waking up the guy a few swims down to take a photo, I slipped her back, re baited and recast, and went back to sleep hoping for another, thinking they were on the munch.

The buisness end - simply running rig with a 2oz pear and a size 10 raptor hook, on a 6inch hooklength, with both a flying backlead and a standard baclead. Due to it being a pressured water, I believe it's vital to keep the line pinned down as much as possible. I fished text book winter tactics, with a 15mm Cell popped up 2 inches with no free offerings.