Bax Farm 'Head Banging Session'

I decided to do another session on the specimen lake at Bax Farm on the Sunday just gone, it was the only day I could get out on the bank last week. I'm always a little dubious about weekend sessions because of how busy the banks can get. I gave the farm a call the night before and they said the specimen lake was pretty rammed, I thought I'd try my luck for a good swim on arrival. After arriving there was an awful lot of people packing up having done a night, instantly I got a feeling that the carp could be on high alert due to the number of lines being in and out the water, I didn't feel very confident. I have a firm belief that when a water is pressured the carp can switch off.

I Need A Bigger Car

I managed to get in my usual swim, already I was starting to think that I'm stuck in a mode on this lake because I have been fishing the same swim each time I go. Next session I'm going to try a different one, I've started to see other spots that interest me. I was fishing my grange & monster squid pop up combo on two rods and a bottom bait on my third. My Starmer order will be with me on Wednesday so, for the last time I was using Mistral on the bottom bait rod. I halved one of their new FM boilies and a banana tutti boilie and then combined them on the hair. I like topping my baits off with yellow, it's a colour that proves to be a great attractor. 

The Usual Spots

I had a really potent mix for my spomb, I decided to make the overall mix a little stiffer this time so it breaks down slower on the lake bed. I put five mini spombs over each rod and sat back to wait for bite time. My mate Aid who I met on my club water was coming down to fish the swim up from me, there was a lot of bubbling going on in the back channel where he was going to fish. I felt this was due to the fact so many anglers were in the main section of the lake, I think the carp were grouping up in the quieter part of the water.

The Control Center

My rods had been out for about an hour or so before I got a screaming run off my middle spot, they'd taken the grange & monster squid combo again, they love it down there. The fish was ripping line of the spool like a rocket, Aid was around to take some action shots.

Giving It Some Stick In Stealth Position

Nicely In The Net

She's In Good Hands

A Lovely Proud Little Lady

Not the biggest of fish but that doesn't matter to me, any carp is a beautiful carp, it's the science behind it and the thinking that I love the most. I put my rig back out on the same spot, I didn't feed the swim anymore, I was thinking enough bait had probably gone in the water in the past 24 hours. I decided to make up a few funnel web PVA bags, the presentation would be tidy with the pop up perched in the middle of a little bit of ground-bait.

My Little PVA Land Mines Release A Controlled Explosion Of Flavour

Things went quiet for a while and then the middle rod bobbin pulled up and stopped, at this point I had lots of thoughts racing through my mind .....'Have I Been Done', 'Is The Hook Blunt', 'Is The Rig Sitting In A Snag'. This very rarely happens to me, when I reeled the bait in there was a reed stem through the hook. I put a PVA nugget on it and re-cast. A few hours went by and I got the same sort of run. I reeled the bait back in again, everything seemed fine but then I started to realise that I wasn't fishing a blow-back rig this time around and maybe the carp are picking the bait up and spitting it out. I didn't have any 'blow backs' on me, I used them religiously but stopped a few weeks ago for a while replacing the rig ring with a small section of silicone tubing. After these two weird runs I'm going to stick to my 'blow back' setup because of its anti-eject properties. I am 100% confident in the rig combined with tying a figure of eight knot on the swivel, I feel this makes it very difficult for the carp to do you over.

A Slightly Stiffer Mix For Slower Breakdown 

The day continued with very little action, come 5:30pm the fish usually start to show and move in and around the islands, it seemed quieter than usual, I still put this down to angling pressure. The evening came and went without any more runs. My mate Aid had a run but it took him around the island so he didn't manage to land it. 
Thinking hard about the situation I've decided that I am going to find some margin areas that rarely see a bait, there's three known thirties in the lake that haven't been out for ages. I think that they avoid all the obvious features. The beauty about the farm is that it has so many nooks and crannies it's hard to make up your mind where to go. When you fish a lake, nine times out of ten you nearly always head for the main features, I'm going to go for the unassuming spots, even if it means fishing directly underneath my rod tips.

The Willows Are Tempting Me

As mentioned before, next time around I'm going to try a totally new swim and I think I'm going to stay mobile, any signs of feeding fish, I'll move, I think it's a lesson for all of us, you have to find the fish, it's too easy to just sit in one spot all day thinking the carp aren't feeding.