Burrows 'Five Hour Session'

I shot down to Burrows for a short five hour session, the weather was still very hot, I'd had my eye on a marginal area that never seems to get fished. I arrived at the water at about 2:30pm, there were a fair few anglers already fishing, luckily the spot I'd had my eye on was free. It was a marginal area that I was yet to fish, there were very few features on it, I had a gut feeling it could produce. To get the spots I wanted I didn't actually set up in a swim, I perched myself in between a couple of trees, I fished my rod tips high because the marginal growth was pretty heavy.

My Chosen Spots

I cast my baits as close to the far margin as I could get them, I baited up heavily all around my hook baits, Burrows carp respond very well to this method. I was fishing slack lines on both rods, there is so much junk on the bottom of the lake, using back leads can cause problems because the line has a tendency to get caught under rocks and bricks, I learnt this the hard way. Once my rods were in position I decided I wasn't going to do any recasting, I felt confident in my approach. I sat back and waited for some action.

I cast one bait out without any bag or stringer, the popped up bait was fished in combination with a very small PVA bag, the main ingredient being 'Green Lipped Mussel' pellets. After testing this in the margin it's a great presentation because the pop up sits nicely in the middle of the ground bait, when it breaks down it looks perfect.

A Mixture Of Sorts

A good three hours went by before my left hand rod shot into action,  it went powering off peeling line from the spool, racing down the lake to the right of me. It really took a fair amount of pressure to gain control of the fish, it wasn't having anything I was giving it. I had a feeling I'd hooked something pretty big by the way it was plodding about. 

As the fish started to tire, it surfaced for a few seconds, it was a big, a lovely dark looking mirror, a real lump. As I got her closer to the net I started to think I'd bagged a twenty, I slipped her over the net and a big fat mirror laid there staring at me. I left it in the net for a few minutes to recover because it had really given its all. This was the perfect fish to christen my new monster cradle with.

Carp Safety Is Of Up Most Importance

 

I placed the carp in my weighing sling, scales sunk to 24IB, I was absolutely over the moon, I really feel like I'm starting to break through down Burrows now.

A 24IB Stunner

A Carp To Remember

All the little refinements I have been making over the past months have really started to change my catch rate, from pinning the rig down tight with the use of my 'flat inline pear prototypes' along with my decision to use the blow-back rig with the ring, seems to be working, I have a few other ideas that I will put into practice, I still feel there are a few points I want to address in regards to rig mechanics.