This blog is going way back to September of 2018, it's crazy how fast time passes, this was a good period to be fishing Cants because it wasn't overrun with people desperately trying to catch a 30. Chelmsford had done a great job in developing Cants from a water overrun with thousands of small carp and turning into a proper 'big fish' venue. Those that have read my older blogs will know that I've fished Cants a lot in the past and then I pulled off to focus on other waters. Living my life intuitively I knew that when the time was right my gut would tell me when to return. What Was My Motivation? it wasn't the size of the carp now in the water, it was simply the desire to revisit a lake that I loved fishing a few years before.
All my blogs from this point won't be showing the spots that I fish, nowadays a lot of people want things handed to them on a plate and I genuinely don't see why I should put the time into fishing these waters only to let everyone know exactly what I'm doing. People really need to suss out how to catch carp by their own accord. You'll learn nothing about carp fishing by copying others, actually doing this stops you from moving forward and really only offers a temporary solution. The only advice I would really give is to be different in what you do, don't followed the herd, there's more than one way to catch a fish.
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| View From The Back Bay |
When fishing Cants in the past I liked to focus on the descending bars that are locate on both points of the island. In my mind these were perfect ambush points and I'd had some good results adopting this approach, but Cant's is also a fantastic margin water because, firstly the margins are deep, and secondly you have so many overhanging trees and bushes, let us remember that carp love the margins, so I'd made up my mind that I was going to basically fish underneath my rod tips super close in. For this approach to work the lake needs to be near empty and you have to be as quiet as possible, with the way carp fishing is nowadays these two elements are almost impossible to come by. However, on the days I chose to fish there weren't many people about especially up the back bay where I planned to go.
My plan was simple, fish mouthfuls of bait under the overhanging bushes either side of my swim, I was going to use my baiting pole to drop the rigs covertly and quietly. This was at a time when baiting poles hadn't become the latest fashion accessory, actually hardly anyone used them, I'd constructed a really long one adding sections using carbon wrap and carbon spray glue. Doing this allowed me to purchase long pieces of carbon tube and modify them so they slotted into each other. At the time I was using it I can safely say that it was probably one of the longest baiting poles being used, I went a little nuts in regards to the length but .. hey "you've got to do what you've got to do" to give yourself an edge. The fact it took about an hour to set up and put away was something that I had to make peace with rather quickly. Also, occasionally you might get a shard of carbon in you hand but that just added to the overall comedy value of the dam thing.
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| Custom Made Baiting Pole |
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| This Is Only Half Of The Total Length |
I was only going to be using a few sections to ship my bait out under the bushes either side of me, due to the depth of the margins you could get away with tucking the rig right under the marginal growth and you were still in a really good depth of water. Unlike my older Cants sessions where I fished a lot of bait spread around the area, this time I was opting for a mouthful in the shape of a solid bag. I knew the carp hugged the margins so there was no real need to load the swim up with bait in the hope to attract them. In my mind, if you could get the bait bag under the bushes any fish that came along wouldn't hesitate to suck it up. I used a large PVA bag which I filled with crushed Boilies and pellets of varying sizes, I stuck with fruity flavours, I'm still using Starmer Baits, I wouldn't change from their bait even if a gun was held to my head, before shipping the bags out I'd inject them with some liquid feed.
Once both bags were placed I wasn't going to move them, I genuinely felt confident that "if" the fish drop down to feed then I've given myself the best chance at getting a bite. That's all you can do, carp fishing to me is setting up a scenario where 'if the fish are feeding' you're giving yourself the highest chance of success. This approach doesn't involve loads of complicated rigs and ultra scientific baits, it's all about putting your bait in the right place. Once all the 'rigmarole' was out the way of setting all my gear up and making sure my rods and reel handles were perfectly symmetrical, I sat back watching the water carefully.
It really didn't take long for a bite to occur, the rigs had been in position for little over an hour before I got a thunderous take that ripped the rod tip sharp to the left. Leaning into this fish I knew straight away that it was big, the sheer power of the pulls and lunges were scary, due to the marginal obstructions I kept the rod tip low in the water and basically held on for dear life until the fish tired enough to get a net under it. This fish was a beauty weighing in at a touch over 28 pound, it was built like a torpedo, it was a lovely dark brown, every part of it was immaculate.
This was the only bite that occurred on this session but I planned to head back the following day to adopt exactly the same approach. This trip was eventful in more ways than one and it had to be seen to be believed. I'd arrived slightly later in the day for my second trip, everything was exactly the same as the previous day. Solid bags were tied and carefully placed under the marginal growth with my baiting pole, the day passed with no action. As the sun started to lower it was 'game on', everything felt right and I knew a bite was imminent, I sat perched up the bank when all of a sudden my alarms gave an unorthodox set of blips. My left rod pulled right round to the left, my pod fell downwards to the left and the rod flew into the water.
This all happened within a second, I had no time to think so I slide down the bank and dived headfirst into the lake, the rod had disappeared so I lunged my arm in the vague direction that it went off sailing. As I stretched full reach and lowered my arm through the water my little pinky finger managed to connect around the line between the spool and the first guide on the butt section of my rod. As I picked the rod up with both hands and lifted the fish was still on, I was now standing in the water fully clothed up to my stomach. The carp on the end of my line was going nuts but after an intense fight I managed to slip another dark Cants common under the net cords, scales fell to 29IB.
This fish was totally worth a drowned phone and a set of warped bank cards that got flooded in my wallet, because it was a lovely warm evening I dried off quickly. No other bites came that day which doesn't surprise me because me jumping in headfirst probably spooked half the lake. I drove home that evening smelling of both Cants and the carp that lived there. Because my approach appeared to be working I decided to head back up a few days after I "took my dive". It was all very regimented by this point. I quietly made my way to the swim, kept low to the water, tied my bags, extracted my pole and silently slid both my rigs either side of the swim under the marginal growth.
Just like the previous sessions nothing happened during the main part of the day, the bite came just as the sun had gone down, the light was fading. My left rod tore off at a crazy pace, a huge vortex of silt and leaves erupted from where my rig had been covertly placed. This carp felt like a beast, it was pulling hard towards the bushes but I kept the pressure on, this caused it to dart into the small bay to the left of me. The vortex's were huge and the bottom was being kicked up every time in lunged on another powerful run. Slowly and surely I was gaining ground and as it got closer to me it was clear that this was a big carp. As the net slid under this fish a huge amount of relief washed over me.
This fish was big and the scales sunk to 33IB exactly ... what a fight and what a fish, the last two carp I had out of Cants sort of made me feel like I was building up to one on the 30's so the whole scenario felt strangely poetic. This would be the last time that I fished Cants because I would end up dropping my Chelmsford membership. I was getting tired of the journeys up and down and I wanted to find a few more waters closer to home. Not only that but all the venues were really starting to get busy and when this starts to happen I naturally pull off looking for places that offer solitude.
