It has been 3 years since moved over to RG Baits, and what a blast my fishing has been. Here is my brief recap on my results so far, including a reminiscence of my top 10 most memorable captures.
When I initially swapped bait suppliers, I was fishing a large gravel pit in Lincolnshire, and in all honesty, I had racked up the longest blanking period I had ever had and my confidence in my angling was at an all time low. It was mid Spring when I decided to make the change, having been pumping particle and pellet on a new spot for several weeks, the spot had grown large, and I was confident of a bite or two from it, but the results that came were better than I had dreamed of. I had always wondered why there wasn’t more meat based boilies on the market, knowing how meat is still a successfull choice for match anglers, so when I heard about The ‘Prime’ meat based boilie, that was the first bait I decided to try out. With only a couple of 48 hour sessions planned before my ticket ended, I knew time wasnt on my side to get amongst a target fish, or even just any fish. However, those last trips ended up being very busy, and turned what I rated as a very hard water into what felt like a runs water, with a hit of carp landed on both trips, including the longest Carp I think I have caught, in the shape of the Long Lin, along with what was in my opinion one of the best looking Carp in the country, a fully scaled know as the Tiger fish! Al backed up by some other awesome 30 pounders scaley ones. The Carp were clearly pushing each other out the way for The Prime, and I left there with 100% confidence in the bait.
The Long Lin
The Tiger
A Lincs Mirror
The next venture was over to Bainton Big Pit, a lake that I had fished on an off for years. A pit that was renowned for being hard work, mainly because it is brimming with weed, but prolifically also brimming with Tench. Which could plague a session at times. For an angler like myself who doesn’t use the aid of a bait boat for accuracy at range, it was common to rack up multiple captures of tench over several nights before a carp capture came along. My first night back on and I had 2 Carp on the first morning, including one of the targets that I had wanted known as the Chocolate Common, that again took a liking to The ‘Prime’. I was certainly on a roll…
The Chocolate Common
After catching a few more on the complex during the summer, my next ticket came up in September for a 65 acre Nottinghamshire sand pit. I had a lot fun on there, and although these were all stockies so the individual fish were not particularly memorable, the fishing certainly was as once again they were throwing caution to the wind and smashing the bait, and I had hits of up to 32 Carp in a weekend, after being used to blanking on hard pits, it was crazy fishing, and the action really sharpened up my angling. Unfortunately, big floods came into the area that Autumn and the pit had to abruptly closed for safety, and remained so right up until March, in which by that time I was itching to get back out, but you all remember what went down after that – LOCKDOWN! What a crazy time that was hey! After being forced to follow such terrible science and imprison ourselves for the next 2 month, by the time fishing was legal again in late May, I had just a couple of weeks left before my Bainton ticket ended. So I decided to head over to another lake on the complex in the hope of a big Common, and on my first morning, what do know, I had a big Common in the net! Caught on a 7 til 11 yellow pop up fished as a single, and I never usually catch on a single!
Caught on a single
The 1st of June came around and another new ticket became active in Cambridgeshire, a place called The Folly, and home to some special old Carp. This pit had a lower stock of around 60 fish, and I got off to a decent enough start, catching on my first morning and continuing to pick fish off on most trips, but by late August I hadnt managed to get amongst the big girls. Although my confidence was high in The Prime, I had noticed that of the big ones that had been caught during my time on there, most captures were on a bright hookbait. The pit is fairly deep, and generally very soft clay sediment covers the bottom, which clouds up very easy once feeding starts, which could explain why visuals get good results, but whatever the reason, I felt I had to go more visual. A chat with the gaffa at RG, and I decided to swap to the Formula Red and Plum, a bait that goes a washed out pink colour within just a few hours of being the water. Using matching pop-ups, the results were instant, with me catching three on my first trip. On the second trip, right on the morning of the 1st of September under a full moon I was left blown away, when I braced two of the sought after 40s known as ‘Martha’ and ‘The Peach’. These bites come minutes apart whilst fishing two rods on the same spot. They were loving that bait once again!
Martha
The Peach
With me never wanting to rush fishing a place that I like, I pulled off after catching a couple more, and spent the Autumn and winter’s fishing on a large sailing pit of unknown low stock, and catching a few Carp, albeit nothing bigger than mid twenties. Which for all I knew, were the biggest ones in there, and it’s a mystery pit that I would like to explore a bit more hopefully in the future. By the time February came round I was more than ready to get back on the hunt for ‘The Folly’ females. Mixing another visual boilie, Vita-lac into the mix too. The spring started well, with me banking the first Carp to get caught from the lake that year in early March. The action continued for the next few trips into early April, before an unusually cold front for that time of year swept in which lasted several weeks. This really did seem to kill the fishing that Spring. By late May, the hot weather finally came, and I knew there was a chance in the edge as the fish started patrolling the upper layers in the warmer thermoclines. I had been prepping a few margin spots that spring, raking out any debris from them and planning the rod’s position and so on, so it was now a case of popping bait on them and keeping an eye out for any opportunity. That opportunities came pretty quickly, as the fish were congregating in front of a swim with a good marginal zone that I had had some success on the previous season. After setting the ‘half a wrap trap’, it was one toning within an hour, and after a hard battle, the first reward went over the net cord. One of my main targets for the season was in the net and at a huge weight setting a new personal best. It was a carp known as ‘Brushtrokes’, and followed up later that evening with a back up upper 30s known as Black eye – I was stoked to say the least.
Brushstrokes
The next session came around, and I decided to fish it stalking style, baiting up several spots on my late afternoon arrival. I got on the barrow the next morning to see if I could produce an opportunity. After a frustrating day of following them up and down one bank, I decided to have one last go in a margins of one of the corners, getting a baited rig on the spot as I could see the fish heading down that way. Peering through the dense trees, I saw a group of carp come in and go down on to the spot. One of the fish looking massive, which I suspected was another of my main targets, a motherload of a carp known as ‘Moonscale’. The suspense as she neared closer and closer to my hookbait, her gills flaring, the tension was almost unbearable. Before eventually watching her nail herself and rising up in the water, slowly shaking her head with the little white Vita-lac wafter hanging from her bottom lip. Then all hell broke loose! A very hard fight ensued, but luck was on my side, and Moonscale eventually slid over the net cord.
Moonscale
Although my season was made, I continue to fish the pit, picking off several more nice Carp, including another special one particularly high up on my wish list, and one of the best lookers I have ever caught. A fully scaled known as Matilda, who couldn’t resist the Formula Red and Plum.
Matilda
I have continued to do most of my fishing on that pit since, and although I have caught some more of the back up fish and doubled up on some those 40s again since, there are still 2 or 3 of the big girls that have eluded me, in which hopefully I will be able to share a photo of one of them by the end of this coming Spring, if lady luck is on my side!
Be Lucky
Wayne
