47 Paces to CELL Winter Success
After several months of application, the new bait, The Cell, from Mainline was week by week, catch by catch, showing ever increasing signs of being something special and providing a real edge. A take received while packing away, at the end of a 24hr October session, resulting in a 22lb 8oz Mirror, during an otherwise non productive spell of cold NE winds and high air pressure, one such sign.
Also having surpassed my expectations for the year in number of fish caught including some special captures , the brace of 30lb+ Commons, later followed by another brace of 30lb carp, both Mirrors from a double take, the main highpoints. I found myself thinking more and more about one of the lakes biggies, a Mirror Carp, capable of 40lb+ weights at the right time of year.
The 70+ acres of the lake, offered only one real area to view and possibly target a single fish, this area being the shallows of the nature reserve, the strict no fishing rule here, meant I was basically left with the option of having to fish another area of the lake with one particular swim, that historically, had seen this fish caught on numerous occasions.
This 22lb 8oz Mirror another Cell result on a tough day!
My weekly routine of trickling in The Cell bait around the whole lake, between swims, was continued, but I also began to introduce bait, fairly heavily, into the area that I hoped would give me a chance of more fish and a good chance of the big Mirror. I felt the Carp would still be looking for a good munch before winter set in and reduced their feeding to the minimum.
Two to three kilos of Cell boilies, applied as free bait in the week, with a further three to five kilos introduced at the start of each weekend session, was obviously being enjoyed by the Carp. Evident by the further five Carp to grace the net over a three week period. A stunning, large scaled linear an ounce over thirty and a repeat capture of “Lumpy” a pound heavier, at 39lb 8oz, the best of the bunch.
Now into November, the Carp action slowed, I decided to reduce the amount of bait used to suit, better I thought to be patient, put my single minded desire to catch the biggie on hold and give the heavy baiting tactic another go in the new year, probably late March, April time, when the biggies liked a proper munch before spawning.
A stunning, large scaled linear an ounce over thirty.
Back to fishing for any Carp, one Carp at a time, was proving difficult, Mother Nature had quite simply turned off the feeding switch where the Carp were concerned. Yet again The Cell came up trumps with the only Carp to be caught at the lake through November, a lovely, well proportioned Mirror Carp at 25lb 4oz. I saw a Carp head and shoulder shortly after returning the 25, but wasn’t to see another fish show until New Years Eve!
The only one out in November, 25lb 4oz of mint Mirror Carp on The Cell!
Through December, the lake got a lot quieter, with many anglers pulling off, either preparing for Christmas or spending time on smaller, well-stocked waters, where a bite is more likely. I prefer to stay on right through the winter; a single fish in the winter months can be a major result, with the Carp in top notch condition, displaying some awesome, dark, winter colouration and as a rule at good weights.
More importantly, you stay in-tune with the lake, with its banks void of anglers, your not going to be receiving text messages of “Nobby’s had one in beach swim” or “Matey Boy in the Cut swim has seen a few”. Its probable you’ll be the only angler in attendance on some sessions, signs of Carp will need to be seen with your own eyes, which in my opinion is the best type of info, as you can appreciate the whole situation surrounding what you have seen; time of occurrence? Was it first light or dusk? Weather conditions; such as temperatures, wind direction, strength of wind, and angling pressure, etc.
Time spent scanning the water, noting any signs of Carp activity however small, can be invaluable at later dates, especially as early spring promotes more frequent, feeding spells by the Carp, you’ll have a better chance of being in the right place at the right time.
I hadn’t seen a Carp since the November Mirror, not until New Years Eve, when I’d set up in the “Big Step” swim, a regular winter station for the Carp. I’d just cast out a marker float, when a Carp popped his head out, rather obligingly, 10 yards past the marker.
Confidence was sky high, for a take at some stage during the night, but by morning I hadn’t received a single bleep to the buzzers, as I packed up, a Carp, probably the same one I’d seen when setting up, stuck his head out, as if to say “Ha, Ha, you can’t catch me”. Bloody Carp!!!
In hindsight, the Carp had almost certainly been laying up, down on the bottom in the silt, for a good part of the winter thus far, my marker set up, crashing down around its ears (Gills) had disturbed the Carp into showing. The Carp never had any intention of feeding, then the disturbance of packing down, winding in the rods, at the session end, causing a similar reaction and the morning show.
Maybe I hadn’t caught, but this was a cracking sign. Carp don’t move about much during winter, so you could bet your bottom dollar, there were a few in the area, laid up and practically dormant. Now armed with a reasonable idea of where a few Carp lay, with any luck it was only a matter of time before the right conditions would come along and provoke a feeding spell. I just hoped I could be there, with a rod in hand, when it did!
Time spent scanning the water, noting signs of Carp activity however small, can be invaluable!
All the sessions over the next three weeks were spent in this area, every time, I would see one, sometimes two Carp show. Often seeing fish breaking the surface, holding their position, head and gills clear of the water, for what seemed liked minutes, shaking their heads, obviously cleaning themselves of silt and lice gained from so much motionless time on the lake bed.
Then the inevitable happened, having set up, two swims along from “The Big Step” I’d seen three fish show, in close succession, only half an hour apart, when the hanger on the middle rod dropped back, before slamming back to the top of the buzzer! I was in!
A single pop up tipped with a small bag of Mainline response pellets, to match The Cell, had been enough to induce the take, when disaster struck! The fish found one of the large boulders dotted along the bottom; everything went solid before the line parted and fell slack. Gutted!!!
To rub salt into the wound, the Guy fishing down in the Big Step caught two the next day, the first, as I passed making my way back to the car. Two anglers moved in, one either side of him the following day, they also caught a few between them, one of which a 36lb mirror.
OK I was down in the mouth due to my lost fish misfortune, but I was chuffed for them, you can only be pleased for an angler getting one out in January, a top draw achievement, on this kind of venue and down to nothing else than good angling.
A low air pressure front had moved in, triggering the action, followed by a high air pressure front 48hrs later and bringing the Carp activity to a full stop as quickly as it had began. This did little to prevent the area of the North Bay, with its Big Step, and Stumps swims in particular, from receiving a real hammering of angling pressure.
The Carp still seemed to be in the vicinity leading up to a planned 7nighter in February (Half-term week again) with a decent southerly wind pushing down towards the North Bay, I opted to start the session two swims up the lake from the “Big Step” in a swim known as “Bottom Meadow” believing the Carp would be backing off the angling pressure of the North Bay a little.
My hunch was proved correct, when a Carp rolled out in the swim the first evening, then some strange activity the following morning. Two rods, with a scattering of 20 Cell boilies over the top, had been put out to spots where the evening Carp had rolled. Around 8am a Carp showed over one of these rods, then again and again, here we go I thought, standing over my rods, ready for the anticipated take, but by the afternoon nothing had materialized and the rods were reeled in.
The rigs were fine? Why had this Carp’s activity failed to evolve into a take? To me the answer was clear! 4-6 weeks of lines and rigs resident in this part of the lake had taken its toll, the Carp were wary, not of any one, particular thing, but a combination of disturbances, the general coming and going, of over a months worth of anglers, feature finding markers, spod work, 3 rods cast out, bivies up, bivies down, barrowing tackle, the list goes on; the Carp simply knew they were being fished for.
How could I be so sure? Well its times like this when top quality bait, such as The Cell, catches you fish not by releasing compelling attracters or offering nutritional values, but by giving the angler the confidence to commit to their approach!
What I’m trying to say is, after 12 months of results using The Cell, I had 100% unreserved confidence with it, I knew the Carp loved it, as for rigs, if I could only use one rig; ever again, it would be my version of the “Snowman Rig” such is my confidence with its presentation! Given this confidence I would concentrate my efforts to other aspects of my angling, such as watercraft! And not look for problems that weren’t there (Wrong bait, wrong rig) thus my previous conclusion of; Carp wary from angling pressure.
(Above left) My complete confidence set up; lead core-lead clip-2oz gripper-7’’ coated braid hook link, puttied down-Size 8 long shank hook-16mm bottom Cell bait, 14mm Cell pop up, “Snowman set up” with a blow back ring.
(Above right) The “Snowman rig” with 18mm, 16mm two bait PVA tape stringer attached to mimic the hook bait, disguising what actually is the hook bait. The blow back rings held in place, again with PVA tape, to prevent the hook bait twisting around the hook and keep the hook point exposed, free from lake bed debris.
The next 24hrs held no further signs of Carp movement, although the conditions did change. The Southerly wind that should have continued for the next couple of days dropped away, replaced by an East wind, which cleared the sky of cloud. Yuk!!! A local forecast check, confirmed the weather change, with the possibility of some wind from the South in a few days time. Time for a move!
Feeling that the high air pressure front coupled with a East wind had certainly reduced the chance of catching, I thought what small chance remained, would be at the shallower end of the lake, where heat from the sun in a clear sky, even in a cold February Easterly, may warm the water just enough for a Midday/Afternoon take?
A few hours later, the lengthy move of swims (A quarter of a mile back to the car, driving well over a mile, to the other end of the lake, then another Quarter of a mile porter journey, down to the swim.) was complete, with the bivy up in the Rope swim, it was nice to be only angler at this end of the lake. Having left the angling pressure behind, I was able to spread my three rods and cover a lot of the water, accessible to the swim.
Small pieces of chod, plus new, inch high shoots of Canadian pondweed, covered much of bottom, wrapping the marker float lead, upon each retrieved cast. Fresh bloodworm, within the chod, added Carp attraction to two of my rods, presenting slow sinking Snowman rigs, balanced over the chod, with the third rod cast to clean silt at the right of the swim.
An hour into darkness and the left hand rod, over the chod, was away, with a 16lb Common Carp finding the net shortly after, given the conditions, a very welcome fish indeed! It felt good to get off the mark for the year, even better when the other rod over the chod, belted off at first light, a 17lb Mirror giving a good scrap. All the effort of moving looked to be paying off!
The scrapping 17lb Mirror.
Having also seen two Carp head and shoulder, towards the opposite side of the lake, it was looking like a few more Carp were in the vicinity, although watching the water, for further signs, was not too pleasant with a cold Easterly wind in your face. Despite a couple of fish showing at dusk, again towards the opposite bank, the second night in the Rope swim was uneventful.
When a good fish lumped out, across to the other side of the lake, the regularity of this display prompted another move. Now standing in the third swim of the session, a swim known as “The Gate” you could see or rather feel, why a few Carp were showing on this bank, the spot held some shelter from the East wind and consequently accepted more of the suns warmth.
The topography of the lakebed also lent itself to absorbance of heat from the suns rays, most of the lake shelved away steeply from the bank, to a deep drop off, often giving depths in excess of 20 feet, where as here, the bottom had a far longer, almost level, gradual slope of some 40-50 yards, with the average depth of water around 9-10 feet, a stark comparison to the majority of the lake.
With the “Gate” situated on a crescent shaped section on bank, my first rod went down to the left of the swim where the bank almost came to a point, then aided by the marker, the middle rod was cast, clipped up at 67 paces to the chod, just past a wide, band of gravel, leaving the final, third rod, also cast with the use of the spool line clip, at 57 paces to the centre of the gravel strip. A dozen whole and chopped Cell boilies, catapulted sparingly over each rig, completing the traps.
Scanning my eyes across the water, as Dusk drew closer, I was looking for a sign that the Carp I’d previously seen, were still in the swim. I was conscious of the fact, that the bank side disturbance of setting up, (All be it kept to a minimum) in a swim that had not been fished for a number of weeks, may have spooked the Carp. When a head turning couple of bleeps from a Fox alarm, had me staring at the best sign of all, a rod tip, arched around under the strain of a fish kiting to the right!
The best sign of all! 35lb 8oz! Chuffed!!!
Going hard along the margins to my right, I could feel this was a good fish, as putting some side strain into the rod, turned the fish back in my direction, followed a little later by a beaten Carp, taking a few gulps on the surface. I lifted the net and was faced with a fish I’d seen before, exactly a year ago to the week!
At 35lb 8oz, a touch over a pound heavier than our previous encounter, this was a repeat capture of the first “Thirty” I’d caught with The Cell, a lovely bronze Common Carp, in mint condition. Repeats aren’t always what you’re after, but on this occasion, given the circumstances, I was down right chuffed!!!
Mega line bites, were not doing anything for my beauty sleep, (I know what your thinking) regular indications, roughly every hour, until about 02:45 when the line to the re-cast rod lifted tightly, similar to the liners, before ripping off through the buzzer.
How I never shook the fish off the hook, through shivering! I’ll never know, the temperature was certainly at freezing or below, the ice on the un-hooking mat told me that! Still, the Carp showed no ill effects from a battle with a hypothermic angler or the cold, so I felt it safe to sack the fish, until first light. The morning sun paid justice to the 27lb 10oz Common Carp, in superb winter condition, before I slipped her back, none the worse from our acquaintance.
27lb 10ozs of Winter Common Carp
Both fish, plus a couple of liners, had come to the rod fished on the gravel band in front of the swim, the rod just past the gravel had blanked, but had also received liners. All the line bites probably meant these rods were a tad to far out, despite the takes! I knew the lead core leader and lines slackened off, would have been pretty tight to the bottom, at the terminal end.
Some fish must have been inside my casting range. This distance had been 67 paces on the middle rod and 57 paces for the right hand rod. So when preparing for the next night, in an attempt to avoid more line bites; I reduced the range of these two rods by 10 paces each.
Wrapping the lead core, near the lead, around one of the bivy ribs, I walked down the bank, rod in hand, playing out line from the reel, counting my paces as I went, before placing the line under the clip of the spool and so predicting the casting distance. Once cast to the clip, some whole and halved boilies were catapulted to the ripples of the splash, while the line sank, before adding a back lead to the set up.
Free from liners, the middle rod produced a 19lb 8oz mirror at around 8pm, but it was the shortened cast of the right hand rod, that later provided a real highlight to the session. Another pristine, big winter Common Carp, bang on 33lbs, my 9th different thirty pound Carp on the Cell!
An 18lb Common from the recast the next morning, confirming the accuracy of a paced out, clipped up cast, made in the dark, lining up to a skyline landmark.
Bang on 33lbs!!!
“Angling pressure, poor conditions, WHAT EVER!
These Carp loved The Cell...And so did I!!!”
A mate of mine, Tony, another local angler, was up in the next swim, some 200 yards or so away from the Gate, drawing a blank from the first of his two night session, aware of my results, having taken some pic’s, he now politely enquired as to whether he could move a bit closer to myself and possibly the fish?
To be honest had the coming night not been my last of the session, I would have politely told him to enquire off! But more than happy with 7 fish from the session and being mates and all that, I didn’t have the heart to say no to the move. Although it did make sense not to be too close to each other, as the fish were probably in the area to stay clear of angling pressure.
One plus point, Tony had recently started using the Cell, having witnessed my results over the past year. The Cell was accounting for a lot of Carp, generally the better ones! As I know this kind of statement is often tagged to bait and I don’t wish to be telling you a load of cheesy, Wonder bait this! Wonder bait that! I’ll hopefully give some perspective with some honest fact.
For the year of 2007 (The lake has no close season) from a stock of approximately 100 Carp, in 70+ acres of water, I landed 31 Carp; 4 doubles, 18 twenty’s, 9 thirties, biggest 39lb 8oz, from 37 takes using The Cell. Sessions were either one or two night’s long, most weekends, plus a five night and a seven night session.
Of course I’d like to think my angling had a part to play, but I’d be a head swelled fool if I didn’t think The Cell was not as an important element.
Anyway, both of us on the same bait had to be a good thing, different bait may have dampened the confidence the Carp had already shown to feed. Ahead of the final night of the session, having made the previous adjustments to casting range, the distance of 47 paces really seemed the most deadly, with a couple of Carp having also rolled at this range, so all three rods were dispatched to the gravel strip, fine tuned to 47 paces and a back lead on each.
Tony and I were stood watching the water as the sun lowered, Tony commented that it would be good to see one before dark, I recalled how I’d not seen one until quarter past six the night before and it was still only quarter to. With that, my right hand rod ripped off! A smaller common of 17lbs, but far better to know their still about with one in the net, than watching fish dance around out in the lake.
The re-cast produced another take only an hour later, this time a Mirror and a little bigger at 20lb 8oz. Tony was about to take the first pic with the camera, when the one of the remaining rods took off! Tony had taken control of the fish on the mat, as I tried to take control of a Carp hooked and bolting away, soon after one Mirror Carp became two, with another Mirror of 24lb 4oz, in the net.
Sorting out the second of the rods needing to be re-cast, a buzzer came to life, this time one of Tony’s, resulting in the first of three fish to fall to his rods that night, a 29lb common, another minter, with an 18lb common coming before the high point, a 30lb 2oz, near pink winter Mirror Carp. Come on The Cell!
A winter high point! 30lb 2oz Cell Mirror Carp
Remains of digested Cell in the sack, a mark of a top bait in winter!!!
Halved/whole Cell baits applied little and often, watching the water for signs of Carp, learning from the liners to back lead the lines, accurately clipped casts at the red hot 47 pace range, everything had come together generating a rapid succession of takes, with my fourth and final take of the night, bearing another Common carp of 22lb 8oz.
My best Mirror of the session, 24lb 4oz.
With eleven fish from seven nights fishing in February, I was certainly looking forward to spring and summer on The Cell!
Packed up and heading for home, the broken sleep of the last three nights in particular, with a hectic spate of runs through the final night, had been enjoyed, and at the time absolute bliss! Now rucksack laden, barrowing the gear back to the car over a quarter of a mile away, I felt totally knackered!
All the effort put in, had been rewarded, by a very special winter session.
The Carp loved The Cell and so did I!!!
Enjoy your fishing,
John
