Moving on

 Unless I really start to get amongst the RMC Pike, I'm not minded to undertake three sessions/week purely because of the fuel expense involved. Two trips equates to one-hundred & fifty miles, give or take, and that's more than enough driving for me. However, Bev has no issues with me doing three angling sojourns per week and, as a result, my fishing is split between the serious Pike pursuit and a very laid-back Carp dalliance. It would probably be better to say "scamp" folly. The C&DAA Brook Lake, at Minster, is my chosen venue and I'm having an absolute blast, Three and a half hours, on Friday afternoon/evening, resulted in five Carp visiting the landing net. What's not to enjoy? The biggest fish weighed in at 9 lbs 14 oz, but really doesn't matter, I had a fantastic time bending a fishing rod.

My tactics are very simple. I'm using a seed mix (Racing Pigeon conditioner) with added sweetcorn and boily crumb as my attractor with a very basic "blow back" rig presented 15 mm boily. Rigs are positioned using the "Bushwhacker" baiting pole at 24 metres (I've got sixteen sections to play with) and feel sure that my bait actually becomes the focus in this very featureless irrigation reservoir. The real edge that the baiting pole system provides has to be accuracy, without disturbance? There are no leads crashing into the swim, nor the whirring sounds of a bait boat (banned on the venue - I believe?) This is stealth presentation at the top end and the Carp are certainly un-phased by the minimal disturbance. My membership ticket only allows me to use two rods which is more than adequate at this prolific fishery. I've already experienced a bite, whilst attaching the bobbin, thus further proof of the effectiveness of the baiting pole presentation.

Both these carpy images were taken using a very old Fuji Finepix camera.
I won't make the same mistake again.

As I was leaving, yesterday evening, it was blatantly obvious how many moths were on the wing along the entrance track. So tonight, for the first time in 2023, the Robinson 125w MV trap has been fired up and is now illuminating the garden including the Fox & Hedgehog feeding bowls. Not too sure how things will turn out but, you've got to be in it to win it! A Mottled Umber would be a nice start.