In my opinion, if you can't catch a Carp from the C&DAA Minster Lakes, then it's time to consider taking up golf? Now embarking on my fourth season as a member of this angling club, I have nothing negative to say about the fisheries available via the purchase of a club ticket. "You pay your money and make your choices" If a particular venue doesn't provide what you're seeking, then simply don't bother fishing it as there a plenty of others available which offer vastly differing challenges. If that still doesn't work, then why join the club in the first place?
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| Eleven and a half pounds of Brook Lake entertainment |
Brook Lake, at Minster, is nothing more testing than a "beginners" runs water. I've had sessions down there, using freelined wholemeal bread cubes, with a split cane rod and centrepin, landing twenty plus Carp, up to low doubles, in less than three hours. It really is that easy and incredibly enjoyable if a bent fishing rod is what you seek. There is, however, another reason for visiting such venues and that is for the purpose of fine tuning ideas. Be they based around tackle choice, bite indication, rig or bait presentation, I'm confident that lessons can be learned in very quick time. Only once I'm confident that an idea is worthy of pursuing do I seek to take it to another, more testing, venue to continue with the learning experience. To my way of thinking this where "day ticket" commercial fisheries come into their own. Always popular, thus heavily pressurized, the Carp in this type of venue are "cute" to say the least. They see "Muppets & Carp Clones" casting rigs and baits which are agricultural, at best. Copied straight off of some celebrity YouTube offering, or other, accompanied by ridiculous amounts of (very expensive) bait, spombed with all the subtlety of, repeatedly, chucking in a house brick. Heavy leads (tackle in general) for the size of venue are also par for the course. Still it's not my place, or desire, to question how others enjoy their time on the bankside? So as long as it doesn't directly compromise what I'm doing it must be a case of each to their own.
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| My first Victory Lake "twenty" |
Because it is so close to home, my favoured commercial is Kev's "Victory Lake" at Sandwich Coarse Fishery. Over the past couple of summers it has provided me with some exceptional Carp fishing. Containing nothing massive, the venue has fish to just over thirty pounds, but I have been able to fine tune my use of the "Bushwhacker" baiting pole system whilst getting regular action for my efforts. During that particular project, I wasn't in need of help to put the "Bushwhacker" together, or how to steer it. I needed to explore the amount of freebies required in order to create a feeding response where a bite was likely to happen sooner, rather than later. I was also able to play around with bottom baits v's wafters, again gleaning some very valuable insight during this period. One very interesting side effect was the importance of hook pattern choice? It didn't end there, hook link length and,. more importantly, material became a massive distraction along with the "blow-back" vs "D-rig" conundrum.
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| July 1983 - my very first "twenty" I've been playing this game for quite a long time now. Is another Carp that important? |
It's good to have a diversion such as carp fishing or even angling during these trying times Dyl. Must say, the sheer level of technicality involved in the former is too much much for me to handle. A rod, a line, a hook and a way of catching a fish where I get as close as it's possible to get to it remaining in it's un-disturbed natural feeding condition, is my domain. All I need to do is tip the balance. Catching a chub on a free lined red maggot having fed in about half a dozen free offerings, a typical example. Tight waddery might also be a factor 😉
ReplyDeleteHi Ric, at present all I can do is think about what might be possible? Carp angling is pretty simple, as are the fish, but modern exponents like to complicate things at every opportunity. I would have to assume this is due to there now being a multi-million pound industry based solely on the capture of this single, non-native, species? They certainly ain't likely to get rich off of the likes of us. I'm still using much of the same kit as I did when we fished Wilstone during the 1980's. Quite obviously, it would be ridiculous to ignore the advances in quality control and technology, which modern terminal tackle possesses, however, brand loyalty and bankside perception play no part in my choices. Afterall, the Carp don't know, or care, if the landing net costs £250 or £25, they still end up on the bank. So whilst we await Bev's treatment to begin, I will happily grab the odd half hour to enjoy watching my grand-kids at the start of their own angling journeys. All the best - Dyl
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