Florian Peter from online tackle shop Fishing Tackle Ireland is a member of the East Clare Specimen Club which had their club outing on Anglegrove Lake in Woodford recently. Florian gives great tips on baits etc. He reports:
Preparations began the previous evening when I boiled up a large pot of hempseed and pidgeon conditioner. A couple of the lads were staying overnight but I was just limited to just fishing the Saturday. I rose from my slumber early in the morning, loaded the car and got to the lake around 7.30. Luckily one of my favourite swims was available and I soon got set up in there. Weatherwise we could not have wished for better. The temperature was up in the mid teens even that early in the morning. There was a nice breeze and the sun was starting to peep through the clouds. As I was setting up I could see a couple of fish bubbling in the swim. It was looking good already.
Tactic wise I decided to fish 2 ledger rods on Bite Alarms. I have a set of nice 1.75Lb Test Curve Barbel rods that are perfect for a venue like this. My Shimano 5000 Baitrunner Reels were loaded with 10Lb mono. On the business end I decided to fish a favourite method of mine, The Method Feeder. The feeders that I had opted for on the day were the Browning Hybrid Flat Method Feeders in 30g.
These were fished in conjunction with short braided hook links of about 3-4inches. On one rod I just fished 5 maggots( 1 fake and 4 real) on a Size 10 Gardner Wide Gape Talon Tip Hook. On the other I fished a single grain of Enterprise Tackle imitation Corn with a size 10 Mugga Hook. This is a nice neat rig that has worked well for me on lads of venues.
Groundbait wise, my method mix consisted of 1 part Dynamite Baits Swimstim Black, 1 part Van den Eynde Secret, 1 part Red Crumb and 1 part Black Crumb. This gave me quite a dark mix that was sticky enough to hold to the method feeders. I mixed the dry ingredients together and then added water until it binded to the feeder. To the mix I added generous helpings of hemp, pidgeon conditioner, dead maggots and 3mm Halibut Pellets.
The groundbait mixed I loaded the feeders and lobbed them out to my chosen areas of the swim. On anglegrove there is no need to cast far out as the fish are happy to feed in close so my chosen areas were no more than 25 yards out. There was a large bed of reeds in front of me but I had also decided not to cast too close to them as they Carp in here do really fight well and I was eager to avoide loosing them in the reeds. The baitrunners were fished locked up to further prevent the fish finding sanctuary in the reeds.
I started getting line bites and small knocks within minutes of casting in and sure enough within about 10 minutes the Bite Alarm screamed as a small pristine common Carp bolted out of the swim.
That was the start of a couple of hours of madness with the rods going off every few minutes. By 11 in the morning I had 16 Carp landed, all between 4Lb and 6Lb. Just after 11 I had an absolute screeming run and was into a fish that was a lot more powerful. This carp really bent the rod over and I was glad when she was safely in the net. A nice long mirror Carp just over 10Lb. I was well pleased with that.
Over the morning I had been baiting up the small pond behind me with floating bread and dog biscuits. By this time I could hear the carp slurping away on them. I called over fellow club member Edd Curran and we decided to give a cast for them. It didn’t take Edd long and he was into a mirror of about 6Lb. Things were just getting better and better.
A couple of the club’s junior members Daire and Luke turned up at Lunchtime for a few hours fishing and I gave my rods over to them. They didn’t have to wait long as within a half hour both of them had had their first carp caught and they were both beaming. A couple of hours later they left having caught 4 or 5 carp each and they were looking forward to a return visit soon.
During the afternoon the fish really came on the feed with me having double hook ups on a few occasions and me struggling to keep one rod in the water let alone the two of them. Most of the runs were Carp in the 4-6Lb Bracket with a couple of fish around the 7-8Lb mark. I also had a couple of small Tench around 2Lb. In the swim next to me Edd and his son Colin were getting stuck in to the fish too. Colin was showing his dad up landing a string of fine Tench to over 4Lb and some stunning mirror Carp.
On a couple of occasions during the evening I wound in my rods and tried my luck with the carp in the back pond. For bait nothing could be simpler than freelined bread on the surface. I had a couple of mirrors and just as the light was starting to fade I lowered my bread crust onto the surface just inches from the bank where a couple of fish had swirled. Up came a pair of white lips and a fish was on. I realised that I had hooked one of the lakes Koi Carp and nervously played out the fish. After a spirited fight Edd netted the fish for me. This fish was the highlight of the day for me. A stunner of a Koi Carp.
In the end I had about 45 Carp with the biggest being the 10Lb Mirror. It was an incredible days fishing with me catching well over 200Lb of fish.
