Scopex Squid Success
01/10/2009
A friend and I recently visited a lake for a bit of a social 24hr session to make a change from our usual fishing stints at our usual lakes. We decided on Willow Park in Ash near Aldershot; a day ticket venue with a good head of fish to be had. We arrived on a wonderful sunny Friday afternoon and decided to load the barrows and have a wander around. We fully intended to do at least one lap of the venue but the first swims closest to the car park were full. We decided to make our way along the bank searching for two swims close together to set up for the night. As we walked along, we saw lots of fish showing in front of us and we just couldn’t ignore them and walk on. They were showing at a range of around 60 yards so we set up camp and, as luck would have it, the nearest swims were separated by a large picnic table which was an attraction in itself! A perfect spot for our overnighter!
I cast out a marker to feel around with - the depth was around 6ft in front of us, dropping off to 8ft off the back of a bar where the fish were showing. We decided to fish one rod each to the marker and do something different with the other two rods. I baited the marker with around 4 kilos of Scopex Squid 15mm boilies knowing that autumn is the perfect time of year to give the carp plenty of food. If we were lucky enough to have any action, I would just keep topping this up. We both cast to the marker and clipped up with no rigs attached to get the distance. We marked our lines with tape so we could re-find our spots at night using the far bank trees as a guide. We were both using very basic rigs consisting of a leadclip arrangement - 8” hook lengths with size 7 hooks - with line aligner and a snow man presentation. We used small caulk balls that had been pre-soaked in Scopex Squid Food Dip to make our hook baits stand out. On our outer rods, we both did something a little different off the baited area using chod rigs with pop ups.
We did not have to wait long for the action. There were fish bubbling and rolling all over our baited area…it was just a matter of time before one of the rods was away. I pulled into a good fish and after a fantastic scrap,! I netted a17lb common. After dark, I also had a 21lb 4oz common followed by a 19lb common! My friend had a 17lb common in the morning and lost another after it kited into my lines. It certainly paid off baiting heavy as we had two more mid-doubles the following day. Other anglers were struggling to get a run and were starting to try and cast to our area, moving into the swims to our left and right. This eventually became too much pressure for the fish which inevitably moved off.
Still we had a great night and a takeaway curry delivered to our swim! It was an excellent chance to have a good chat about all things “carpy” and we bagged some really great looking carp too.
Spencer Lunn