The Carpy Couple, Chasing Carp: The Forgotten Swim

The Forgotten Swim

Floyd and Mum

I will start this blog where the last one ended. A few days had past and my son Floyd kept reminding me that we had a fishing trip to go on together. He really didn't need to keep reminding me as I was just as excited as him. I couldn't wait to get out on the bank. I was planning on taking Floyd fishing on Wednesday after he finished school, his dad Lloyd would be home early from work so it made perfect sense. Anyway, Wednesday came around quick, after Floyd finished school we got home as quick as possible got changed into our fishing clothes and of we went to our local lake. The lake is a short walk from our house across a field. When we got there I asked Floyd how he felt about fishing a swim I call the "forgotten swim", he was more than happy to fish this swim with me. The reason I call it the forgotten swim is because no one fishes it and it is very overgrown and the water in front of it is very snaggy, however at the same time this part of the lake is very quiet with little pressure if any at all. There was a slight breeze blowing down towards this end, so it just seemed the best place to go at the time as no carp had come out anywhere else on the lake that day.

I had been wanting to fish this swim for a long time as had found a deep margin on a previous trip. The margin we fished was surrounded by overhanging snags and was only accessible from this swim. On the previous trip, I had found this margin was about two foot deeper than the rest of the water out in front, so assumed it was a place the fish would come and feed and rub the parasites of there bodies. A spot naturally made by the carp we were fishing for. We got the rods ready, Floyd cast first, just missing the tight spot and landed over a snag. We were fishing close to the left-hand margin so he walked back up the bank to try to free the snagged rig, this worked as the lead and rig come free it shot back towards me. I stuck my hand up to protect my face which resulted in the hook being embedded in my hand. Not the best of starts to our trip but these things do happen on rear occasions.

The hook didn't cause much of a problem as it was barbless, so once it had been freed we could continue with the rest of the fishing session. Floyd cast his rod this time hitting the spot perfectly. He laid the rod on the bite alarm and attached his bobbin to the line, he picked up the second rod once again hitting the small spot perfectly, Floyd sunk his line and then put the rod on his second bite alarm and repeated the same action as he did with his first rod. I picked up a couple of hand fulls of RBA spicy krill boilies and spread them around the area Floyd was fishing. That was more than enough bait for a bite. I didn't want to put to much bait in as this can ruin a swim on a short session by spooking the wary carp. However, I do love to bait up on a long session we all know that big carp love their boilies.

Floyd sat patiently waiting, watching the spot. Forty minutes passed by without a bleep, then out of the blue the bite alarm screamed the stow dropping of the line at the same time, as the rod edged forward towards the Delkim, Floyd leaped into action grabbing the rod and pulling the rod low and back towards the bank, not letting the carp get to the snags it was heading towards. He managed to get the fish out into open water but continued to play the carp low with his rod as the tree line in this swim was quite low, so playing the fish this way helped prevent unneeded tangles at the rod tip with the low lying branches. After a short but epic battle with the carp, Floyd had one! he crouched low down and pulled the fish towards the net, minding not to get tangled in the low lying trees. The beautiful common slipped over the cord and into the net.

The common was long and lean full of power, Floyd was happy as always with his catch, as you can see by the picture above. The carp went back to its home as did we.