OFF TO BEDFORDSHIRE. Kev Wilson

Transcription

1 Off To Bedfordshire Kev Wilson OFF TO Kev Wilson BEDFORDSHIRE Following the capture of Choco from Stoneacres, I was a little unsure where to head to next. With an awesome linear around the mid-40s and a leather of roughly the same size yet to grace my net, I was undecided whether to stay on and try for them, or head off to pastures new. I decided to fish on until these two fish had made an appearance. Memories are made of carp like this, just one of the Stoney s warriors that I was lucky enough to catch. 94

2 As luck would have it, I turned up that Sunday to find out the leather had been lost that morning, but I stayed on regardless, hoping for a chance of the linear! That came out on the Monday night at 44lb+! I did manage a couple of takes on Wednesday morning, landing a 23lb mirror, and losing one at the net around the same size. As things had panned out, I had purchased a ticket for Elstow Pit 2 at the beginning of the year. I think I mentioned that I went for a drive over to Elstow when the fish at Linch were spawning around May time. Now, as some of you will know, Elstow Pit 2 is not your average lake it is a deep pit with very undulating, treacherous banks, and is renowned for being hard. Whether it was the sheer depths and make-up of the pit, or the work and reward of catching some of its prized residents, I don t know, but I really felt this was the right move for me. I knew the Odyssey XXX bait was regularly producing the goods for many anglers, and knowing that Elstow was mainly a boilie water, I was looking forward to fishing with the round balls once again. The next weekend saw me travelling down to Elstow on the Sunday to wet a line for the first time. The lake was fairly busy on my arrival but with most of them being weekenders, it was slowly starting to empty. I was lucky in that a mate of a mate, Ben, was fishing on there, and he made me a welcome brew and filled me in on what was what. It had been quite a wet weekend and I was to experience the treacherous, cloggy clay banks I had been warned about on this, my first visit, having to stop three or four times to unclog my boots (and the barrow wheel) of clay before arriving at my chosen swim. I knew there were two main swims that regularly produced the biggie I was after The Headland, which is situated on a point, and The Decoy, which is on the southwesterly facing bank over near Pit 1. After seeing a few fish in front of The Headland, I decided I would start there, as it is also a point past which the fish have to travel more often than they do the other swims to get to and from the other parts of the lake. Using two marker rods due to the deeper water, I spread the rods two-thirds of the way down the marginal shelf around the point, finding a particularly nice clearing at 22ft straight in front. I settled down for the night, happy with what I had done, although not overly confident due to it being my first night. Unsurprisingly, nothing occurred that first night and I woke to a much clearer sky than the previous grey day. By a.m. it was really warm, and with no fish evident in front of me I decided to have a stroll and familiarise myself with the lake a bit more. From the high bank near the car park I found a group of smaller fish working their way along the margin in the upper layers towards a snaggy bay. I quickly raced ahead of them in order to get into position where I could get a good view of what they were up to. On looking into the water, which was a good 40ft below me, there were already a couple of fish present just milling in and Off To Bedfordshire Kev Wilson It was a hard decision to make, but I d done my time at Stoneacres and, as much as I enjoyed it, it was time to move on. 95

3 Off To Bedfordshire Kev Wilson around a snag bush, with one of them looking considerably bigger than the others. Shortly after this, the group of smaller fish made their way round the corner and joined the other fish. I was unsure if I was looking at my target fish, The Mother, or not due to the height I was above it I couldn t tell for sure. I rang my mate Lee to see if there was anything distinctive about it to enable me to identify the fish and he instantly said, Bright white lips. I looked down at the fish in question and it looked like it had been brushing with Colgate it was The Mother all right! After watching this group for a while they seemed quite content sitting in this bay on the back of the wind sunning themselves so I went and got my gear together before moving into a half-flooded swim, known as The Terminator, from where I could get to the fish. Once I had set up my gear I went back round to the vantage point to find all the fish still there, just mooching about in the sun. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon watching their movements and it was obvious the carp were patrolling the two main snag bushes more than any other part of the bay they did up end and cloud up a few times in the silt at the base of the marginal reeds, but there was no way I could get a bait anywhere near that area. I could only get a bait to the deeper edge of one of the bushes they were visiting so had to be happy with that. There was a bit of weed about, but as with a lot of deeper pits, it was not very deep and was mainly the black, cloggy, stinky silkweed; the upper part of the shelf was mostly bright green flossy stuff, but around 10ft down this changed to the darker, black stuff which continued right down into the depths and it was pretty uniform around the lake. For this reason I had chosen to start with the Hinged Chod Rig that had been successful for me back on Stoneacres. I don t like fishing a Chod Rig over bait, preferring to fish it as a single, or over a light scattering, but I needed a rig I was sure was presentable as often as possible, so the Chod it was. I placed two of the baited rigs off the bush, roughly a rod length apart, on XXX cork balls, before quickly legging it round to the vantage point with the free bait. I was worried the bait going in would spook them so thought I would be better off baiting up from the high viewpoint where I could make sure the carp were out of the way first. I fired out around 100 baits scattered around the two rods, which they didn t seem phased by, before hastily returning to the rods. It must have been around 8.00 p.m. when I started seeing the odd smaller fish show in the middle of the bay they were either just starting to feed, or just about to move out of the area. I hoped it was the former, although my gut feeling was that it was the latter! I was up at first light without so much as a bleep through the night and before long had seen three or four shows in front of the high bank over near the snags, one of which was a big one it was looking as if the fish had drifted out of the bay in the night and made their way along the margin the way they had come the day before. I reeled in the two rods and quickly ran round to the high bank with them for a look rods are the only way of securing a swim on this lake, no water butts, After standing there for 10 minutes or so, two fish flew clean out of the water from the depths, hopefully meaning they were getting their heads down in the deeper water 96 As the sun slipped away it was time to think about Bedford and a completely different type of challenge!

4 buckets, etc. There was nothing evident in the upper layers but, after standing there for 10 minutes or so, two fish flew clean out of the water from the depths, hopefully meaning they were getting their heads down in the deeper water. The two rods were stood in The Snags Swim to secure it before I hastily went back round to get the gear together and move. On pushing the barrow along the high bank, another one showed in the same area. Once in the swim, the two rods were chucked onto showing fish before setting up the house and making a brew. By teatime, the carp had moved out into the middle and were just mooching around in the upper layers and seemed content sitting there, with one sploshing out every now and then. They were still sitting out there at 9.00 p.m. so I decided to put a bit of bait over each of the rods just in case they did move back into the snags in the night. A call of nature had me up in the early hours and whilst getting nestled into the bag again I heard one bosh not too far from where the rods were. Next thing I can remember is waking up to a few bleeps on the right-hand rod positioned where they had been in the silt in the day. On checking the rod, the line was hanging limp. I wound and wound and wound and eventually the rod hooped over round to my left. It turned out to be a small mirror, which must have bolted back towards me at an alarming rate! I was glad to be off the mark, even if it was a only small un! My next session saw me chasing the carp around the lake, but to no avail. The weather was spot on, with low pressure and strong winds, but the carp were mainly out in the middle, and when they did move towards land, I moved as close to them as I could, but to be honest, I never really felt in the game once. By my third session the weather had changed back to high pressure with hot days and I arrived in Ben s swim to see him holding up a fish known as Little Shoulders for the camera one of the few originals still left in the pit at low-30s. As we stood having a celebratory brew, it was pretty obvious that most of the lake s population was up on the surface, bow waving about there were carp everywhere! After a quick lap, most of the fish appeared to be in one end of the lake, so I dropped in a few swims down from my mate. I put two rods up the margin onto the snag bush fished locked up, and with a light scattering of baits around them. The other two were fished slack in the edge one on the spot straight in front and one to the right on a similar spot next to some pads. Around 2.00 a.m. the rod in front absolutely roared off, and before long I had another little stockie mirror in the net! That morning I d been sitting thinking about the smaller fish I d caught and whether the 14mm baits I d been using were contributing to them picking me up. I d been baiting with 14s and 18s so decided I should start using 18mm hookbaits to try to catch the bigger of the carp in the swim. The problem was, the 18mm cork balls didn t sit the Chod upright as well as the 14s did and I wasn t overly happy with the finished presentation. For this reason I played about with the Multi-rig, which I had used in various different ways before, but instead of moulding the putty around the knot I left the tag end coming off the loop that goes through the hook eye and round the shank, and Off To Bedfordshire Kev Wilson The Stiff Chod, a rig that has served me well in the past. 97

5 Off To Bedfordshire Kev Wilson Looking out towards an area called The Snags down at Bedford. pinched a No.1 shot onto it, blobbing back the excess with a lighter. When I dropped this in the edge for a test it sank very slowly, and once on the bottom the hook and bait were pivoting back and forth on the shot it looked good, really good! This, fished on a Helicopter setup with around six inches of movement and the slow-sinking factor meant the rig should be presentable most, if not all, of the time and, more importantly, I could use my bigger hookbaits. Nothing happened that night and with it being set to be another scorching day the following day, it was no surprise when the carp started bow waving once again around 8.00 a.m. I left the rods in until around a.m. when curiosity got the better of me and I had to go for a look round. Surprisingly, by midday I hadn t seen a carp within 50yds of the bank anywhere there were a lot of carp out in the middle sunning themselves, but I expected to find them in the edge somewhere. I made my way back to the swim for refreshments, and on passing The Pots I saw two of the small mirrors. I d been baiting the swim so I figured that if they were going to go anywhere looking for food it would hopefully be the areas I d been priming. I put the rods back out with last night s baits on in order not to arouse suspicion about the bait that had gone in the previous day. No action again that night and with a Ben woke me the next morning, peering round the bivvy announcing he had Scaly in the net nice one! 98 Looking out at the view from the famous Headland Swim, and it was lashing down. Looking out from the Grassy, another area where I used to watch them as they got active in the sun. clear sky and high temperatures it wasn t long before the carp were hitting the surface for the third day running that week. I wound in around mid-morning for a wander to see if I could find them in the edge anywhere, but the majority of the fish were still hung out in the middle. My mate Lee was due down that afternoon to fish on Pit 1 and said he would pop in to see me before setting up. He arrived while I was standing up in the car park area and, after seeing all the fish, he decided to fish Pit 2 in the The Headland next door to me. First light saw me waking to another blank night. The carp continued to charge about on the top until midday when I left them to it, baited up, and headed back to Leicester. I always keep my eye on the 14-day forecast on Met Check and the predicted low pressure front and southeasterly that were forecast the week previous were about to hit the coming weekend. Making the extra effort to get my kit ready Saturday night meant I was at the lake by 9.00 a.m. the following Sunday. The Headland was already occupied by Ben and he soon filled me in on the weekend s occurrences. After setting up I tied up a few bags of boilies and chucked them onto showing fish. One of the originals, Scaly, kept showing in front of me in the deeper water, and although I landed a bag right on its head, nothing

6 Kev Wilson gutted, and I slipped the common (around 20lb) back and had a bit of a sulk! The next morning I was again awoken by Ben peering round the bivvy saying, Kev, Kev! He was buzzing like a pylon and ran back up to his swim, leaving me to wipe my bleary eyes and make sure I wasn t dreaming! On entering his swim, there was The Mother sitting in his net in the edge. A big Well done and a handshake followed if anyone deserved this fish it was him, virtually doubling up on the lake s stock beforehand! We then set about getting everything ready, putting my mat on top Boy, did I drink some tea of Ben s for extra comfort, over at Bedford in fact I before setting about doing There nearly wore out the kettle! what needed to be done. really is no thing lose it as my line was On the bank the fish like seeing pointing straight absolutely blew me your targe t away its pecs and tail down the shelf, in the flesh to spur you yet the fish was are massive and along on, and m boiling in open with the stunning y desire to water luckily my scale pattern, this fish catch this stunning line was just stuck looks like one angry carp had in the weed on the mirror! The needle was just grown shelf where it had pulled round to 45lb tenfold at least! been sitting slack, and 10oz and we set about a bit of pressure from a getting some good shots. I different angle soon freed know I ve said this before, but it. Before long it was obvious the there really is nothing like seeing fish was a common, so I started playing it a bit your target in the flesh to spur you on, and harder I wanted to get it in my desire to catch this stunning carp had just the net as quickly as I could grown tenfold at least! to hopefully avoid spooking Ben s capture of The Mother had left me the big fish which had shown with a problem was I to fish on for the other beforehand out of the area. originals in the lake or should I leave the However, this carp was place alone for a bit until I felt The Mother having none of it and just would make another appearance? I decided kept powering out before to concentrate on a days-only lake with some finally Ben slipped the nice fish closer to home for a few weeks until net under it. On looking it felt right to go back. into the net I could With little to show for my efforts on the see two baits hanging days-only water and with it being nearly a off the carp s cheek. month since Ben had caught The Mother, Closer inspection I drove through the pouring rain back to The Choddy hooks have served me revealed the hook Bedford, knowing full well that the forecast well over the last had pulled out low pressure system and high winds were spot couple of years. during the fight on conditions for it. and gone into I arrived at the lake just as it was getting its cheek. I was dark around 8.00 p.m. and there wasn t a bivvy in sight. I sat in the van for what seemed like forever, waiting for the rain to stop. By 9.00 p.m. it hadn t eased at all. and I was starting to get frustrated! Luckily, around p.m. it stopped and I was finally able to make my way round to The Headland. As I didn t know where the fish were, I figured this swim would give me the best view of the lake and I could move onto them from here. I put a couple of rods out on some spots on the shelf and got my head down. Morning soon came and as I sat supping my first brew, the odd carp started showing out in the middle again. The wind was blowing a pretty strong westerly over to the far side of the lake, but the carp were hanging off it for some reason, and did so for the rest of the day. I stayed put that night, putting the two rods back on the spots from the night before Here is the modified version of the Multi-rig I used to target The Mother. Note how I have pinched and chucking two bright singles as far as I a No.1 shot onto the tag end of the loop-knot, rather than mould putty around the knot itself this could. No action to the rods overnight and gives the rig increased flexibility and in my opinion, greater hooking potential. If you look closely by 7.00 a.m. they were happily putting on a you can also see that I have blobbed the tag end with a lighter to hold the shot in place. display out in no man s land again. On my Off To Bedfordshire happened and it stopped showing. Ben woke me the next morning, peering round the bivvy announcing he had Scaly in the net nice one! I went round to do the necessaries with the camera and help him weigh it, and to see this carp in the flesh for the first time a strange-looking carp in shape, but one of the true old Pit 2 characters, and, more importantly, this carp gets braced a lot with The Mother, which Ben desperately wanted to catch. It went 34lb+ and, after a few shots, it was returned none the worse for its ordeal. There were still fish showing in front of me, so with nothing occurring and the spot I d been baiting now feeling really clean, I changed over to a double bottom bait rig to see if that would bring me a take. The day slipped away and was followed by a good night s kip for me again, but, on speaking with Ben in the morning, he had caught a stockie and lost one and there were still fish about. Around a.m. one of the other lads, called Scott, who was fishing on the far side, came round for a brew he had also been getting action from the stockies in the darkness. Around a.m. Scott saw a large pale fish as he described it, bosh a couple of rod lengths behind the rod down to the left. Ten minutes later, that rod absolutely rattled off and I was into what felt like my first decent Elstow carp. At first my line was stuck round something and I was really worried I was going to 99

7 Off To Bedfordshire Kev Wilson phone the weather forecast showed the wind changing to a southwesterly today hopefully this would kick them into moving. Around the same time the wind began to swing, which was about 2.00 p.m., a chap appeared on the far bank with a little white dog, right in the swim I fancied the fish to turn up in if they did move onto the new wind. Sitting watching the water I desperately hoped one wouldn t show until he d gone. The chap stood there for ages and, literally just as he turned his back to walk off, a good carp showed in front of the swim he had been standing in. Hoping he hadn t seen it, I nervously watched him walk back towards the car park. After a rather nervous half-hour he hadn t reappeared so I began frantically packing away my stuff to get round there. It must have been around 4.00 p.m. when I was pushing my barrow towards The Grassy. I stopped in the swim to have a look around but really couldn t decide whether to go in there or in The Decoy a bit further along the bank. The wind was hitting The Decoy a lot more when I strolled up there so that s where I set up, with a plan to fish one rod down in front of The Grassy just in case. This rod went out first towards the bottom of the shelf in 27ft of water around 50yds out, with around half a kilo of 18s painfully put out one by one with the catapult the wind was strong, to say the least. The two rods I had on bright singles were again blasted as far as I could towards the middle. Just as the marker float hit the water for the last rod, there was a massive splash 20-30yds behind where it landed I didn t actually see the fish but I was sure it was a carp that had caused the splash. I found a smoother area, again towards the bottom of the shelf, and the float popped up at 28ft. After five or so casts I was becoming a bit unsure as to whether the spot was actually clear because I wasn t feeling much as the lead hit the bottom. The wind wasn t helping as it was now really gusting with white froth forming in the edge and floating about on the wind! On the next cast I pulled the lead back a bit as it hit the clip/water and followed the lead down with the rod a lot more slowly than before smack! Again, half a kilo was catapulted tightly around the float. It had been a rush to get the rods in but I settled down for the night, well happy with what I d done. I awoke at first light to the wind still hacking into me, but it wasn t until around a.m. that I saw my first carp, which was worryingly halfway back over towards The Headland. I just hoped they weren t backing off it. One of the lads I fished with over at Linch Hill Craig The Wedge (as we call him!), lives in Milton Keynes and was keen to come and have a look at the place. He phoned around 1.00 p.m. for me to direct him into the complex and where to park, etc. Just after he stepped out of his car, the last rod I had put out screamed off and I left him to find his way round to me. The fish felt heavy in the deep water and was darting here, there, and everywhere, taking line in the process. After about five minutes of trying to keep it up in the water away from the snag-ridden bottom, the carp boiled on the surface then did a familiar dolphin-type show I was sure it was Scaly I was attached to, and before long my thoughts were confirmed as she slid over the net cord. I was buzzing, and after securing the carp in the edge with a bankstick I rang Craig. It s Scaly I ve got Scaly! I shouted down the phone at him! A couple of minutes later, Craig was in the swim, grinning nearly as much as I was! With everything prepared I placed Scaly on the mat before unhooking and placing her in the weigh sling. The needle went round to 36lb 8oz. Luckily, I had tied a few rigs that morning so it was quickly changed over, the rod walked out to the mark on my line and clipped up. I was just about to make my first cast when the left-hand rod down in front of The Grassy let out a few bleeps before the tip bounced round. Straightaway the fish didn t feel as powerful or as heavy, and before long a small stockie mirror was in the net. I was a little shocked at catching a stockie from this depth of water because they normally come from shallower spots. The carp was quickly unhooked and returned before I got back to the matter of getting the rod on which I d had Scaly back out. I had to quickly nip to the van to grab a pack of hooks, and on the way I bumped into Big Dan. When I told him the news his first words were, The Mother won t be far away! Back in the swim I got the rods sorted and sat with Craig, who had the afternoon off work so stayed around for a bit, and on our third or fourth cuppa, the rod that produced Scaly let out a few bleeps before the rod tip pulled down and the line pinged out of the clip. I leant into what felt like another heavy fish, with this one seeming a lot more What a Mother it is one awesome beast of a carp. Job done, time to move on again. I really wanted some water shots, but I knew the photographer needed to be in the water to get any decent shots, so I left Craig with the waders and made my way into the water fully-clothed A right result, Scaly at 36lb 8oz, a real Pit 2 old un. 100

8 deliberate in its movements it was kiting left pretty fast, and before long was through one of my other lines, which Craig thankfully sorted and got out of the way before donning the waders. The fish was now up on the shelf, probably 30yds away from me on the top and I had a pretty good idea which one it was! I hate the surface-type battles and was worried about the hook pulling, so I slowly started moving backwards and told Craig to make his way towards the fish. Thankfully, it went in the net first time. Is it, is it? Craig turned round with a big grin on his face, saying, It s The Mother, mate! For some stupid reason I flung my rod into the reeds (I don t know why!) before running around like a headless chicken, shouting Mother! I left Craig in the water looking after the fish before legging it up to Pit 1 to fetch Big Dan and Jon. On our return, Craig had managed to retrieve the stupidly thrown rod and once I d got everything ready I brought my prize onto dry land. Once I d unhooked him and got the rig out of the way I slipped him into the weigh sling before hoisting him up on the scales, which were already on the net pole. I left the honours to Craig, who said it was 46lb on the button, before we set about getting some shots of the beast. I really wanted some water shots, but I knew the photographer needed to be in the water to get any decent shots, so I left Craig with the waders and made my way into the water fully-clothed I had spare clothes in the van and wanted the best shots possible to remember the moment. All the shots came out sweet and I set The Mother on his way! I stayed on for the last night, hoping for Epaulettes or one of the other remaining originals, but nothing happened, so I packed up, a happy man, heading back to Leicester with a huge grin on my face, still a bit shellshocked from the previous afternoon s occurrences! One of the lads I met down there, Scott, is in the process of starting his own company, doing pencil sketches of anglers with their prize catches, and he offered to do me one of The Mother which, as you will see from the picture, has turned out great cheers fella! If anyone else is interested in getting this sort of thing done then Scott can be contacted at scottyyoung@hotmail. co.uk or the website: Before I sign off I d like to thank a few people for helping to make this the season it was Ali and co. at Korda, Lewis at Gardner for your continued support with tackle, Uncle Ian at CC Moore for the bait sponsorship, help and support it is all greatly appreciated, Craig The Wedge, Jon Knight and Big Dan for making The Mother moment what it was, Julie at Linch Hill for giving me my ticket back, Scott Young for the awesome pencil sketch of The Mother and, finally, all my mates for their support and kind words you know who you are! Have a great KW Nice one Simon, it ll remind me of the time I spent there every time I look at it. Off To Bedfordshire Kev Wilson 101