The winter of 2006 had now come to an end & on my final session on my 'bogey' water, Blackroot, I finally scraped in with a fish. I really had begun to think that I was going to come away empty handed from my winter campaign, & although I didn't exactly rip it apart, any fish from here in the winter, I considered a good result.
I had anticipated a return to the Swag, in the spring of 2007 & begin where I left off in September 2006, in the south arm. I had to admit though, it looked like I’d return to Blackroot in the summer...I hadn't given up on Kingswood, & the elusive fish that reside in this huge expanse of water, I just haven't seen any concrete evidence of fish activity. As I write, the rumours are rife that carp angling ‘superstars’ Dave Lane, my mate Wayne Dunn & Dave Mallin are in residence at the two hundred acre venue. If so, I look forward to bumping into them again. Further research however, has revealed that Wayne is actually doing his time on the car park lake at Yateley, after ‘Heather’, now that she’s regularly over 50lb, & even finding time to pursue a certain large common from a well known West Midlands syndicate water. If he does catch them, I’m sure he’ll move on to Kingswood in the summer. Good look mate - I know that if anyone can catch them, Wayne can!
For many years there have been countless numbers of rumours of large fish existing in this massive lake (Kingswood). From water skiers being attacked by huge pike to 40lb catfish & 50lb carp, the big fish stories are endless. Strange when you consider that not many people actually fish the place! Its sheer size is enough to frighten most anglers from its banks, coupled with the extreme depth variations, heavy weed in places, rude water skiers & dog walkers, & the fact that most of the fancied areas aren’t easily accessible. The lake itself is only ten minutes journey from where I live, which makes it ideal for me to keep a close eye on. I did do a short day session there in the Autumn of 2006, when the water level was extremely low, just to try & get a feel for the place. I now believe that a sustained baiting campaign in a target area would reap greater rewards. My plans for here will undergo more serious construction as soon as the summer of 2007 arrives, & I already have a few ideas up my sleeve...These fish have almost certainly never seen a hook, so I’ll not concern myself with using complicated rigs & expensive bait, just something sturdy & reliable, & that I have lots of confidence in. Most of my fishing involves the use of backleads. Here they will only be used if water skiers are in the area I’m fishing, as these fish will have very little experience of being fished for, coupled with the fact that indication will be difficult enough without creating more line angles, as most times its like fishing the sea - generally, you have to keep your rod tips high to keep your lines over the breaking waves! A good strong hook attached to a tough hooklink & a sturdy snagleader should be enough to extract these fish from their snaggy home. I know for a fact that Kingswood will receive more carp angling attention in the next twelve months, than it has ever received. I saw a couple of bivvies on there early last season, & I’ve made no secret of the fact that I will pay it some further attention this year, so even if some guys are keeping it quiet, I’m not! During my time on Blackroot, a lot of anglers have asked me about it, & the buzz in the carp world is definitely getting stronger…
The last weekend in April saw me return to an old haunt of mine - Pool Hall in Wolverhampton, in order to hear what my Delkims sounded like again! The lake had now been divided into two; a ‘runs’ water containing smaller carp, & the better fish were resident in the ‘specimen’ lake. I set up on the canal side of the specimen lake, anticipating plenty of action, but after I had been informed that the fishing had been pretty slow, & that they’d spawned the week prior to my arrival, my anticipation soon dwindled away. I placed three ‘chicken sticks’ at varying ranges in silt in three - four feet of water, & spent much of the afternoon scanning the lake for fish activity. The evening passed without event & I retired to the bivvy for some much needed shut-eye. A 19lb common put in an appearance to a guy on the opposite bank at around 2:00am, & the carp were crashing & rolling everywhere. I was amazed that only one fish had been caught. I drifted back off to sleep after the commotion on the road bank & was woken around 5:45am to a one-toner on my right hand rod. After a short, spirited fight I put the net under a nice looking common of 12lb - not what I was looking for, but gave me some extra confidence in the new rig (that I’d developed for using at Blackroot), as the hookhold in the bottom lip was solid! I took a couple of token pictures before slipping the fish back & recasting the rig back to where it had come from. Nothing further happened, & as I reeled in the rigs to head off home, the reason why the carp were feeding & not getting caught became apparent - each of the three rigs came back with fresh bloodworm wrapped around the bends of the hooks. They’d been in a feeding frenzy all night, for sure, but on the little red perils!
Again, I drifted between Blackroot, the Swag & Kingswood, to keep an eye on fish movements, whilst planning my next venture. I struggled to spot any real fish activity until a warm spell in the early weeks of May, where right on cue, the carp became visible on the surface at Blackroot. I had also gradually begun introducing my chosen bait into ‘the root’, reasoning that the carp could safely feast on it without finding a sharp implement attached to one of them! Originally, I hadn't intended fishing there until June had passed, as I’d allow the initial fascination of the place to wear off from the locals, but if the opportunity presented itself, I would consider fishing it right at the start of the season.
I have two target fish for this year…Top of my list is 'Cookys Common' from Blackroot, at around 26/27lb, & then there’s the 'Koi' from the Swag that’s around the low 20lb mark - two stunning fish. Rig wise, I'm more than happy with the effective hooking arrangement that I believe I have perfected, along with a silt lead type set-up. I was now chomping at the bit to see what the Blackroot residents would make of it! The rig I have now settled on for much of my fishing is hardly ground-breaking, it just serves its intended purpose. I don't want to get bogged down wondering whether it's mechanically sound or not, I just need to have 100% confidence in it. I can think of a few times when I’ve caught fish on it, whilst those around me have blanked, & I have belief that it has something to do with this effective rig. Without wishing to reveal to the world how it's constructed (I don't want someone else on the lake I’m fishing reaping the rewards for all the hard work that I've put into its conception), it’s basically a ‘swimmer’ rig, popularised by Rob Maylin & Roger Smith in the late 80's, using a small, but strong longshank patterned hook, & a combi-rig utilisising a mono boom section & a fine braided hooklink. This rig has come about through years of trial & error, & has many advantages over normal 'strippable' hooklink presentations. The braided section allows freedom of movement for the hookbait, & a degree of separation between hook & hookbait upon ejection. Another advantage is that the mono boom doesn't collapse, this ensures the braided section is always in direct contact with the lead. This is then fished on a silt lead set-up which I would describe as half chod / half standard helicopter style. I also use an in-line olivette behind the leadcore as a flying backlead.
On one of my evening visits to Blackroot during the middle of May I located around ten - fifteen fish in the pads area of the lake whilst beginning my baiting programme. I drifted a small handful of floaters over their heads on the prevailing wind, & the carp promptly came up to the surface layers to take them readily. I could identify one particularly clean-looking, upper twenty common that was taking floaters extremely delicately. This fish I presumed to be Cookys’ common. I duly introduced my bait into the quiet area of the lake that I’d planned to target, & left the carp to share the floaters with the mallards.
I returned a couple of days later to find carp all over the lake! They were in the pads, in front of the grass bank & swimming along the tree line of the shallows at the entrance of the brook. It was quite apparent that these fish were well aware that they weren’t being fished for. I flicked a couple of baits in front of a group of fish in the pads area of the lake, & their behaviour changed noticeably. The baits were approached with extreme caution, & were taken eventually, but they were on their guard straight away. I text Preston & informed him of what I'd seen. Later that same evening, Preston replied to my message & said that he'd seen the fish too, & had witnessed them feeding heavily in the pads. I continued visiting the lake as & when I could, to keep the baiting strategy in motion, but I was all too aware that this softly-softly approach would have to gain some momentum, around the time I planned to do my first sessions. I also now had come to realise the impact that lines, leads & bait had on these fish. Sure, all carp aren’t happy about being fished for, but these fish were super-cagey. Having relatively little experience of slack line fishing, I was becoming increasingly aware that this tactic would need to be employed. I’d thought long & hard about incorporating running leads & light indicators into my set-up, but had concerns over their anti-tangle & bite registration properties. The popular opinion lately is that a clued-up carp uses the lead to help rid itself of the hook. If this is the case, then I was convinced that a running lead set up would present a confusing proposition for such fish. Using featherweight Indicators used low to the ground would then be the order of the day. I wont adopt these tactics blindly, as I have the option of incorporating these elements into my fishing if required at a later time. I am also wary about changing a proven & effective setup that I have a lot of confidence in.
Return To Blackroot
As the season fast approached, & with the Swag fish still not putting in an appearance in the SouthWestBay, I made the decision to devote my immediate time & attention to planning my next assault on Blackroot. I headed down straight from work on Friday 15th June, & planned to fish just twelve hours through until Saturday lunch time. I arrived to find many of the sandys & grassy bank swims taken, along with one guy on the pads & one on the 35. I settled into the 'swamp', & managed to set up my bivvy before the torrential rain began. The lake had received an awful lot of rainwater during the night & that set the tone for the rest of the session. A guy on one of the sandys swims took fish of 13lb & 22lb, on the Friday afternoon (the 15th...& I thought the season started on the 16th of June...), & these were the only fish taken that weekend. During the first week of the season, the lake produced seventeen fish - with six being over 20lb, including a 25lb common from the fence. Many regulars stayed on the lake from the previous weekend until Thursday morning, & by the time that afternoon had come round there were only two people on the entire lake. Preston had been fishing the 35 swim & text me at 4:00pm to say that he'd caught. I headed straight down from work to assist in the photographing of the fish: an 18lb 9oz linear. A forty eight hour session was quickly arranged for the last days in June. There had been more heavy rainfall & flash flooding in the region during the week prior to my session, & more was predicted to come. The forecast had envisaged a constant southwesterly wind for the duration of my session, blowing straight into the shallows & the sandys. I figured with the amount of water washing natural food from the brook into the lake, this is where the carp would be. I pulled into the car park at around 4:15pm on Thursday afternoon & raced down the grassy bank, to see if anyone was on the lake. Simons peg was free, so I barrowed my gear round to the swim before anyone else arrived. I quickly got the bivvy set up before the rain worsened, & cast a single balanced tiger nut rig over a heavily spodded area of particles at medium range, on the left rod. The middle rod was cast to an area 3ft deep at around 70yds & was given a liberal dosing of fifty baits. I then launched the right hand rod towards the brook entrance with a hybrid hookbait & a three bait stringer. The wind steadily increased throughout the night, but I had no action until around 8:00am, when a ‘one-toner’ from the right hand rod had me scrambling out of the bivvy into the rain. Upon lifting the rod, the fish powered out into the middle of the lake & was soon plodding up & down the margins. After ten minutes or so, it was ready for the net & I caught my first glimpse of the unmistakeable gold coloured scales of a big common, & new that I’d finally achieved one of my long-standing goals…As I hoisted her up on the scales, I recorded a weight of 23lb 8oz, & I stood & admired the fish whilst I chuckled to myself like a little kid! After texting what seemed like the whole world to inform them of the event, I took some self-take pictures, then slipped her back into the lake, none the worse for her ordeal. I had then noticed that there were now quite a few fish in the area in front of the brook, so I decided to position all three rods in that area, to maximise my chances. I recast the middle & right rods, & whilst I was changing the rig on the left rod, the indicator on middle rod dropped back. I hit it straight away & the fish powered towards the trees on the far bank. As I clamped down hard on the spool to slow it down, the hooklink inexplicably parted. I threw the rod up the bank in disgust, & returned to setting up the other rod. Within five minutes, the Delkim on the remaining rod burst into life. Fortunately I’d got my waders on, so I jumped into the margins to force the fish out into the middle of lake. This fish was clearly heavier than the first one & when it eventually kissed the spreader block, I could see it was a good mid-twenty. At 25lb 12oz, this was my best fish from the lake to date. I gave the shout to Preston, who arrived in the afternoon to take some pictures, while the rest of the day passed without action, due to the wind turning & blowing out of the area, followed by the carp. I woke to heavy rain the following morning, & noticed the indicator on the right rod was moving up & down very slightly. Curiously I lifted the rod & wound down to the rig to find that a fish had snagged itself around a stump, thirty yards away from where I’d cast the rig! After several minutes of pulling & giving line, I had to pull for a break. Bewildered at how this could have happened, I opted to recast the rig with a running lead, in attempt to prevent the situation from reoccurring again. Five minutes later the same rod was away! I positioned myself in the margins again, & after one or two hairy moments, the fish was in the landing net. I recognised the fish instantly as ‘Humpy’, one of the great characters of the lake, & one of the originals. At 20lb 6oz, I was delighted to have caught four fish in three sessions from this very difficult venue, & all them twenties! I quickly departed the lake following the capture of Humpy, because of family commitments, but I’d learned a valuable lesson, & I felt that I’d need to employ a running lead system into my set-up on future sessions. The mechanics of how a fish can pick up a rig on a semi-fixed lead set-up, move thirty yards & only give a single bleep from the Delkim, is quite a frightening, & I was left to ponder just how many times I have received a single bleep & thought “I’ll leave it”? I still wanted to use a leadcore leader & tie the stringer to the lead, but I was concerned about the anti-tangle properties of the system, & I had to make sure that the flow of the leader through the lead was not impeded in any way. I came up with an idea which involved using leadcore leader braid, but instead of having one length of leadwire running the full length of the leader, I removed most of the lead wire core, & retained three equally spaced short lengths & glued each of them into position, to ensure that it would still be pinned down, without the excessive weight.
A stunning 23lb 8oz common
The 'Medes' fish at 25lb 12oz
The unmistakeable 'Humpy' at 20lb 6oz
Having purchased a TRAKKER SPECIMEN PIONEER bivvy, to replace the JRC OVAL PLUS that had served me so well (I'd vowed to buy a twin-skinned bivvy for the winter!), I was dying to get back out onto the banks of the lake that I felt I was starting to get to grips with. My next session was a short overnighter planned for Friday 13th July (I'm not superstitious...!), & I managed to get on simons peg again, in similar weather conditions to the last session. All afternoon, the carp were crashing, rolling & bubbling in front of the brook, but I spent the entire session without so much as a bleep, & wondered if perhaps I'd made a mistake by switching to the running lead system too soon. I reasoned that although I'd lost a fish in a snag on the previous session, that I'd also had a positive result by catching three good fish, & perhaps I shouldn't have changed a rig that was clearly working. The decision was made to return to the original set up, & also to begin re-introducing the food packages (four baits in a PVA web sock) when leaving the lake, in an attempt to establish my presentation through the coming months.
With a weeks holiday coming up at the end of July that coincided with the automotive industry shutdown, I was itching to fit a couple of sessions in, despite having a lot of home improvements going on at the same time. I had been warned by Preston that as the schools were on holiday too, that Blackroot was usually a nightmare with lots of kids during this period. To provide myself with an alternative venue to target, I decided to pay a visit to the Swag. After the recent heavy rainfall, the lake was still above normal levels, & the carp were now resident in the south west bay. I stood & watched them for a while before leaving to put some plans into action. My intention was to get some bait into the south west arm & monitor it closely over the week prior to my holiday. I managed to get some sort of baiting plan together, & by being able to visit the lake at least once a day, I was able to keep something going in, despite finding it difficult to see if the bait was being fed on due to the extra colour in the water. I checked the weather prior to my twenty four hour session, & the forecast predicted a continuous north westerly wind during the period of that time, this meant that the wind would be blowing straight into the south arm & I decided that this was too good an opportunity to miss. I Arrived around 9:00am, Monday morning & barrowed my gear down the narrow overgrown path that led to the south arm, & set up swim three down from the end of the arm. I checked the areas where I'd been introducing bait & they were all clear. I positioned the right hand rod to a gravelly marginal spot & fished a single balanced tiger nut over a bed of hemp & corn & a handful of tigers. The left rod was fished just off the bush on a single bottom bait over a bed of hemp & corn, along with ten freebies. I placed the third rig - a standard bottom bait - at thirty five yards range on a clear silty area that I'd located with the marker rod, & this received fifty baits in an attempt to hold the fish if they entered the arm in numbers. Despite the wind pushing into the arm, nothing stirred until around 9:30pm when the light began to fade & the wind dropped to a light breeze. Small fish began to top, bubbles were visible & a better fish rolled close to my right rig & I eventually gave up watching the water at around 11:00pm when I could no longer keep my eyes open. I was continually kept alert by occasional single bleeps which convinced me that the carp were now in the arm. At just after 2:00am I had a one-toner on the right rod which resulted in a strike into fresh air. Confused at what had just happened, I regained my thoughts & repositioned the rig in the margins & clambered back into the bag. I was then dragged from my slumber some two hours later by a blazing take on the middle rod, & I felt the satisfying 'thump' of a proper fish as it powered along the right hand margin in its bid for freedom. After twenty minutes or so of a truly awesome scrap, I finally put the net under the fish. I placed her on the mat, & checked to see if this immaculate common showed any signs of being caught previously - it didn't have a single mark! At 20lb 4oz, this was my first twenty from the water & I was amazed that after over 15 years of trying to catch a twenty pound common, I'd now caught two in the space of three sessions!
20lb 4oz immaculate common
I followed the capture of the twenty common from the Swag with three quick overnight sessions during a two week period in the same swim. Apart from a few liners, I had had no indication that carp were present in the arm. I’d kept in touch with Preston who had fished a day session in Simons peg at Blackroot & had suffered the same situation as I had when I was there last; with fish cruising, rolling & fizzing over his baits, without getting a pick-up. I figured it was time to return to Blackroot, especially as the Biggun &Cookys’ Common had still to visit the bank this season. Further thoughts on the issue of having feeding fish in front of you, but not getting a take has led me to believe that the rigs were still being dragged down into the thick silt. Using a silt-lead set up that enabled the hooklink to travel up the leader whilst the lead slides away into the sludge, was successful when I used it on Simons peg last time out, with five takes in thirty six hours, which is an incredible amount action for this lake. As soon as I switched to a running lead set-up, & Preston used his standard helicopter rigs (in both cases the hooklink will be dragged down into the silt by the lead), neither of us caught. Was this just a coincidence? I resolved to get onto Simons peg again & to prove the theory to myself. The one good thing about this situation was that apart from my hit on Simons peg, no one else had caught off it, so most people were steering well clear of the swim. I got back to the swim for my usual Friday overnight session when it was again empty. Apart from one guy on the Sandys, the lake was devoid of anglers. There was a gentle breeze blowing into the grass bank area of the lake, but I knew that at some point during the evening that it would turn & blow back into the shallows. I got all three rods into position, & sat back to await events. True to form around 5:00pm, the wind swung round into the shallows & increased in speed. Within minutes, two fish had crashed out against the trees on the far bank, & the occasional carp could be seen moving along the channel. This pattern continued into the dusk, but as the light faded, so did the breeze & the lake went flat calm. I retired to the bag after the mozzies had had a good feed on me & I could stand it no more, & the rain arrived sometime around 1:00am. I was woken at 8:00am when the local nutter had arrived for his early morning dip, swimming several circuits between the dam wall & the raft. Disappointed at not getting a pick-up, I recast all three rods to find that two of them were tangled quite badly. After repositioning them, I began packing my stuff away before the rain returned. With everything packed away except for the rods & the net, I stood at the top of the bank watching the water over the next half an hour, when right on the stroke of midday, the indicator on the right rod hit the rod butt & the rod tip whipped round. Upon lifting the rod, I was bemused to find there was nothing attached. On retrieval the hooklink had been sheared clean in half, & I was left to rue what appeared to be a badly tied leader knot. I hung around for another hour or so after that episode, but there was no more action. Following that session, I was extremely concerned about the rig tangling & the hooklink parting now having cost me two fish. On reflection, I'd fished four sessions this season, resulting in six takes, with three fish landed, two lost due to badly tied knots & one fish lost in a snag. If I was going to stand any chance of catching the big common, then I could not allow these losses to continue, & although I'd got lots of confidence in the hooking effectiveness of the rig, I had some major concerns with its performance. I was convinced that the only way to prevent the situation from reoccurring again was to find another way of tying the knot joining the mono to the braided section. I played around with different hooklink materials to try & rectify the problem, & after some initial testing, I found that a three turn leader knot was enough to secure the two sections. The addition of a FOX anti-tangle sleeve & a small PVA 'sock' of baits helped alleviate the tangling situation.
One midweek evening, I paid a visit to Blackroot, finding one guy set up in Simons peg & another angler setting up on the next swim along the sandys. As I walked back along the lake I noticed there was a group of kids on the grass bank making an awful lot of noise. As I got closer, I began to realise what all the fuss was about...one of them was playing a fish & as I got closer to the group, I realised it was a carp. I stood & watched the commotion, to see how big the fish was. Their screams of “its over 30lb!" & "it's got to be 40lb!" made me fear that they'd fluked catching the biggun', & I was even more mortified when they netted a very large common. One of the lads said to me "how big do ya reckon this one is then mate?", to which I guessed it's weight at around 24-25lb. They proceeded to weigh it rather clumsily at 26lb. It was a fat bellied fish, but was in great condition. I observed his set up; a bloody cage feeder with white crumb & a boilie on a mono hooklength, small hook & short hair. I text Preston to tell him the amazing news, & continued to look around the lake. The breeze was blowing into the grass bank area of the lake, & I had to say, it looked really 'carpy'. I congratulated the young guy on his capture, & continued to explain to him how fortunate he had actually been, & it turned out that it was actually his first visit to the lake! Although I was genuinely pleased for him, I couldn't help feeling jealous of his result; after all, I'd spent all winter on here for one fish - what a weird lake this could be sometimes!
It was another three weeks until I could get back to the lake, following a two week family holiday at the end of August, during which time I was able to keep in touch with the lakes form & very little was being caught. I’d managed to fish three twenty four hour sessions, in the pads, the 35 & one up from the middle sandys, with nothing but bream to show for my efforts. My time away from the lake was spent searching long & hard to find a common thread between captures, & could only compare results between Preston & myself, that I knew were factual. I had fished around fifteen night sessions with six takes to show for my efforts, all on bottom baits, as opposed to thirteen day sessions for just one fish taken on a pop-up. Neither of us were using the same bait, & the only similarity between our presentations was the type & length of the hooklink & the size of lead. Was this the reason for the lack of action? I had always felt that I needed the weight to get the distance, along with the longer hooklink to allow for good presentation above the silt…& if everyone else was doing the same, then maybe we were systematically conditioning these fish & giving them an easy trap to avoid along with a safe, free meal? Was it time for a drastic rethink?
I managed to squeeze in a short Friday afternoon session the following week with the sole intention of trying something completely different. I stepped onto the grassy bank & scanned the lake for fish activity. It was very warm & sunny with a light breeze pushing into the shallows. As I walked round to Simons peg, a fish immediately rolled in front of the brook entrance & that was all the encouragement I needed. Within five minutes I was setting up & I was eager to see what the Blackroot residents would make of my new presentation. I’d opted to use three inch braided hooklinks, with a pop-up & the same hooking arrangement that I was used to. This was coupled with a 1½ oz Korda inline flat pear lead. My thinking behind this arrangement was that it seemed that everyone was using ten – twelve inch hooklinks & leads of 2 – 3 ounces. I figured that perhaps this presentation had been sussed, so reducing the hooklink by over two thirds would theoretically give them a much smaller margin of error. The presentation looked very odd & was completely the opposite to what I was used to seeing on the end of my shockleader! I cast all three rigs out towards the brook entrance with four bait stringers & sat back to await events. Within half an hour, the right hand rod charged off & I held on for dear life as the fish headed for the brook. After all of twenty seconds, the small size ten hook came adrift. Mortified at this loss, I assembled a new rig & put it straight back out again. The question now remained; had I cracked it? Were we being ‘done’ session after session? The answer came less than fifteen minutes later when the Delkim on the left rod burst into life. Again I clamped down on the spool as hard as I dared, & eventually the fish kited left & away from the snags. After a slow dogged fight, the fish was netted & turned out to be a pretty mirror of 18lb 2oz. I departed the lake soon after, but went home with a sense of satisfaction, knowing that I’d now got the makings of a rig that could possibly make my winter on this head-banger water.
