Autumn’s Harvest - By Tim Denyer

For me there is nothing quite as impressive as a big common, trouble is that I had been carping for well over twenty years and had never managed to land one above thirty from the UK. When I was offered a ticket for the syndicate lake at Catch 22 I finally felt that I had been presented an opportunity that offered a realistic chance of catching one. I have had my ticket for three years now and over that time I have fallen in love with the place.

To give you a little run down on the water, it is a beautiful, tree-lined gravel pit ofa round six acres in size. There are lovely deep margins with over-hanging trees and the odd open water featuresincluding a few sets of pads and bars. Whilst I hadcaught one or two from these pads and bars I felt I should have had more so generally avoided them whenever at the lake in recent times.

The lake itself is not far short of Norwich, some 125 miles away from my North Nottinghamshire home. If it was on my doorstep you’d not be able to keep me away from the place but the two and three quarter hour drive has limited my fishing somewhat. I have caught, or at least had action, on most of my trips over there but struggled to get amongst the better fish. I wasn’t overly bothered about this as I figured that if I was getting action it was only a matter of time. Even so, it comes to a point when you start to wonder!

From the off I was told that most fish came out of the margins over small patches of bait and whilst I had taken a few fish to 28lb and ounces fishing like this, I had found the fish could be taken over bait in open water at certain times. In summer 2006 Graham Slaughter and I had decided that it was time to change our bait and was fortunate to be offered some samples of Solar gear by Martin Locke, naturally we jumped at the chance. A couple of days later, a box arrived and I was pleased to find about 15k of BYT in a mixture of sizes with some pop-ups and wedges to boot and a similar amount of Club Mix. You know what it’s like, you have to have a smell and a play and if it ain’t too bad a taste too! Club Mix needed no introductions and I had no qualms about using that at all. BYT was new to me and having had a sniff and a taste I have to say I was intrigued. I had been on Robin Red/fishmeal based baits for a few years and always done well but for once I thought I fancied a crack at something a bit different so Graham opted for the Club Mix and me the BYT so I froze half of it and set off for a two-nighter with the rest.

The weather was fairly cool for August, so figuring there was a chance of a fish or two, I was hoping for a good swim. On arrival the car park was pretty rammed with four or five on the syndicate lake, this was not good news. As it was our first trip for a while we flipped for swims. Graham as usual chose well and opted for a nice little corner swim called Wonky. I went one to the left in Back To Back.

Neither of these were first choice swims but the obvious swims were all occupied so that was that.

Diagonally left of me there are the main pads on a gravel bar with open water to my right; the bar peters out straight in front. Further down to my right is a swim called Willows, it was vacant and to be honest I was wondering if I shouldn’t have dropped in there and targeted a set of pads on a close in gravel bar that I had a couple of takes off the last time on. Not being one to let an opportunity slip by I decided to cast one up to these pads and wait until it went dark to bait up - just in case anyone dropped in there for the night. I actually ended up pinging two rods over there, one either side of the bar a yard or two short of the pads and where the gravel meets the silt. Although I had not fished like this before on the water I am a firm believer in the theory that you can often get more takes from spots when your lines are entering the baited area from a different angle to what the fish are accustomed to, especially on relatively small waters like this where the fish see a lot of lines. The third rod was put just short of the main pads at the foot of the bar, not a spot I have much confidence in to be honest. I only put a handful of bait on this rod. All lines were back leaded but fished fairly tight.

First taste of action!
Rods out, bivvy up and kettle on… yeah I know it’s a cliché but there is simply nothing better than that first cuppa of the session. I saw nothing at all that evening as I nervously waited to see if anyone turned up in the Willows. Luck was on my side and at 10pm I had a wander up and put a hundred baits on each rod and settled in for the night. At some time around 1am I was up out of bed with a rod in hand, still drowsy and destined to lose what looked like a scraper-twenty on my middle rod. Gutted – yes! But happy to know that I had hooked a fish on BYT on my first trip out.

Twenty minutes later, same again but this time on my right-hand rod and this one felt better. Carp 2 - Tim 0. I always mark my lines with power gum and cast to the line clip on my reels, so without any further drama I cast both rods back out and fired another two hundred baits in by the moonlight and sat up for an hour or so. I was just ready to turn in again when I saw the right-hand rod start to hoop round. I hit it before the buzzer went off and managed to turn the fish before it really knew what was happening! A slow, plodding fight gave me hope of a good fish.

I played it for a good ten minutes under the rod tips before I slipped the net under a peach of a common which looked every bit a thirty. I knew it was a pretty special moment so I left it where it was and walked up and got Graham out of bed. I’m good like that! Graham is generally useless at guesstimating fish sizes and didn’t sound hopeful. Fortunately he was true to form and the scales settled at 33lb exactly. Result! A new PB common and first fish on BYT! I can’t remember the last time I felt as happy as I did when I slid her back; a thirty-plus common has been my Nemesis for ages but not any more. Being Northern we had a celebratory cuppa and reminisced for a while as it came light and being a fairly lazy Northerner it was the first sunrise I’d seen for a while too!

I flicked the rod back out at first light, dropped a few more baits out and took stock of events so far. Three takes on your first night on a new bait? I was pretty confident that the change was a good one. With breakfast out of the way, I sat back relaxing. It must have been about ten o’clock when the right-hand rod rattled off. It took me by surprise, I wasn’t expecting any more action until nightfall. This fish was angry and fought like stink, the sort of fight that you only ever get from a low to mid-twenty. Imagine my surprise when another good fish popped up on the surface. It turned out to be the much sought after Leather and at 31lb I was well chuffed!

We nipped off the lake for a couple of hours late morning as it’s good to give the swim a rest. You can often catch more by having a few hours away. The fish feel safe and often drift back in, especially if everyone else has left their rods out all day. Things couldn’t have gone better, but on my return I was disheartened to find one of the members setting up in The Willow... 'session over' came to mind.

I sat back, like you do, trying to be positive. The quick success on the new bait had given me a bit of a lift so I was up for the challenge. The main feature to my left had not been too kind in the past but in thinking about it had I been doing it wrong? I had been fishing hard on gravel at the base or up the slope of the bar yet putting baits on the edge of the gravel and silt had done me four takes last night. With this in mind I plumbed around for a while and found a similar spot about 6-7yds from the right-hand edge of the pads. This is where the bar ended and the silt started. I put my two rods within a yard of the marker and decided to go in a bit heavier with the bait. I spodded about 5kg in total, a mixture of BYT Wedges and boilies. The fish were clearly liking it so I figured I’d try and draw a few more into the area and hopefully fool a couple. The third rod was flicked up the margin and all three were fished a bit slacker but still back leaded.

Another PB common
As night drew in I was happy but conscious of the fact that I hadn’t got a rod on the spots that had produced. Still with two thirties out and a night to go I was hopeful. 1am was the magic hour again. I was woken by a one-toner on the right-hand rod and pulled into a heavy fish. This one came back quite easily but it didn’t half hang on when I got it closer in. Bearing in mind I was field testing some 4lb blanks for Venture I should have been able to dictate a little more than I was. Don’t get me wrong, the rods are awesome… but somebody should have told the fish on the other end!

After twenty minutes of deep lunges and powerful runs I slid the net under another good common. I turned my Petzl on for the first time and looked down. I remember thinking "Now that IS a big common". It felt a bit surreal and I was slightly embarrassed to have to wake Graham up again but what else could I do? It wasn’t until we got the fish on the bank that it dawned on me I had done another PB common. Although I didn’t realise it was the lake's biggest resident common, the needle on the scales swung round and I had to pinch myself – 38lb12oz. What a corker! Not all big fish are beautiful but this one was! I still can’t believe it now, almost twenty five years after I caught my first carp, years of hoping for a thirty-plus UK common and I get two in two nights?

I didn’t get back to bed that night, we just sat chatting and drinking tea. It was a real special session and one that was topped off with a mid-twenty mirror just before dawn. Every dog has it’s day but I can’t help but feel that finding a new bait gave me a buzz. This in turn had a knock-on effect and made me fish that little bit harder than I may have done on a typical session. All things considered, six takes producing three good thirties from open water areas over beds of bait ain’t bad on a water that some would say only does takes in the edge over small patches of freebies!

Tim