We fished together last year in the WCC and didn't make the most of our swim. We took literally hundreds of kilos of particles last time but that soon proved to be the wrong choice of bait. This time we were prepared with some nicely air dried Club Mix boilies in 18mm and 22mm. We hoped the bigger baits would keep the pesky bream at bay.
There's about 130 pairs competing around the lake divided into sections. Some of the sections had a good history of producing fish and others were real no go areas. The draw was kind to us and we had an ok swim in an ok area. It wasn't a flier but with a bit of graft we had a chance doing ok.
After a bit of negotiation with the competitors either side about swim boundaries we headed out in the boat to see what we had in front of us. There was alot of weed in about 7ft of water which then dropped off quickly into 12ft. Gary put baits in a hole in the weed on the top and one at the bottom of the drop off. I headed further out and found another nice point which had 16ft on the top and 23ft at the bottom. There were fish showing on the sounder which all adds the the confidence. They could we have been bream but I figured that if the bream were feeding there then there's every chance the carp will take a look as well. The area is not normally fished so it couldn't have been anglers bait they were on. I had a silly grin on my face when I came back in the boat. Two baits on the slope of a drop off with fish showing on the sounder and proper baits on the hair. What more could I ask for?!
Through the week we had a take or two each day, always at first light or last light. These two feeding times are so common around the world yet so many anglers think it's a good time to bait up and disturb the swim. I don't know what you think?
I caught the biggest fish of the week which won biggest fish in section at 23Kg (50lb 7oz). We came second in the section and somewhere in the top 20 over all. Using the bigger dried boilies certainly kept the bream away and the carp seemed to like it more than the competitors bait either side who were not fishing far from us at all.
A real edge for us was using the running rig attachment for the lead clips. This gave the fish something else to deal with once pricked but also let us know if a bream did hook itself. So many anglers using a normal lead clip and heavy 8oz/10oz lead had no idea they had anything on until a catfish took it or they wound it in when re baiting. The lead still ejected on the take from the carp but I'm convinced fishing in this way put extra fish on the bank for us.
I'm back to fishing my syndicate lake for the rest of the year so hopefully give you an update on that soon.
Until then, enjoy your fishing.
Myles
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