The month of April 2010

Solar consultant Simon Crow has been having a romping good time of it lately, banking carp from both the north and south of the UK, including the prestigious Black Eye from Chad Lakes’ Home Pool. The capture of the legendary fish took Crowy into an exclusive club by becoming only the fifth angler in the world to land carp of 50lb or more from four different countries (we should add that Solar’s consultants make up three of the five anglers in this little clan, the others being Steve Briggs and Alijn Danau).

Crowy takes up the story about his run of good form: “I know full well that in the spring you need to put your faith in a really attractive bait, and there’s really only one choice here and that’s Club Mix. I did ever so well on this bait last year in the early part of the season and I had no reason to change. I didn’t do much fishing during the winter time, but once the equinox arrived I went at it all systems go. My first session out for the year was a short over-nighter to Chestnut Pool in Hertfordshire for an Open Access Waters feature in Carpworld magazine. It was just manic, and in the end I had to reel in for the night because the action was just none-stop. Wherever I put bait it went, and in the end I gave up counting how many fish I caught. The best wasn’t massive, only around 18lb, a pretty scaley mirror, but it was a great way to kick the Spring off."

"Next step was The Willows syndicate in West Yorkshire where the Clubs really worked very well for me. The lake received a healthy stocking of smallish carp around 5lb during the winter and I expected these to be a bit of a problem. However, the Clubs singled out the lake’s better fish for me without giving me any problems with the nuisance fish. I kicked off with a cracking common of 26lb, followed by mirrors of 24lb, 24¾lb, 25lb, 25½lb, a couple of 26s, a 26¾lb, a 34lb, a 35¾lb, a 36lb, and a 36¾lb, plus a rake of doubles and low-20s."

"If that wasn’t enough, I also booked myself onto the famous Home Pool at Chad Lakes for a few days, only to find myself attached to the lake’s biggie Black Eye just six hours into my trip! A single 20mm Club was all it took, fished over a few handfuls of freebies and pellets. The great fish is a regular 54lb-plus carp so when I had it in the net I was chuffed to have joined fellow Solar consultants Steve Briggs and Alijn Danau as having caught 50s from four different countries. It didn’t end there though, the lake contains no more than thirty carp and in the three nights I fished there I also chipped in with a low-20 mirror, another of 23¾lb and the lake’s Big Fully at 28¾lb, all on the Clubs! It was great fishing at a truly wonderful lake! I’m now itching to get back out and hope that May is equally as rewarding!”

All of Crowy’s fish came to rigs comprised of our very own X-Wide Gape hooks with leads presented on Solar lead clips with matching tail rubbers.