As Nick hadn’t fished the place before, he was after some advice leading up to the match and the word on the street was that paste was the method and that nobody had managed to do well fishing shallow there. Perhaps the challenge was on then……….
I arrived about an hour or two into the match to see Nick on peg 18 fishing the tip. As I approached him he lifted into a nice Carp and I unfolded my speci chair and took my place behind him. Soon a nice 2lb Carp was in the net and Nick told me that he had 1 on paste, a few shallow but the conker bomb seemed to be working better, pinging pellets over the top.
He re-baited his hair rigged pellet band with an 8mm skretting, wrapped it in paste so that it was about the size of a small sprout and flicked it out about 30m followed by around 8 pellets every 30 seconds over the top. Within 3 or 4 minutes the tip was twitching and another pull round brought fish number 10 to the net, again around the 2lb mark. Although the average size of fish here is said to be 5lb, Nick only caught a handful that were any larger than 3lb or 4lb while he was on the bomb but the sport was consistent and nobody else seemed to be catching much.
As I sat and watched Nick’s tip we were chatting about the possibility of catching shallow as there seemed to be quite a few fish in his peg. Then Nick pointed out the fizzing where he was feeding pellets which indicated the fish were rummaging around on the deck. The tip pulled around sharply and Nick grabbed his 10’ Shakey and proceeded to strike towards the nearby tree and slapped the tip against a protruding branch! This time it was clear that a decent sized fish was on and as it came closer he grabbed his landing net and proceeded to stab the fish several times in an attempt to net it! The fish clearly woke up at this point and gave a better account of itself but Nick won the battle having subdued it and a nice 4lb Carp was added to the keepnet. Nick joked that he was not putting on a good display of ‘how to net a fish’ and I chuckled to myself recalling the first time I saw him fish on Peartree last year and trying to land an 8lb Carp by chasing it up and down the margins with his net!
The sport continued as did Nick’s feeding although I was unsure where Nick’s far bank marker was as I had noticed that sometimes he would cast at 11 o’clock and sometimes he would cast at 10 o’clock. Also some of his casts were 25m and some were more like 30m or so. I then saw him ping pellets out about 5m further than where his bomb landed and he turned round and said ‘whoops, that wasn’t very close was it’? I laughed and told him that he should have said ‘I am spreading the feed around and searching the whole swim with my bomb to pick off bigger fish from the outside’. We had a chuckle and then his tip flew round again and once more Nick struck the rod straight into the tree. Another few fish later and his clicker indicated 18 Carp although his Shakey was taking more of a beating than the fish!
As the day wore on and the pellets kept going in, we began to see signs of fish close to the surface. I was itching to see him pick up the waggler rod and then as he pinged out a few more pellets there was a swirl followed by a few fish mouthing on the top. He placed his bomb rod onto the roost (a bush to his left), picked up the waggler rod and gave it a tug to free the rig from his roost (bush). ‘What’s the chances of mugging that fish first chuck?’ he asked as he flicked out some pellets and cast his home made styro. ‘Your chances are probably quite good if you cast the float somewhere close to the fish’ I replied as his waggler landed about 4m left of the pellets and the fish. He brought it in, re-fed and re-cast, this time a bit closer but still not on the money. The third cast was right in the middle of the swim and right on top of a very accurate pouch of pellets and the float sailed away as soon as it hit the water. There is nothing quite like mugging a decent fish off the surface! You see it, feed it and cast your bait onto it’s head and then WALLOP! Great stuff! The fish was probably 5lb plus and it was like watching a kid on Christmas morning, he couldn’t wait for his next present!
Another few fish later and the sport was as good on the waggler as it was on the bomb. Another take and as Nick was unhooking the fish he snapped his hook length in the net but 20 seconds later his rod was ready. As he picked it up the reel line got caught on his pole roller and then a bit of untwisting was required. Another couple of fish and his rig came in totally tangled, a new one was ready within a minute. Pellets were going all over the shop, his casting was unpredictable but the fish were coming in nice and steady.
This sport continued for a while and the clicker read about 28 fish before the bites became fewer and less easy to hit. Nick was striking at dips but couldn’t connect. We discussed the possible reason for this as a lot of blokes say that the dips are silver fish but we disagree. I have my own theory that I explained to Nick and this is it: when you are fishing shallow the hook bait gets to it’s maximum depth very quickly. If a carp sucks the pellet in the pellet will be stopped by the resistance of the float and therefore the dip you see is not the pellet going into the fish’s mouth but simply being sucked towards the fish. We agreed that going deeper would help but I also had a theory that the carp here might be a bit stupid having not seen the shallow approach much. I had a bet with Nick that if he went a bit deeper, left his float in place and just pinged 3 or 4 pellets over the top continuously then he would get proper takes but should not strike at dips, simply leave the rod alone and either grab it when the tip goes round or lift it when the line begins to get pulled under the surface. Most Carp take on the splash but I reckoned they would take a static, suspended bait. He gave this a go!
First chuck and the float was dipping so Nick struck. He laughed because he was supposed to leave the rod alone. Again the float dipped and again he struck. I suggested that he should keep his catapult in his hands therefore needing to put it down before picking up the rod. Next chuck and the float dipped, dipped again and then on the 3rd dip it stayed under and the line began to quickly sink beneath the surface. Nick lifted and there was a good fish on the other end. He turned around and saw me with a bit of a smirk on my face!!!
Again he tried the same thing and it was working. Simply leaving the float alone, not twitching, not striking at dips, just letting it sit there and continuously pinging pellets over the top and waiting for the float to either stay under or for the line to start tightening.
This continued for a while but the sport began to slow up. We both agreed that more feed was needed and larger pouches were now going in. The clicker read 37 fish and although Nick wanted 40 it was not to be as the whistle went to signal the end.
As I said earlier, I only intended to stay a short while but when you are sitting behind someone and discussing the tactics and changes and seeing the end results it is just too interesting to leave and I am glad I stayed to the end. There is nothing like bouncing ideas and theories off of someone else who enjoys fishing the same methods and watching Nick is also quite entertaining!
As the scales came around the clip board was showing about 80lb winning but Nick had far more than this. 37 fish at an average of about 4lb should have given him about 150lb but he was happy with the 139lb that he registered to win with a good margin.
It has been said before that Nick is a bit of a haphazard angler and I must admit that I was chuckling a few times seeing those pellets miss the mark by a few metres or the waggler being cast too far left or the tip ending up in a tree but you have to hand it to him, he does alright and we had a good laugh today.
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