november-2026-free-line-part-2 - Flipbook - Page 58
FREE LINE / FIELD JOURNAL
STEVE CARTWRIGHT
FIELD NOTES
If you can totally trust a bait, then for me you are 90% there, and then it
is down to your end game to make the magic happen. This is also taken
care for me by a very good mate. I ve known him for 20-odd years. He
runs a start-up business called Carp Tackle Online. Mark is a great guy,
but above anything else, he is a carp angler, so the gear he does sell is
spot-on. I am probably the fussiest person on the planet, and he knows
this. I keep things simple, but I do demand quality gear that does what it
says it does. Carp Tackle Online sells great gear at very reasonable prices
too cheap in my opinion but hey, not my biz. I started using his gear
last year probably same time as now April. I was on Monks Pit and had
27 fish out by June, so I knew it worked well.
I digress so I baited the far marginal area with around 3kg of boilies. I
was going for a boilie-only approach. I used 18mm baits and just spread
them over a dinner table size area and fished the three rods spread out
over this 6ft area. At 10.30am again, the first fish is 21lb on the nose, and
yay it is a common! That will do nicely!
Bear in mind this is a common water, and all I have had so far is mirrors.
We take a few pics, and back she goes. I m not sure on time now, but the
middle rod bangs down, and yet another fish of dead on 21lb is here a
mirror this time, and a nice scaly one too! Two fish happy days! I can
sleep now pressure off and time to grab a few hours before nightfall
nope!
Bang! Away goes the middle rod, and this one is keeping deep. We have
a dance, but line is being recovered, and five minutes later, after fight
that s more ploddish than brutal, a nice big old school common lay in the
net. Now I knew straight away it was a decent 30-plus, but one has to be
sure. I zeroed the sling while the fish was still in the net at the side of the
lake, and on the scales, it went 37lb smack-on. I'll have some of that! It s
a magical fish that s been in there years, and a true English common carp.
Happy as Larry, I am! We take some pictures, and few of the lads shake
the hand. That s what it is all about God, I love fishing. The night passes
with no action, and I go home a happy chappy.
FREE LINE
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