Total Carp catches up with Daren Welton for his latest blog.


Hello again, with the weather forecast a lot more favourable and finally the first signs of spring beginning to show I decided to base a couple of my short sessions around these conditions.

The trouble is with the weather being mild and some nice south westerly’s blowing in, couple that with sunny periods, everyone seems to start looking for their shorts/flip-flops and carp rods!!

What was only a couple weeks ago on the waters I target, deserted banks and the freedom to go anywhere has now returned to the car park having in excess of 7 to 8 cars parked in it.

I suppose we get spoilt through the colder months having the luxury of the lakes to ourselves and personally even though the fishing is a lot more challenging I certainly prefer to be out on the bank at this time of the year.

I have been focusing on the more heavily stocked local pits, trickling bait into one regularly and it’s on this one that I have focused my last few sessions with mixed results. The first one drew a complete blank with no fish sightings and not even a liner on the rods, on the second attempt I found myself with two hours before work and three hours after work on the same day. I decided to try and find the fish in the morning, bait up a few spots and then return later to see if there had been any reaction to the baiting.

When I say baiting I’m only really applying small amounts in spots that have produced fish in the past or if you like ‘known feeding areas’. When I arrived I got up the nearest tree that overlooked one such area, it’s a great view point if the fish are there and you can see right into the bay which is around 8ft deep and the water clarity is crystal.

I’ve been steadily applying Richworth’s new NV into this lake for around two months now and have witnessed some excellent responses from the fish.. just small bags and light scatterings of 10 and 14millers, also mixing in some 10mm tutti’s. I don’t know why but for some reason the tutti really works over the NV. Maybe the colour and the fishy/fruity combination works well together..

Back to fishing and up the tree, I could see a small group of commons and one mirror just above a dying weed bed in the bay, to the right of this there is a small clay area that I have seen fish feed and clean themselves on. Being a good ambush point and close to where the fish were, I decided to bait this area lightly with three small bags and around 30 baits and leave them to it and get off to work.

Back down at the lake after work and I’m straight back up that tree like a rat up a drain pipe, excitement and anticipation getting the better of me! Looking out over the spot I could see that the bait was gone with the fish now back over the Canadian, I carefully positioned one rod on the spot with a bag, the rig just a basic 6” fluro, size 8 wide gap b and my old trusty 1oz bottle Lucky Lead (see below for rig and bait shot). I must say the Leads that Andy produces are of the highest quality and some of the most unique patterns that I have ever used. They can be found at LuckyLeads.com, well worth a look.

With the rod sorted and me back up the tree (again!), I noticed that the all the commons were there but the mirror was missing and at the same moment the rod in the bay started one noting, yep the mirror had taken the bait within 5 minutes of the bait being out, I doubt the bag had barely melted considering the water temp. being  a mere -1 degrees, he was the smallest of the bunch with a few of the commons looking good twentys..

It turned out to be a lovely 19lb fish with all its nice winter colours, and I was well and truly made up with the capture considering the time limits and never really expected to catch one that quickly, but as they say you’ve got to be in it to win it and I was pleased that I had made the effort twice that day.

The only down side to this was that the remote on my camera would not function correctly and with self takes not being an option I had to do the pictures on the mat with the fish in the retainer. Never mind that’s a small price to pay when you get that kind of result.

Until next time,  Happy Hunting.

Daren Welton.