Since James Armstrong's last piece, his fishing, and life, has been absolute mayhem…in a good way.


I’ve spent two nights a week targeting the ancient Leney linear that inhabits my Cambridgeshire water. I’ve seen him a number of times. It was on a mild, springlike day that I found myself drifting around in my rickety, wooden rowing boat searching for fish. Although there’s only 25-30 carp in the water, you can often bump into them in the boat, as long as you quietly paddle along the surface.

I drifted into the normal nooks and crannies, but only saw the odd excitable pike terrorising its prey. It wasn’t until I quietly paddled up to some trees that I saw the glowing yellow of a small ghost mirror carp. I kept my distance, ensuring that I wouldn’t spook it, when a lengthy mirror appeared before me. It’s linear scales slowly lifted as it wafted its tale to hold its position mid water. I couldn’t believe it, my target fish was right in front of me. It was a special moment between the two of us and I sat statue like trying to keep as still as possible.

Not wanting to make too much disturbance I silently reversed the boat with the flick of an oar and made my way to the nearest swim. I had to fish here for the night.

I whipped up a few hinged stiff rigs and had them in position, complete with a handful of boilies, hemp and salty sea snails. I presented the hinges on Mouthtrap, which was tied to an IQ2 boom. I wanted my rigs to appear as inconspicuous as possible, which is imperative in the gin-clear water.

My leads were standard 4oz distance casting, slid onto a Hybrid Lead clip. That said, they were acting more like an 8oz or 9oz lead having been pushed into the silt with my oar. It looked perfect.

Unbelievably, the right hand rod took me by surprise and went into meltdown. The tip pulled round aggressively and latched into a scrappy fish. I was convinced that my next carp would be the linear having seen it, but when a flash of yellow hit the surface I knew it could only be one culprit – the little ghost mirror…in a way very gutted, but I know he doesn’t come out regular so had to laugh.

I concentrated on this area for the next few sessions and caught some really rare fish for the lake – unknowns in fact. There were several highlights including a couple of absolute crackers to over 33lb. My next piece includes a new PB so don’t miss it!