Tom Oliver tells of a hectic month, and some lovely carp!
June is always a busy month for me as it is the time of the year when most of the events in my competition diary take place and this year was no exception. My first outing of the month was to shoot a feature and I had chosen Bishops Bowl Fishery in Warwickshire to also give me the chance to practice for my UKCC Qualifier the following week. I won’t explain too much as it is written about in the feature but it was a tough day with the first period of hot weather and the fish had other things on their mind!!

The following week saw me return to the venue for my Qualifier and although the fish had stopped spawning the conditions did not look great with high pressure and close/muggy conditions. I seem to be extremely unlucky with draws and this was no exception as my name was the last to leave the draw-bag.

I was left to choose between two awful swims and in the end chose the one that had the most water to play with. Temperatures were well in the high teens and the swim I was fishing was extremely deep and on the back of the fresh, warm, southwesterly wind that was pretty strong.

The shallowest water I could find was 20 feet apart from within one metre of the bank where I had around eight feet. I fished a rod in each margin and one on the 20ft area as it was all I had in the open water to go on and for that reason I baited heavy with 5kg of mixed trout pellet and around 2kg of Cell boilie from Kent Particles. The first night was uneventful although a few fish were getting caught from the swims I had favoured and I was up at first light attempting to get something going on the mixers before the wind picked up.

I managed to get fish feeding but they were extremely cagey and wouldn’t go anywhere near the hook bait despite my best efforts and before long the wind had strengthened and pushed the fish well out of my water where they stayed for the remainder of the day.

Saturday night was also uneventful, but I was up and back at it with the mixers as soon as it was light enough to see. At this stage of the competition I was still only around 30lb off of a qualifying position with everyone struggling in the conditions and I knew this could be easily done with three or four off the top. I was firing out Kent Particles Salmon Oil in small solid PVA bags to help keep the breeze from moving the mixers and soon had fish taking. I was fully prepared with two rods on controller setups and one on an overdepth zig and had lots of fish confidently gulping down my mixers.

I fed the fish for around half an hour before I made my casts, hoping the fish would have grown in confidence and this seemed to be the case as they still fed confidently. Before long a fish slurped down the wrong mixer and I was finally in to a fish, although not for long as the hook pulled and I was left feeling gutted. To cut a long story short I ended up losing a total of four carp that morning which would have put me in a qualifying position and it was all due to silly little things, which made it more annoying. That’s the way it goes, though, sometimes your name just isn’t on it and if you pay your money you take your chances!

The following weekend myself and fishing partner Graham Mabey made our way to Tea Kettle Fishery in Peterborough for the annual Carp-in-4-Cancer charity carp match. We now only fish in this one particular charity carp match each year as we believe it to be the best for all of the right reasons. Everyone is there to have a good time and raise money for a good cause, there is no big prize fund as such drawing people in, just a few generous donations from the trade of varying tackle and bait items.

My run of luck continued at draw time and we were once again last out of the hat! The swim we were given was our third from bottom on the list of 21 swims and I was feeling rather annoyed to say the least. We thought hard about how to approach it and decided the best line of attack would be to fish right in the centre of the lake at around 120 yards as most other anglers were fishing around the 20 to 60-yard mark. Our thought was that the fish would hopefully push in to the middle of the lake with all of the angling pressure and we may be able to hold them there on a bed of bait.

We introduced around 8kg of bait from the off so that we would be able to leave the area quiet thereafter and as every other competitor was putting it in we didn’t think the initial noise would make much difference. Our tactic was simple, big attraction-filled solid PVA bags.  We constructed these with 4ft Gardner Heavy Plummet leadcore leaders and 3oz inline leads fished drop-off style.

For rigs we attached four inches of Trickster Heavy coupled with a size 8 Continental Mugga and a small section of silicone tube to hold the critically balanced Cell bottom bait in place. The bait was tipped with a red sequin to aid visual attraction and the whole lot was placed inside a solid PVA bag. I like to use a fine mix of pellets from fry crumb to 3mm as this helps to compress the bag and also allows me to cast them further as a result. A good squirt of the Cell stick mix liquid also leaves lots of attraction in the water and coupled with a little salmon oil it will draw fish in from varying depths in the water column.

The lake fished extremely difficult and a few people had caught but come Saturday afternoon around 25lb was leading the field. It was still anyone’s game and despite not receiving any action we stayed positive and at the top of our game as far as work rate and effort. As afternoon approached evening our right-hand rod roared in to life and Graham was on it in a flash and before long a plump 14lb mirror was coughing water in the folds of my Outreach net. The fish really lifted our spirits and we worked hard that evening and night but all was to no avail so we called it a night around 1am. Around an hour later the right-hand rod was once again singing its merry tune and Graham was once again in action with what seemed like a good fish. Our suspicions were confirmed and a 26lb scaley mirror was added to our score sheet putting us in the lead by a few ounces over the Carp Talk pair.

Just as we were returning the fish the same recast rod was rattling off at a rate of knots and I wasted no time in leading another decent fish in to the waiting net. The fish weighed 24lb and gave us a nice cushion over second place with only a few hours remaining and luckily for us no further fish were caught by anyone that may have challenged our lead. It just goes to show that if you make the best from a bad situation anything can happen, especially in the latter stages of the competition when people become tired or give up. It was a great event and with the auction and raffle at the end it raised a staggering £8,900 for cancer charities.

The following weekend I was rewarded with a break from competition fishing and returned once more to my syndicate lake with the hope of a lump or two. Upon arrival on Friday evening I found a very busy lake but a very popular swim I was yet to fish was still available and looked good for it. I introduced around 4kg of my pellet and boilie mix with a little particle from the off. The first night was quiet, however, I did lose a fish on the Saturday morning from the baited area due to a hook pull. The rest of the day remained quiet despite playing around with zigs and I had started to regularly introduce a little bait on to a marginal area 20 yards up the bank that I had seen fish patrolling regularly.

I got my rods all sorted for the night and enjoyed a BBQ with some friends and I was just checking my margin spot when one of my rods went in to melt down. My friend and fellow member Stu lifted straight in to the angry fish and I was back within seconds to take the reins. Without too much drama I was soon hoisting the fish ashore for the customary weighing and photography session.

The fish wasn't the biggest in the world at 18-12-0 but what it lacked in size it certainly made up for in beauty and after getting some nice shots the fish was returned and I settled down for the night. I was awoken by a small chestnutty common of 14lb in the early hours and lost another one at around 8am from the baited area before the fish decided to start sunbathing again. I gave it until around 11am then packed everything away bar one rod and the bare essentials. I had checked the spot and it was devoid of bait and double the size it was the previous day with fish visiting the spot regularly looking for more food. I used a 2ft Plummet leadcore leader with a 3.5oz flat pear inline lead fished drop off style. The short 4in Trickster rig that we used in the charity match was again the choice for the job in hand although rather than using a sequin for attraction on the Cell bottom bait I used a 12mm pink Cell pop up that had been trimmed to around 8mm.

On arriving back at the spot there were already fish feeding on the few handfuls of bait I had put in before I packed up. I waited patiently for the feeding fish to move off before I lowered in my rig so as not to spook them and it seemed like an eternity even though it was probably only around eight minutes. Everything went to plan and I managed to get my rig in place without arousing any suspicions and they were soon back feeding on the spot. I stood as still as a statue in the baking sun for around five minutes before a small common started to violently thrash before charging off in to the lake. After a spirited battle a 17.12lb common was in the net and after doing the pics and returning the fish I attached a fresh rig and returned to the spot. There were still fish visiting and feeding so I repeated the process and placed my rig on the back edge of the spot as this was where most of the fish were approaching the spot from.

It took a lot longer on the second time around for the fish to feed with confidence as I felt they seemed a little on edge from one of their mates being caught! It was after an hour or so of cooking in the midday sun that a group of nine fish visited the spot and started to feed with confidence. I knew this was my opportunity if ever there was one and one particular common was bigger than the rest of his mates. After a few minutes five of the fish left but fortunately the bigger common stayed and fed with confidence as adrenaline rushed through my body as he neared the hook bait.

After a few more minutes it finally happened and I saw the big common pick up my hook bait before violently shaking its head and I actually saw the inline lead discharge from the leader at this point. The next thing I remember is my clutch going in to meltdown as the fish charged in to open water sending a mass of bow waves with it as his companions also fled the scene.

A mate came to help with the netting as it was giving me a right run around and almost made it around a corner to my left but by wading out I managed to turn it just in time. After a few last bursts of energy in the edge my mate Rich scooped the fish up and confirmed too that it was a good common of over 30lb.

The fish looked stunning on the mat and weighed 32.14lb – not that it mattered. It had given me an incredible rush of adrenaline and a fight I will never forget, not to mention the sunburn I am going to have for the next month to remind me! That wraps up my fishing this month but next month is set to be a busy one with the BCAC semi-finals and a few more trips down the syndicate planned.

Until then, tight lines

Tom Oliver