James Pierce reflects on the capture of the famous Wellington Ulcer.
After joining Wellington Country Park last June, I discovered that you were able to book a five night session once a year at the venue. With this in mind and knowing all about the spring at Wellington, I aimed to book my session for sometime around the end of April or beginning of May, depending on what was available.

Back at the beginning of the year, I received a call to say that Monday May 6th would be the start date of my trip, so I was pretty happy with that indeed. I then hatched a plan to fish the three weekends leading up to my session, with the fourth weekend back at home and then the following Monday would be the start of my trip.

Living 120 miles away from the lake, it was key to fish the three weekends leading up to the five nighter. The aim was to locate the carp and keep track of their movements, and also to introduce my bait into the lake and get the carp eating it.

The three trips were in the end pretty successful, and I managed to bank seven carp to 45lb.

The long awaited trip soon came around, and I found myself trundling down the M3 at 1am, with my cousin Dale Rook in tow. He was coming down to accompany me for the week, and would be on hand to take some pictures and film some bits at the lake. Incidentally it worked out really well because we got the whole session recorded on camera, so it was a pretty special week indeed.

After arriving at the gates just before 2am, we pulled into the car park to be greeted with just seven cars occupying the spaces, which was pretty quiet for a May bank holiday weekend. Without wanting to disturb the other anglers, we waited in the car park until first light before taking a walk around the pond. The barrow was soon loaded and at around 5 am we set off around the lake.

In my previous three trips, I had seen a lot of fish activity in an area renowned for spring captures, so my first choice was to secure a swim in this area, then have a move if necessary. After a few of the other anglers that were fishing had woken up, it was clear to see that not a great deal had been out and the swim we were looking at was on an eight night blank.

As the morning went on, the sun began to rise and the sky was without its clouds. I checked the weather on the phone and we were due some strong southwesterly winds midway through the trip. At this point, I decided to take a gamble and go with the swim that was on the eight night blank. This was because the weather that was coming in was pretty decent for this particular swim, and having caught out of it in previous weeks, I was confident of nicking a fish in these conditions.

By 10am the swim had become free and we were able to set up camp and prepare the rods and bait ready to go out on the spot. By late afternoon everything was settled, the sun was blazing and with the lake flat calm. It was easy to spot the odd cruising carp that drifted on by. Things looked promising in the swim on day one, but the following night went without any action and we woke up to motionless bobbins on day two. 

After having an armada of Tuffties and Coots on my spot, I decided to Spomb out another 5kg of bait to top up the spot.

Nothing happened throughout the day, but the weather was beginning to turn and we started to see a few shows in the usual areas by late evening. In the early hours of day three, the Delkim signaled a take and we were soon into our first Welly carp.

The fight was immense and the fish just charged around out in front of the swim like a bull on a leash, then 10 or so minutes later, a motionless dark Welly mirror slid over the net cord, exhausted from his best efforts to get away. We quickly unhooked and weighed the fish, with the scales settling on 34lb 14oz. The fish was then transferred into a retaining sling so that we could do some pictures and filming at first light.

Day three went without any more joy, but the birds were back and eating more than ever. Later that evening I spombed out another 5kg of bait to top up the spot, but again on day four we woke up to motionless bobbins. I had seen a few shows early on in the morning, but by late afternoon nothing had occurred in the swim. The birds however hadn’t been back to the spot that day, so I decided that no more bait was needed that evening.

At 1am on Day five we were awoken to a series of bleeps, which inevitably turned out to be a take. The bobbin was sat tight up in the alarm, so I picked up the rod and bent into the fish. The fight lasted about three or four minutes before the fish ended up cutting me off on a underwater obstacle... devastation.

The rest of the morning went without any more action, but we did see a few more fish and the wind had really picked up by now. At 1pm on Day 5, one of the rods tore off and we were soon into another fish, with my cousin filming the whole thing from the bank, it was key to get this one in the net because it was a daylight capture and we could get it all on tape. The fight maybe lasted for around 10 minutes and it replicated the 34lber in every way, charging around in the front of the swim and rolling on the line to try and shed the hook. A minute or so before it went into the net, the fish rolled over and I noticed the ulcer on the side… I knew what fish it was, the Ulcer fish.

My mood soon changed and excitement took over, knowing that I was potentially playing a 50lb+ fish 10 yrds away. Those last 60 seconds were the slowest 60 seconds ever, but without fail, the fish dropped in over the net cord first time.

A few jumps of joy later, we got the fish out and unhooked it on the mat, before weighing it on a couple of sets of Reuben Heaton scales, which in the end settled on 51lb 8oz -  A new UK Pb for me and a top weight for this fish too.

But what a carp! After some bank pictures and water shots, the carp was returned to the lake to fight another day. The rest of the trip went without action, but the drive home was a very pleasant one!