I've always wanted to catch a 30lb carp
from Norfolk since I can remember. I was sitting at
home thinking of what water would give me the best
chance, there was only one that sprung to my
mind, Swangey. For those that don't know Swangey it's
a lovely gravel pit of roughly 7acres with a large
Island in the middle, some lillies, gravel patches
and silt. there's roughly 100-120 carp in there with
an excellent head of 20's and roughly 17-20
30's,plus an enormous stock of bream and tench.
I think
I started fishing at Swangey in 2003, I had done
roughly 6 nights between September 2003 and May 2004
with only a lost carp and a shed load of bream and tench for my efforts. Between this time I was
fishing various waters around Norfolk and was
catching well, but my head was still stuck on
Swangey.
On the 10th June 2004 i decided to have a week down
there. I started off in the beach swim for the first
4 nights, then the point swim became free and i
didn't hesitate to move straight into it for the
last 3 night's, as this is probably the hottest swim
on the lake. I ended up with 105 tench, 1 bream and
7 carp up to 21lb12oz common. I was really happy
with the result that i just had, but was also a bit
disappointed that i didn't connect with one of the
30's.This was to be my last session on Swangey for a
while as another water was calling.
It wasn't until may 2006 that
I fished Swangey
again, this time I was more prepared and ready to
give it my all and bag one of Swangey's 30's.
The date was may 3rd 2006 and the time was 09:00,
I
was waiting for my mate Marsbar to come round as he
was coming down for the session with me. As usual he was on
time and we were soon speeding down the A11 towards
Attleborough. We got there at about 09:35, when
going down the track I had butterflies in my
stomach, then I got my first glimpse of the lake and
it looked better then ever. Swangey can be busy
at times but after looking round once it was packed, there
were only 2 available swims and one was a double
called the waterfall so we didn't hesitate in
getting in it straight away.
Right then, gear out and get set up, with bivvy up,
rods set, marker and spod set, it was time to have a
feel about. The thing with Swangey is everyone tries
to cast to the island, I wanted to be different. I
cast out the marker and started to slowly retrieve
it after a few casts I was happy on a little spot of
gravel surrounded by silt. This was where I would
place 2 rods, the other rod wasn't a problem as I
had a lovely margin to my left. Time to mix up the
spod mix which consisted of Hemp, pellet,
parti-blend
and crushed boilie.
With all the spod mix done it was
now the chore of spodding it out. I put roughly 5
kilos over the gravel patch, the margin rod would be
baited with just boilie as to try and stay away from
the tench and bream.
With all the baiting up done it was time to put out
the rods. Single leads were put on to get the
distance then clipped up and markers put on. By
13:00 all the rods were sorted with bait on all that
was left to do was wait for a swangey carp to pick
one up. I didn't have to wait long for a take, only
thing was it was a dreaded tench. By 20:00 I had
notched up another 10 tench, at least they were
liking my bait and I knew the rigs were working. At
21:00 I had a last cast for the night and put a bit
more bait out. As usual me and Marsbar sat down for
a few beers and a kebab takeaway. It was about 23:00
when I decided to get my head down. I woke in the
morning to find that the hangers hadn't moved.
Right then, time for some more bait, no sooner had
I
put more bait out the tench started on the feed
again. The rod that was baited with just boilie was
receiving the most action from the tench, typical I
thought. The wind was getting up and blowing
directly towards us, brilliant I thought maybe the
carp might get down here today. Time was getting on
a bit by now and it wasn't until afternoon when carp
started to show in the swim. By 16:00 they were
putting on a real display over the main baited spot,
but by 20:00 I hadn't received no indication. I left
it till 21:00 until baiting up again. I decided to
put 8 kilos over the main area as there were loads
of fish over that spot, and put roughly 2 kilos of
boilie on the margin spot. Rods were put out for the
night by 22:00, With kebab ordered I cracked open
another beer. After a good social I hit the sack at
about midnight.
At 02:00 i had a beep from the margin rod followed
shortly by another then
beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, I was on the
rod like a shot. After hitting into I thought this ain't no tench, after a spirited fight I netted an
immaculate common of 15lb8oz. After some photo's a
fag and a cup of tea I was soon back in the land of
nod. I awoke to find the hangers hadn't moved since
landing the common.
I stood looking at the lake while drinking my
morning cup of earl grey, when bosh then another
bosh followed by a load of bubbles over the main
baited area, rubbing my hands together I thought any
minute now Nath and one of them rods will go. A
minute passed then another followed by an hour, I
was thinking to myself is something wrong with the
presentation??
09:00 soon come round so I started to pack away
slowly, I hate packing away but was happy to have
had another Swangey carp. I started to take my gear
up to the car I was on my 3rd trip up when I heard
beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. I
shouted over to Marsbar are you in? The a reply came
back saying "it's yours again Nath".
I quickly ran down
the hill to connect with a very powerful fish and on
the first run it took 30 yards of line, in the back
of my head I was saying is this it could this be my
first Norfolk 30. After about 10mins my arm was
aching and I thought it's got to be a good un,
another couple of minutes past by and I had it in
the margins going up and down, another 5 minutes and
i had it's head up ready for the net, Marsbar netted
it first time (cheers mate).
Bumpy with his Swangey 30
On looking in the net I
said to Marsbar "what do you reckon an upper 20?" He
said "yeah I reckon so". On lifting it out he said
"no mate I reckon you've got a 30", I said you're
joking. We quickly got it up on the scales 20-25-30
finally resting on 30lb1oz,i let out the biggest
YESSSSSSSSSSSSS you've ever heard,
I've finally
done it, a Norfolk 30. After all the pics were done
and the fish was safely returned, I packed up
straight away and sped back home down the A11
listening to some very loud music!!
Just like to say a big thanks to Marsbar and Perry
for doing me proud with the pics.
