Three days 18 carp and a new P.B, Some people
just have it!! - Jason "Trio" Whitehouse
Carp among the pads on Taswood Lakes
I have always been told through my life that
I seen to carry a fair amount of luck. Im not sure
this is true however the story below is one which
may add fuel to such comments.
After a year of not fishing much at all in
suddenly got the bug back for some action, I only
had a day a week for a month to go before other
commitments would end my rekindled enthusiasm.
The time of year was late October and with such
limited time I didn’t really see the point of
heading to a hard lake in search of some big girls.
So for the first few days I had available I headed
across the border to the dark side and fished at
Weybread fisheries. This is a super little water and
I soon had a bend in my rod.
The two sessions I did on the place resulted in
17 carp and 10 of these being doubles. However not
that I am complaining but I was craving something
bigger, as I said I had done much fishing that year
and really wanted something above 20lbs under my
belt. after the second session on Weybread I decided
to head down up to Taswood lakes.
I’ve heard so much about this complex over the
years, and although I live 12 miles away I had never
even seen the place!! On my arrival I was pleasantly
pleased with what I saw, the lakes looked well kept
and to my delight were almost completely empty, just
what I like.
I had decided from what I had heard about the
complex that Heron lake would probably be the best
for me. The lake contains a very large head of carp
for such a small amount of water, many of which are
around the 30lb mark. However after a good look
round the lake I was completely uninspired. The lake
looked dead, nothing was moving. Time for a rethink.
Up the path I went and there was Broadwing lake, the
jewel in the crown of the complex. Straight away it
looked so much more appealing, its without doubt one
of the best lakes I’ve seen. It just looked like it
was prime for the taking. After a good look round I
stumbled across a group of around 10 fish holed up
tight to a water inlet. They were actually cruising
on the surface, and the date was 3rd of November!!
I couldn’t fish for the next couple of days so I
decided to foil a plan. I went back to the car and
made up about 40 grounbaits sticks with a piece of
pepperami at each end. These were then baited into
the spot along with about another 3 pepperami
chopped up. I then did the same the following day,
the fish were still about and looked like they were
responding to the bait, I had to fish, and soon.
I went home and un arranged everything I had to do
the next day, there was no way I wasn’t fishing.
Taswood has a rule that day ticket anglers cannot
enter the site until 7am, however season ticket
anglers can come as they please. I got to the lake
at around 6.00am as to beat all the other day
tickets, but in the time I was there 4 season ticket
anglers went passed and proceeded down to the lake.
I crossed my fingers and preyed they wouldn’t jump
into my swim, I just had a feeling that something
special was going to happen that day. 6.45am came
and I was let in early, I think the owner could see
how keen I was to get there. Maybe it was the bald
patch I had now acquired after pulling large chunks
of my hair out after each season ticket angler
strolled on by me that gave it away.
As soon as I was let in I was like a greyhound
chasing a rabbit, I drove to the top car park and
could see that all the cars were parked here, this
meant that all the anglers had to be on Heron or
Broadwing. I grabbed my water bottle and ran past
Heron and onto Broadwing, the trees obscured my view
so I just kept running. Finally I came round the
last corner, and to my utter delight the swim was
free. In fact the whole lake was, those carp didn’t
stand a chance now!!
Off back to the car park with my swim saver in
place, collected the gear and got set up.
Once set up I walked back to the spot where I had
seen the fish over the last two days. They were
still there, nice one. I trickled a little hemp onto
their heads to semi spook them, the idea being that
they would drift of the spots for enough time to let
me cast and bait up.
Once the baiting up had taken place it was time to
cast. The problem was the cast was a very tight one,
and the 20mph+ wind didn’t help matters either.
Anyone who has fished Broadwing will know where I am
talking about and how tight it is. I needed to be as
close to the lilies as I could. Anyway to cut a long
story short, about 20 casts and 2 sets of end tackle
later I was in place. I decided after all the
commotion that one rod in the area would have to do,
I couldn’t afford anymore disturbance.
It was now sitting on my hands time, I wasn’t sure
if id blown my chance with all the disturbance I had
caused, however it was too late now. Over the next 4
hours fish were showing them selves everywhere aprt
from the spot I was fishing. There was no way I was
moving the rod now though as the wind had picked up
and I felt I would never get it back in there again.
My decision was rewarded at 12.00 noon, I had a drop
back. I hit the rod staright away although I felt no
resistance, for that split second I thought I had
blown my chance. But I hadn’t, after some frantic
winding I felt the comforting thud of a carp on the
other end of my line, game on!!
The fish didn’t do much at distance, it just came
straight in. once under the tips it wouldn’t give
up, my heart was in my mouth the whole time as I
hadn’t used a barbless hook for years and I have no
faith in them.
The hook held though and after a 10minute spirited
fight a good common slid over the net. At first
glance I thought it was a good 20, maybe around 25lb
so I was over the moon. I set about getting
everything reading for the beaching. Once I was
sorted I lifted the fish out and straight away
realised that I had misjudged the weight, there was
no way this fish was a mid twenty. It was without a
doubt a thirty, and a decent one at that.
Trio with a 32lb 5oz Common, Taswood Lakes
The old knees started to shake as I arranged my gear
to weigh the fish, and what a stunning fish it was.
Absolutely immaculate, scale perfect and it had a
beautiful colour to it too. On the scales the fish
easily passed 30lb and cruised past my old pb of
30lb 8oz. After a while I managed to stop shaking
enough to finally settle on a weight of 32lb 5oz, I
was gob smacked.
Taswood lakes don’t allow you to sack carp but after
a polite phone call to the owner he allowed me to
hold it in the net for photos to be taken. There was
only one person I was going to phone for the photo
shot, the original Essex boy Basil, top man with a
camera.
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur, basil came
down and took some ace photos as usual.. I then
fished for a while before heading to basils to
collect the photos. On arrival, to my delight, the
boy had been shopping, pizza and several bottles of
red capped a brilliant day, cheers Basil.
So maybe I am a lucky boy, but I like to think that
some people just have it!!
