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Features >> HARRY CHARRINGTON part 2

HARRY CHARRINGTON part 2

Picking up from where I left off last month, I was intending to start getting back down to Papercourt slightly more regularly. Well unfortunately, more regularly turned into one night in a month. I knew things would be getting busy but I didn’t expect having very little time to do anything. My mum had forced me to get some days working at Sandown booked so that I could get some money for the summer. So with that taking out one weekend, everybody deciding to have their birthday at this time, meaning I had to attend numerous parties and the exam revision taking out the in between bits, I was left with next to no time at all.

I managed to get down to Papercourt on a Friday, as I pulled into the car park I could see it was quite busy, as is the case with most weekends on there. With time ticking by and swims filling up I was in the dilemma of choosing one from a handful of fairly dull swims. I walked around twice which took the best part of 2 hours and had seen nothing. So feeling confused I opted for the only one out of the swims left that I had actually caught from in similar conditions. A pretty good bet I thought and the decision looked as if it was a good one, as whilst I was setting up a big fish crashed just on the edge of my casting limit. “Right that will do for me” I thought as I went about sorting out the rods. The rods were all dispatched to their positions, and I scattered a kilo of KG1 over them, a tactic that I favour on there. Most people seem to opt for the single hook bait approach, or beds of particles. With scattering boilies you create a whole new scenario for the carp, which I feel arouses less suspicion than a tight bed of particle and covers a wider area so passing carp are more likely to come across the bait, and become sidetracked in trying to find the boilies.

Just on dark I received a take on the rod cast to where the fish showed. Not feeling huge I played it relatively hard and managed to have whatever it was in the net fairly quickly without any mishaps. On putting my head-torch on and peering down into the net I was confronted by the sight of a tench. “Great” I muttered to myself sarcastically. The rod was right on the money, but now I had to recast, in the dark, with a cross wind which had got up considerably since I started. However when looking again the tench did look fairly hefty. On weighing it, the scales went round to 9lb exactly, which happened to be a new PB. I didn’t quite know whether to be happy or not. I decided I should be and that I should stop being so narrow minded, after all it was a whacking great tench! Yet it would have been much nicer on a float and corn. Once that was dealt with I recast and was not at all happy with the placement, but after 5 attempts, I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to reach my previous spot, so left it at that. This was the extent of my action for the night, and I packed away in the morning with mixed emotions.

The next opportunity I had to go fishing was the bank holiday weekend. I had received an offer to return to the place where I served my carp fishing apprenticeship and was where I caught my first double. The club I belonged to had lost the lease to the lake after a new owner bought the place. Luckily some of the members became friendly with the new owners, myself and a friend included. My friend Simon has been working for him on weekends and we both have the opportunity to fish the lake. It’s a lovely little private estate lake, with a river running along the back, which also contains quite a few carp. I had the choice between there, just me and Simon with the lake to ourselves, or Papercourt with the bank holiday weekend causing even more anglers to visit. My decision was an easy one. We had the challenge to catch a few fish in order to give the owner a rough idea of how they were doing since the club had left. The carp before were not big at all, with a double being a good fish and about 15-16lb the biggest.

I initially started stalking with a float in the margins, but soon changed as it was obvious they were up for a floater. I started feeding my mixture of go-cat biscuits, chum mixers and Richworth floating trout pellets. Very soon there were a group of carp slurping down my baits confidently. I quickly set up my controller, hair rigged a cut down KG1 popup and cast over the group. I reeled back the rig slowly, until it was in amongst the fish. After a short while a pair of lips engulfed the bait and I was in. After a spirited fight a 10lb common lay in my net. Well that will do for starters and the next couple of hours went in a similar vain. I built up their confidence, cast out and hooked fish. I had had about 7 and Simon 4 up to about 13lb and most doubles. This had shown a clear improvement in weight of the fish, which was good to see as when the club had it the weight gains where almost nonexistent.

We were having such a good time that we had decided to stay the night. So with this we raced back home to get the gear we needed and more bait and were back at the lake within an hour. We decided to fish to a bit of a strategy, and we both spodded about 8kg of bait over a wide area and we were going to fish one rod each on either side of it. Much had been said over the day about which fish we wanted to catch, Simon who had already caught himself a fish that hadn’t been out for years known as the “moat lake mirror” was aiming for a common called the “mug” and for obvious reasons and I was aiming for the “pretty mirror”.

Onto the spot I placed a multiplex bottom bait, with crushed multiplex in a bag. After about 10 minutes Simon managed a 14lb mirror and just after releasing it, my rod came alive. After a few glimpses of the fish’s flanks, we had started to question whether it was possibly the pretty mirror. Following a tussle in the reeds the fish was bundled into the net. On closer inspection we saw that it was indeed the pretty mirror. I had never been so happy to see a mid double in my life. The fish was immaculate, not a scale out of place, the flanks a lovely deep orange and the back as dark as you like. Pictures will never do this fish justice, if only it was 30lbs heavier, every carp fisherman in the world would crave catching a fish like it.

Simon went on to catch 4 more doubles to just under 15lb whilst my action dried up, however it didn’t matter. Morning came and the owner walked round to ask us how things had gone, we informed him that the average size was now a lot bigger and the top weight was also probably bigger. He was very happy and left it open for us to return as and when we wanted, which I will defiantly be taking up, especially on June 16th for those river carp. I had one last try with stalking before I left, and managed a mid double on the float, which was a lovely way to end a great session.

I really enjoyed that session and that’s what it is all about at the end of the day. I will be able to see more of Papercourt in about a month’s time when my exams are out of the way. Until then I will be trying to sneak in short stalking sessions on there in-between revision and school, with any luck I will be able to wangle a few out. They have always been very wary of the floaters on papercourt but is that going to stop me? Hell no!

Until next time, take care and tight lines
Harry Charrington

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