Well well well where to start. The beginning always seems to the answer to this question no matter how many times you ask it so here indeed it goes from the top as they say. As the face of the website changes we have all started to create a more individual approach to our blogging and our reports. Hopefully I will take you, the readers, on a little journey through what I hope to be an interesting and informative journey inside my carping life.

Now as I have already stated and will no doubt continue to state is that I am by no means the best carper on here or indeed probably in my postcode however sometimes we can all learn from each other and hopefully not only will you find reading this fun and absorbing but maybe you may learn a thing or two if it is only where does the best lakeside take away.

Right now the boring stuff is out of the way let’s start with a little report about what can only be described as MY SESSION OF A LIFETIME.

You join me at Pavyotts Mill and more precisely THE MAZE Lake. Pavyotts Mill is set in the beautiful Somerset countryside and is a little slice of tranquillity and indeed one of the rising load of “carp shed” lakes. We (me and my dad/camera man) had chosen this lake as my old man has had enough of bivvys and soggy socks so the ability to have a carp shed means I get to go fishing with him, as indeed he was the person that has inspired me to start fishing and even though I would never tell him this he is an inspiration to me and probably one of my best mates.
We had been allocated peg 10 and after checking in at the lodge we drove round the well maintained perimeter road and onto the swim. Noticing that the swims to our left and right were arriving at the same time we decided to simply pick some “carpy “looking areas in our allocated water and flick singles out. With the mill you are sectioned off into individual swims / sections of water. Each peg has islands to the left to the right and in front. This hemming in is good and bad it stops the casting over and swim disturbance but does mean that you have to get the fish in your area and keep them there. So after deciding where to put the rods we slipped on the boilies that I had been glugging and with small bits of visual corn to top them off and single cast them on the spots. We sat back and watched the adjacent swims bait boat loads of pellet and boillie tight to the features and realised that our casting short method with singles may be the approach that could trip up the wary and indeed heavily pressured fish. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP ……… “What” I called as I lifted my bay rod and connected with a solid weight. I was in and it hadn’t even been on swim for 10 mins. The fight was not one I was used to as the fish seemed to just lollop about using its weight to control the fight. After a few really uneventful minutes the chunk was scooped into the net and me and dad looked at each other and smirked. What I failed to tell you at the start was this was our 3rd session on the maze and until now we had never even had a beep let alone a fish. As the fish lay in the net we got the weigh kit ready. Pavyotts mill supply a good safe un hooking area with a bucket crash mat area and a cradle with a weigh sling so that the fish are cared for from the start. I lifted the net to the unhooking area and had a wry smile as I realised this could be a PB in the net., after treating the hook hold and wetting the fish down I hoisted the sling and watched the scales swing round past my 27-4 previous PB and settle gently on 29-4. As we hi fived in typically American style we laughed at what had already become a great trip. We gently slid the fat beast back and nonchalantly continued to un pack the car . as we sat back on our chairs we looked to our left and right and noticed people were still marking the swim and boating out baits and we had pinched one already.
Now knowing how pavyotts fishes and the fact that the fish can patrol in and out of the swim we continued our minimal baiting with just 6 or 9 ( 3 is lucky for me so always multiples of 3 ) boilies scattered with the stick over the rods again. Now due to the late start on pavyotts it was time to do one of the most important things when staying at a carp cabin lake …….. Order the Chinese that would be delivered to the peg ha ha . Now please don’t get into your heads that this is indeed my style of fishing. I like to remain mobile and move onto fish but this lake does not allow you to do this and you have to adapt your style of fishing to suit the lake. So after a feast of pork in black bean sauce and chilli I sat back and watched the water avidly. As I say this hemmed in approach is not my style but I like the fact that its totally different and you do have to work your swim. I noticed a few bubbles over the two left hand rods and sat quietly and almost confidently that something may happen. As is always the case pride comes before a fall and as my eyes wearily closed there hadn’t been a single beep on the rods.
BEEP …………….BEEP………………BEEP I jumped out of bed and ran to the rods and did the usual sniper squat over the top of them waiting for the run to develop and indeed it did. As the line stripped, slowly I may add, I lifted slowly and immediately put side strain on to pull it out of the bay. The fish plodded along nicely and gave what can only be described as a feeble fight but never the less it required a certain amount of guidance. Within minutes the fish was at the mouth of the net and my dad crouched patiently waiting but at the cord the hook pulled and the rig shot skyward. Dad dove the net under the fish in a manner in what can only resemble a ninja and all I can remember shouting is “is it in is it in” he turns to me calmly and coolly and say “of course boy!”
Now I realised the fight was slightly wishy washy and that the curve of the rod showed a decent fish when I looked into the mesh under head light I realised that this was no 20 and was at least a mid-30. As I pulled the net to the margin the fish that has come in without a fight decided that it was now a super carp and thrashed around in the folds of the net as if it had just remembered how to swim. As we set up the weigh station the lads from next door, probably awoken by the splashes from the net wandered over to have a peek at what we had oiked out of this tough water. I lifted the net and immediately realised that this was an upper 30 and would indeed be my second PB in less than 6 hours. I lay her gently in the sling and with a small audience revealed what was hidden in the mesh. The two lad’s gasped and started banding the word FOURTY about which I shrugged off as I grabbed for the scales. As I lifted the dial swung past 20 past 30 past 35 and onward to the 41 lb. line. The gathered audience all looked closely to get the accurate reading as the needle settled on 41-2. Yet again a bout of hi 5s burst out even including the 2 lads from next door that we hadn’t even met. With a pounding heart and a sweaty brow I lifted the giant slab and posed for the trophy shots. I could feel how huge my smile was and my cheeks were starting to cramp as time slowed for me as the cameras flashed. After checking all was ok I allowed the beast back to her realm. I started to get that feeling that you hear about I was BUZZING. As I recast into the newly named “bay of plenty”. We retreated to the shelter of the cabin at perved at the pics over a celebratory rum and coke. My heart pounded my body shook as it was only just sinking in “was that really a 40”. I think the smile says it all to be honest and I will now have to live with the nickname “Wallace”
It took me till about 4 o’clock to close my eyes and my heart rate to return to normal. Unfortunately I had forgotten how badly my old man snores and was awoken at 5:45 to what can only be described as the sound of mating wilder beast. Still pumped from the night before I flicked through the camera and smirked to myself as the feeling of landing a 40 just stared sinking in. As morning dawned I could tell it was going to be a warm one and that it would be a tough day to tease one out. Along with these written blogs I am starting to do a video blog and took the time to work out what I would like to do on the videos and couldn’t help laughing at my jittery style. I am by no means a face for film but hay ho I find it fun and hope along with these writing’s they give the audience an insight to my fishing and hopefully some light bankside relief. The next 24 hours was rather uneventful and I won’t bother you with the details of our boring conversations about small time politics and my dad’s recent European tour as it will provide you with no info apart from how good a micro burger can be ha ha ha. As night approached we baited our combi rigs with the ever faithful glugged boilies and scattered a few crumbed up boilies to try and get the rooting around again in the cloud of smell.
Night fell and day broke for the last day and the rods had remained silent apart from a tiny bream that created a 3 am wake up call. We awoke and I cooked the usual fat lad breakfast as we started to get the gear ready to clear away for our mid-day depart until BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP a real screamer I burst through the door like a bull and lifted my channel rod high in order to clear the gravel bar that I was fishing over and teased the fish into the open water. The fight was more spirited and a familiar hearty and gutsy fight that I almost knew would be a mid-double common. As I scooped the fish into the net I saw the corn topped boilie nailed about an inch back in the bottom lip and knew that it was probably a 20 and a great full stop to the trip. As we weighed it the needle settled dead on 20 and that would put me just short of 100lbs of carp in 48 hours and in 3 fish. For the first time in a long time I agreed to leave earlier than we had to as I felt that the job on pavyotts mill had been done. So with a parting video clip we loaded the car and drove home.

Now dear reader I don’t want you to believe that all my fishing will result in fish of this stamp and indeed big carp hunting isn’t my style. Hopefully my next instalment will be a tale of scaly heritage carp and deep dark chestnut commons. But as a closing note remember different can be best. With all the bait boats and pellet and tight baiting used our cast short single hook bait approach proved to be the key to unlocking this particular session. Until then I hope you can tune into my video blog when it is out and of course

STAY PRODUCTIVE