Although not always a good way of thinking, I arrived at lake furious late in the afternoon with a plan already sitting in my mind.
I had fished the lake maybe 4 times before just short sessions, weekends nothing longer with some success , so I already had a sound idea of where I thought the carp would be and what I would have to do to trip them up.
As my sessions before I had fished in peg 2 towards the far margin, this was catching fish and it was exciting fishing, but I wasn’t catching the size of fish I had seen swimming about in the crystal clear waters. I was unsure why but I thought perhaps somewhere quieter away from the bulk of fish it could possibly throw up some of dark monsters I so eagerly wanted to meet on the bank! 
The weather on the Monday I arrived was warm with clear blue skies and a light cold breeze blowing towards peg 1’s corner, and the fish were showing almost immediately. I walked to the opposite side of the lake (pegs 4 and 5) as I stood there scanning the water I noticed some fizzing not far off the bank I was standing on and shortly after I saw maybe 3-4 different fish roll all within the vicinity of peg 5s water.
So my plan was now concreted in my mind, I was to fish peg 5 and have a rod in peg 4 as they are next to each other and no other anglers were fishing except my dad who was set up in-between peg 1 and 2 as peg 2 was under renovation!
With the fish clearly in front of me It didn’t take me long to set up, nothing fancy rig wise, supple 8-9 inch hook link tied KD style with a mainline pineapple pop up which was popped up 2 inches and a big sharp hook! Due to the weed and chod in the lake I was fishing bags and threading the hook link through the bag so the hook could not catch on any debris and would effectively be fishing without the worry of a covered hook sitting on the spots!
Next step was bait. I knew these fish liked food as it was a virgin water almost un fished in fact, so I started a mix with ;
5kg of chilli hemp.
1kg of sweet corn.
2.5 Lt. jar of dynamite baits prepared chilli tiger nuts.
4 large tins of chick peas.
Approximately 3 kilos of mixed pellet (betaine and corn).
1 bag of haithes Robin Red ground bait.
2 kilos of mainline Opel fruit boilie chopped and whole.
I hadn’t fished this side of the lake at all and with the fish so close I wasn’t wanting to take the marker rod out and start throwing leads around them. Luckily I had a rowing boat that I could use if and when I needed to, knowing that the fish loved the margin to my left as this is the far opposite margin from peg 2 I had already scanned the bank looking for trees that I could drop a bait in every time day or night for one spot.
After 5 minutes of searching I took to the boat and rowed gently along the margin until I got to a nice looking spot 5-6 ft deep very choddy with light silk weed but great cover from the trees above and a bit of a canopy, I scooped 3 spoonfuls of the mix onto the spot and headed back to the swim. Happy with that spot I went about getting a rod onto it, after carefully checking my rig and using the lightest splitshot I could get away with pulling the pop up down, I threaded on my bag of bloodworm pellet approximately golf ball size and attached the hook link to the bag. Due to the angle of the branches from the tree above and below the surface, casting to the spot could have been problematic and I wasn’t prepared to chance it so I took to the rowing boat and dropped my bait on the spot.
It must have been around 3-4pm by now, the rod was on the alarms the net was ready and I went about sorting out my other two rods. I had just got the second rod tied up when I heard a bleep, I was fishing ultra slack lines and low sensitivity on my delkims so every bleep is worth a check! As I reached the swim the rod hooped round towards the spot and line stripped from my spool! I quickly lifted into what felt like a nice heavy fish, fortunately the fish came straight out into open water and proceeded to go on deep steady runs, the fish at lake furious get the heart thumping from the sheer power they have! Not many have been caught before so these fish could be getting hooked for the first time and they definitely fight that way! Coupled that with the fact that I have seen some fish of truly breath taking sizes and beauty I was nervous!
After a 15 minute battle a lovely dark mirror rolled over the net cord and she was mine! I secured the net and went about preparing all the equipment so the fish was out of the water for the least amount of time possible! I unhooked her in the net checked the rig but a bag on and put the bait back out on the spot! Wanting to capitalise on if any other fish were feeding on the spot! I was not surprised to see all the bait still there on the spot so I dropped the bait and back to the swim I went!
Weighed, photographed and slipped back! Not the monster I was hoping for but when they are as dark and as beautiful as this fish the size is not important! For the record and those that are curious the fish went 34lb on the nose! truly a beautiful fish!
As that rod had done such a quick bite I wasn’t bothered about putting the second rod in peg 5 so I went about sorting out the spot in peg 4! Now I had fished this spot one time on a previous trip from peg 3 and lost a hard fighting fish due to line cutting on underwater branches, only for my dad to catch the fish one day later with my pop up in its mouth ( a beautiful zip linear ) so I knew this spot was clean and in fairly deep water, roughly between 12-14 feet. A simple cast with just a lead confirmed the spot was still clean and hard so I clipped up and got my bag and bait sorted and the rod on the spot with no drama. As this is a margin spot it didn’t need the boat and I walked round closer to the spot and spooned some bait on it from the bank.
It was due to get dark soon and the rolling had stopped so I went about sorting the third and last rod.
the margins in the lake are very steep and drop off suddenly so I decided to cast a lead around 15ft off of the margin to the bottom of the slope and found a clear spot, which is easier said than done in a lake that is extremely weedy! So I was happy clipped up bag on and cast out with just around 30 Opel boilie freebies with the throwing stick.
The next fish didn’t come until around 22h and again it was on the left hand rod.
A very similar fight in fact, the fish came straight out into open water missed my other line and the game was on! This fish also felt heavy but didn’t hold the same power as the fish before, a couple hairy head shakes later and the fish was once again over the net cord and mine! I secured the net and flashed my head torch on to see what was in the net, as a lot of the fish in lake furious it was another very nice dark mirror at just under 1-2lbs lighter than the first fish. 32Ib+.
I was very happy and decided to leave the rod out of the water until first light, giving the fish the freedom to move up and down the margin unhindered and pick up any free bait that was still there!
My alarm was set for first light and I went to sleep with a grin on my face!
A nice mild night and cool morning with similar weather as the day before,
Out of the retention sling came the fish.. you never really see the true colours of the fish when your eyes are half closed and squinting through a head torch light so I was very happy to see the fish in the daylight! And I was impressed!
Every morning around 11-13 I reeled my rods in and walked round to sit and relax with my dad and to do any pictures that needed doing!
I like to rest my swims if Im catching fish and with 4 more days ahead of me there was no reason to fish the spots 24 hours a day!
Around 14pm I returned to the rods and got about putting everything back out on the spots, with fresh bait spooned over the two margin rods and boilies over my middle rod.
The day was quiet, 4 other anglers arrived so peg 1,(1.5), 2,3 were all occupied and I hoped it would get the fish moving quite a bit! Fortunately for me I think it did although dad in peg 1.5 was still picking up fish all through the day and night, no other angler except me was catching which was quite surprising as fish were showing all over the lake. Around 6pm the liners started and I knew I would be in with a shot of some early evening fish! As it happens it didn’t take long at all before my middle rod was away like a train! The type of one toner that gets your heart racing! After a really strong powerful 5minute fight or so the hook pulled.. Gutted wasn’t the word!
I got the rod back on the spot with another 30 or so Opel freebies and settled down for the night as no further action came during the day!
It was still obvious the carp were all in open water in front of swim 2 and swim 5s water! So I was happy that I would get another shot during the night, around 3am the left rod roared off and a short fight soon had me lead another 30lb mirror into the net. As i was happy with this fish I put her in the retention sling and waited till first light before getting the rod back on the spot!
The next day was a little tiring as the fish weren’t getting on my spots but i was still reviving the odd liner.. 1 hour later and 2 sturgeon later I was definitely feeling the lack of sleep.
Nothing happened up until 3:45am when my middle rod roared off and had me stumbling about in the bright moonlight half asleep! I connected with something that has been on my mind since.. I lifted my rod as high as I could but this fish flat rodded my hi s ive 3.5lb er’s and left me holding on for dry land for the longest 5 minutes of my life before everything went slack… I reeled in everything and realised that the 25lb hooklink material had parted. Not near either of the knot ends but completely in the middle. So a fresh hooklink. 15.5 12ft wraps and it was back on the spot!
At 5am the left hand rod indicated a single bleep and I got upto check it.. As I walked toward the rod with my head torch flicked on I noticed the bobbin rise slowly and the rod hoop round to the left! I was in! A rather Uneventful short fight followed and I had one of the most incredible fish I have seen in the net.. Unfortunately it was a recapture but at 32lbs a fish none the less.. One side of this fish was a fully scaled mirror and the other side a common! Simply incredible! So no photos needed, unhooked in the net and slipped back!
On the last day I woke happy with the days fishing and I relaxed a bit! I got the rods back out around 13h and used up the last of the bait over the spread of the three rods.. Nothing happened during the day and it was very boring as the rain had now been coming down for two days and two nights so I kept myself busy ready tying bags and cleaning the tackle bag! Nothing during the day and by night I was ready for some more fish! The night was really quiet and at the lake there is no noise pollution so I lay awake listening to the fish jumping all over me! I was sure I was going to get a bite so I slept really lightly and it came as no surprise that I had a screaming take at 5am, a little later than I expected but I wasn’t going to grumble! Especially when I saw that it was my right hand rod in peg 4! Awesome! Every spot produced a fish! And after what felt like a really big fish I was shocked to see another similar mirror slide into the waiting net! As it was getting light I quickly weighed the fish and put it in the retention sling. 30lb and ounces.. Not bad! 
Three rods and 5 thirties! I quickly tied a bag on and cast the rod back down the right hand margin to the bush and sprinkled some boilies over the top!
As I placed the rod on the alarm I heard a strange noise.. It soon dawned on me I had left my sounder box in my brolly which was pointed away from me.. I ran to peg 5 and my left hand rod was hooped round and taking line fast! From the get go I knew this fish wasn’t going to break any records! The constant head shaking and lack of strength had me lead the fish straight into the net.. A quick look and a photo on the mat and it was back in the lake to grow bigger! At a little over 20lbs I wasn’t prepared to retain the fish and take photos.
It was now light so I rowed my bait back out but no further bites came in the last 2 hours. I packed up a happy man as I’m sure a lot of customers visiting the awesome lake furious will.
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