I finished doing some work on the Tuesday and decided that I wanted to try and get an overnight session in during the week sometime if the weather would allow it. As I had a fresh delivery of bait coming from Velocity on the Wednesday I decided to have a look in the freezer and see what was left in there. On opening it there were only two kilos of NV-R and a kilo and a half of the test bait P-Nut+ and with that the decision was made that I would go down that evening and put the lot in to see if it would stir the carp into some feeding as it had been so cold and not much bait from other anglers had gone in. I arrived to find the lake was still in liquid form so went about baiting some areas quite heavily in the hope the plan would work.

I finished college on the Wednesday and on the way home popped into Milemead to see if there were any signs of the carp feeding. On my arrival I was gutted to find the lakes had been frozen for most of the day, this wasn’t boding well for my Thursday night plans. I still had a quick scan around the lake and was surprised to see some signs of feeding around the areas that I had baited. As luck would have it Wednesday night was a bit milder so with the van packed I was ready to go straight after college on the Thursday.

I arrived at the lake around 14.30 and wasted no time in getting up to the lake to have yet another look around to see if there were any signs on where to go, but alas there was less than there was the day before so I opted to go in Swim 1 which is the deepest part of the lake. I got the rods sorted and then went about setting up my home for the night. Typically and unexpectedly when all was set up a fish showed in peg 7 at the other end of the lake. I quickly walked halfway up the lake to have a look and the fish showed again. Back to the rods reel in and tie a little funnel web bag with crushed P-Nut+ in, a fresh P-Nut+ pop up was tied on and off up to 7 for the last ¾ of an hour of light to see if I could stalk one out.

Yet again just as I was moving between swim 2 and 3 another fished showed, I marked where it was and carried on to peg 7. A little under arm flick and the rod was set so I laid it on the floor and stood back to wait and see if anything would occur. I ended up staying a little longer than I wanted to as there were signs of carp in the area and just as I said to myself 5 more minutes and I will go back to peg 1 for the night (by now the bivvy was too frozen to move to peg 7 without fear of damaging it) the rod just arched around. After a feisty little battle this lovely mid double common was in the net.

I put a little bait around the area and went back to set up in peg 1. I tied some new rigs up, one with a snowman bag rig with NV-R and two with pop up rigs but in different styles. One was a 360 rig with a 14mm pop up and the other was a little bag rig with a 10mm pop up. The 14mm P-Nut+ pop up was dispatched to where I had seen the fish show between pegs 2 and 3 with a small funnel web of crumb, the other pop up in a solid bag was put as close to the reeds as I could judge in the dark and the snowman rig was in a solid bag of crumb and that was dispatched to an open water spot that I had baited on the Tuesday.

The thermometer was now nudging -3 so a cup of coffe and a pot noodle were in order to try and get some warmth back in my body. Once I had finished I popped the kettle back on for the hot water bottle and I was ready to get in the sleeping bag. Once again I was a little shocked when out of the blue the rod placed down between 2 and 3 just tore off with a one

toner, I scrambled out of the sack and into the boots and hit the rod. Straight away I felt that this was of a better stamp and it wasn’t wanting to slow up so I quickly negotiated my way down to peg 2 with the net and rod. Well after quite a lengthy battle I was blooming freezing and was more than happy to finally bundle the fish in the net. This 22.02lb ghost common was my reward.

I got the rod back on the spot and quickly returned to my waiting hot water bottle. Nothing else happened that night so in the morning I had another quick scout up the lake. Apart from a bit of cat ice in the margins there wasn’t much else to see up the rest of the lake so I returned and got the rods back out for the last hour or so. As I sat feeding boilie crumb to the friendly robin and finch my right hand rod called for some attention and I was once again attached to an angry carp. This one had taken the NV-R snowman and was now doing it’s best to make the sanctuary of the reeds on the far side. Well once again I won the battle and this low double common was bundled in to the waiting net.

Very happy with the results and just as happy that the plan to bait so heavy on the Tuesday  had seemed to work I started to pack up. Apart from the robin and the finch nothing else decided to have a feed and finally it was time to go. I will leave you with a photo of my two mates for the session and bid you a farewell.

I hope you enjoyed the read and remember to enjoy yourself along the way and to stay safe and warm.

Regards

Arron