In Pursuit Of Carp

The heavy rain we’ve been experiencing these last few days has knocked river fishing on the head for the time being – so as Matthew has yet to break the double figure barrier for carp we decided to make a return to Bradshaw Hall in Bolton.
It was chucking it down when we arrived, and for some reason it seemed as though every fisherman in Bolton had decided to fish Lake 2 where Phil and I were fishing last weekend. We could have squeezed ourselves in somewhere but i dont really enjoy fishing shoulder to shoulder with other anglers on what is really a small lake.
So we tackled up on Lake 4 where a match was taking place at the opposite end of the lake.
Phil started on a sprayed maggot approach – it didnt really work
I started on pellet feeder – it didnt really work.
Matthew started on a 6m pole line using 6mm soft pellets over a bed of micros – it didnt really work.
The rain was pretty persistant, so after a while Matt took refuge in the car. I was by this time getting pretty brassed off myself, so for a change of method i got hold of Matts pole, and instead of using pellet – I put on a 10p sized chunk of bread flake.
After about 30 seconds the float zipped under and I lifted into a real elastic stretcher of a fish.
A fairly dour encounter ensued as the fish made repeated slow runs, but after about 10 minutes of plodding around in circles I slipped the net under this 11.5lb beauty(pellet pig).
Matt held it up for photos (so he can show off at school) and set about fishing his swim with renewed vigour.
A constant stream of small roach and skimmers were his consolation prize for being in the car whilst his dream fish was rooting about in his swim.
I myself switched over to fishing a small cage feeder – which brought a steady stream of skimmers – but none of which approached the two pounder that Matt caught – his best fish of the day.
The rain eased off in the afternoon – as did the bites.
All in all – an enjoyable day in good company.
(once i sort out my laptop I shall upload the photos to accompany the recent bog entries)