On a colourful September's morning we set off from Warrington for our last carp session of the season. Hampton Springs was the destination, which had been advised to me by a friend. These days word of mouth seems to be the best form of information and i trust MOST of the information i hear about fishery's. I always pre ring if i can to find out what's been working for other anglers. I will of course take the information on board but i like to adapt as something that worked one day might not work the next but its always useful to find out about the carp's activities. My selection of bait was quite simply ultra mix pellets and lob-worms. My rig was a 2 oz korda in-line lead on 12lb diawa sensor line to a quick change link. Flouro-carbon was my hooklink material, which i started using last year and swear by it, the hook was size 8 and id attached the korum bait stop to it. Quick, easy, simple and very effective. The quick link allows me to put a streamlined pva bag on in seconds plus it makes the pva act as an anti tangle device. Everything was pre-made, packed and ready to go and i felt confident. It was my last chance to beat my personal best and i new hampton springs could well high doubles and mid 20's. We arrived very early and waited for the owner to arrive and unlock the gates. we had a nice brief chat before driving down the lane towards the specimen lake "folly". My first impressions were good, carp were showing themselves from the first moment we opened the car door and you tell the place was well looked after. I never usually choose the car park swim but there were some very inviting features, including the two main islands. We decided that we were going to fish close and hard to the island. Lucky for me i had one island to myself, both rods covering the likely path the carp follow. I kept getting line bites so i recast closer in and attached a back lead. My first carp came all most instantly, a "screamer" making me think it was something decent, although beautiful marked i felt that i didn't want to waste time on the bank with a 7 Lb fish so i safely returned him and put one of my 'special' lob-worms onto the rig pulled the streamlined pva bag down to rig and cast out. You get that 'fishy' feeling when you cast perfect and i new id hit the spot. i sunk the line, tightened up and set my bobbins. just as i sat down the bobbin flew into action and the alarm screamed, the line was ripping through the water like a speed-boat and i jumped into action, when i struck i thought i was snagged and i had the feeling something big had took my 'special' worm by this time my mates had heard the commotion and were surrounding the area, one took hold of my net the other moved the other rod. After a good 10 minute battler a very large figure emerged on the surface, the adrenaline was racing and a perfect bulky common was drifting into my net. I couldn't believe it, my last session before tackling the esox, produced a new personal best of 18Lbs. Hampton Springs was the venue, folly lake was our choice. To sum up, great place, friendly staff and a chance of breaking your p.b is definitely likely. I advise you to go as i will definitely will be going back this time early summer.
(Written by:
supabaits
)
