Frank’s Blog December 2022

Hi everyone since my last blog quite a lot has happened in my angling in recent years I have been really enjoying my UK fishing particularly in my home county of Cheshire where I am a member of a rather special syndicate lake.

I had caught a pretty amazing brace from the syndicate earlier in the year which happened to be the lakes biggest mirror and the lakes biggest common less than two hours apart as you can imagine that would take some beating but to be truthful its not all about size and weight of the carp for me it’s the place, the circumstances of the capture and the chase that I like. I carried on at the syndicate lake with some stunning carp falling to my tactics of baiting heavy with the use of a lot of liquids in the mix to nag the carp and increase awareness the general plan was to put plenty of bait in then sit and wait rather than casting frequently, being a modest sized water the carp quickly know you’re there no matter how quiet you try to be. A very common problem on smaller venues so the last thing I wanted was further disturbance.

I had one of the members call in on me at the syndicate I had never met the chap before as out mutual sessions had not coincided. He was telling me he had struggled to get something going and was struggling I thought I would mention some of the things I had been using and asked “did he tip boilie hook baits with plastic corn ? “he replied “ very rarely well I am going to be quite open with you when I say I almost always tip my hook bait with my old faithful plastic sweetcorn I think it is what I class as an essential. Don’t just dismiss what I am saying do a comparison test yourself with your own fishing one rod with your chosen boilie tipped with plastic corn against the same boilie without the corn I think I already know the clear winner. Anyhow after mentioning the corn thing to this bloke he tried it on the syndicate and he only went and caught a new PB common which is one of my target fish that I am yet to see on the bank never mind catch plus other good fish.

I was then going to France to make a film on a venue I had never fished before with my friends from Prologic the venue Mar Peche is a well known big fish water near Paris, I had looked forward to fishing this place as some of the lads who come on my Italian trips had told me bits about Mar Peche they all agreed it was difficult low stock but very special indeed. I picked up my friends Ed Betteridge and Ben Steger on the way to the channel ferry we were meeting our other friend Simon Dew at a hotel near Paris on the other side. Once at the lake the following day we were met by the lakes two resident bailiffs both great blokes and both very accommodating with information and it is pretty obvious from how well kept the venue is that those lads do some graft.

I know local knowledge on a new water is usually worth hearing so we all listened to the bailiffs thoughts on swim choices after we had walked the lake. I liked the look of the Snag swims and what’s more we had seen carp present in them however the bailiffs said the snags had been very hit and miss and thought I might fare better in a corner swim called The Nook I must say that swim had not caught my eye on the lake walk but with me not knowing the lake I thought I had better bow to the guys lake knowledge.

I wont bore you with details but no matter what I tried I just couldn’t buy a bite in the Nook swim and worryingly I simply wasn’t seeing any fish show in there, in the meantime Ed Betteridge was faring better he was opposite me in a weedy bay and Ed had managed 3 carp in the first 3 days including the most amazing super long prehistoric looking leather at a tad under 50lbs Simon, Ben and I had yet to score, despite the bailiffs assurances I should sit on my hands and await the fish to arrive I was already uneasy and felt I had literally wasted 3 days I was moving I had to.
I opted for a swim called Heron point, one of the two snag swims where we had seen carp at the beginning it had been nagging me not going in there in the first place.

I used 20lb nylon mainline and a 30lb fluoro carbon shock leader, size 5 curve hooks on a slip D rig, a fishmeal 16 ml tipped with my ever faithful yellow Enterprise sweetcorn in pineapple and n Butyric flavour, heavy 5 oz leads were employed I then baited with full and chopped boilies, 2,3, and 4 ml pellets and good old sweetcorn, hemp and millet. Snag fishing is always a tense affair I was fishing locked up solid so as not to give a inch of line.

It took 90 minutes to get the first bite and I was in awe of the speed and power of a long powerful mirror that I thought was a low 30 that quickly grew during the fight and hit the scales at 46.12
What a relief that was, the following day I had a 30.14 mirror on the same set up but from a different set of snags. Then I caught a magnificent 38.2 common things for me had certainly a big turn around much to my relief. I saw fish fizzing in open water so opted to stick a rod on those which duly went at first light which resulted in a 30.10 common. Later that day I had the terrible news that my wife’s mum Rita who was in hospital with a broken leg had took a turn for the worst and had contracted a chest infection had just died I was devastated she was a lovely woman and I thought a lot of her, we had only recently all been away with Rita to Cornwall and she had had a fantastic time. I felt quite helpless being stuck in France when my wife and family needed me at home but there was nothing I could do as there were the other guys in my van and of course we were filming. That night we had a barbeque and drank to Rita’s life somehow I managed to keep in how upset I really was, that’s when I announced my premonition and plan to the boys I was going to catch a monster on camera and dedicate the capture to Rita.
I’m sure the lads thought I was a bit drunk but I was far from that I was 100 percent sure I was going to see my plan through.

 

The following afternoon the time I had said to ben the camera man it would happen he appeared in the swim with the camera to do an update when it happened I had a mental take and as soon as I lifted into the fish I knew it was a brute, it did everything possible to try to escape for a good 20 minutes solid, as I drew the fish closer I could see submerged tree stumps that the carp was trying to get into so it was a proper shit or bust time, I could also see it was a massive common, as it went into the net I suddenly got a lump in my throat and had an outpouring of emotion that I had bottled up Ed had to do the talking to the camera for me. It was in fact a new PB French common for me and it weighed 67.14.Simply the most awesome looking common you might ever see in my opinion. I dedicated the capture to Rita’s memory and it was my own special tribute to that lady.

You can see the films on Youtube -Prologic the Quest part1 and Part 2 the big common is in part 2

Next time I will detail successful trips in the UK and in Europe In the cold weather.
Until then tight lines.
Frank Warwick