Frank Warwick’s June Enterprise Blog
Hi everyone I hope your fishing is going as well as you hoped for, its been very strange this year so far weather wise the wettest April since records began and some strange extremes of temperature leading to a much slower start to summer than normal.
Obviously with these Covid restrictions things have been awkward also in so many ways.
So I decided to concentrate on my local syndicate water in my home county of Cheshire. My winter campaign had been a bit special, with a January 40lbs common one of the highlights, so the lake owed me nothing ! Things just kept going incredibly well as I learnt more about the lakes fascinating inhabitants, I really got tuned in to their moods and preferences in many ways such as depths to fish and what they wanted to eat and of course swim choice and location.
From my winter findings I quickly worked out that single hook baits and pva bags ect roving around was very unproductive and was virtually a waste of time, it was far better to nag the carp once found with a banquet of things I knew they loved to eat combined with copious amounts of my favourite liquid attractors. I found that after introducing this lot in the vicinity of carp it would sooner or later if I sat on my hands bring a response, bait consisted of Sweetcorn, maggots, small pellets three types, and my own Vital baits Mojo a boilie that I was chopping in a Ridgemonkey chopper.
Liquids were Salmon hydroslate and the amazing Vital baits Liver O complex, plus sweetcorn juice.
Hook baits were chopped and changed regular to round on winning combinations but a cork dust Mojo wafter tipped by Enterprise plastic corn in my old faithful Pineapple and n butyric was reassuringly brilliant and very consistent.
Normally in Spring it is a natural winning tactic to fish zigs as the fish are in the upper layers much of the time but as I said earlier the cold late spring and wet April caused the carp to stay feeding on the bottom consistently and I found the normally productive zigs slow and inconsistent to say the least.
The opposite of normal years to be truthful.
It certainly made my life easier not having to play mind games over whether to use zigs or fish on food on the bottom as I normally do.
In previous years I had always flitted from one venue to another never really settling on one specific water, but with the covid restrictions it kind of made my mind up for me plus the fact that my new syndicate water is magnificent and close to my home, so I found myself getting fully absorbed into the moods and routine of this very special water.
I guess it shows as I have had a fabulous run of stunning carp culminating in the capture of a new lake record a common weighing 44lbs 2 ozs, part of a 6 fish catch that included a mega Mirror on my wanted list appropriately named The Woodcarving at 32.14 and yet another incredible looking common of 33.6.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get much better I had a rather strange slow take in the dark and had a peculiar battle with a carp that suddenly didn’t feel right, as I got it close I popped on my headlight and my eyes widened when I saw I was in fact playing a monster eel which had somehow picked up my Mojo wafter. Now I will tell you that unlike many carp anglers I absolutely love eels they have always fascinated me for a number of reasons – one being their ability to live reputedly well over a hundred years of age. Big eels are as rare as rocking horse shit that’s a fact! They are very elusive and will not tolerate being caught much they simply up sticks and move to another water.
I used to fish for eels on purpose and my previous PB which had stood for over 20 years was a very respectable 6.11 but this one was something else. It was incredibly thick and packed with solid muscle so I retained it in a Sonik retainer until first light where it led me a merry dance during my attempts to get a decent photograph. This was made more difficult as I had to do self takes haha – not for the faint hearted as it was biting me whilst trying to escape and who could blame it. Eels tend to grow slowly, around 10 years of age for each pound in weight is the accepted formula, so this old timer was nearly 80 as it went 7lbs 14ozs q – uite possibly the biggest eel caught in the UK this year and a super rare capture. It made my session I can tell you.
Until next time tight lines guys
Frank Warwick
