Frank’s Blog – September 2020

25lb mirror Cheshire syndicate

Hi everyone I hope like me you’ve been enjoying your carp fishing! More than ever I think that 3 month lockdown made me appreciate just how much I love this amazing sport of ours.

Since my last blog I have visited my stunning Cheshire syndicate for a 48 hour session – it’s quickly becoming my favourite special place to fish in the UK as it’s so peaceful and special.

I am with a really nice bait company Vital baits and I have been collaborating with Nicky Hedin the owner and we have been jointly working on a new food bait for quite a while. Nicky is a great fella and he let me do as I really wanted with this bait and I have to say I’m really stunned by the results so far on a number of waters where I’ve tried it.
It smells like no other bait I have ever come across and its pretty unique> Things are looking good as the phone has lit up with others that are testing the bait across Europe, always a good sign. I got to choose the name of the bait so I called it Mojo as I feel like I really have my mojo back with my angling and it shows.

At the syndicate the fishing had been moody I heard, no big surprise as August is always tricky with the inevitable hot weather and so much natural food on offer. I baited quite heavy on each of the 3 rods using whole and chopped boilies and 3 sizes of mixed pellets including krill pellets, sweetcorn, dosed up with Salmon liquid hydroslate. I opted for 5 oz leads, 5 inch hook links and size 5 super sharp long shank hooks fished with a shrink tube line aligner and blow back. Hook baits were 18ml Mojo tipped with Enterprise corn the Pineapple and N butyric – my all time favourite flavour on the plastic corn.

The syndicate previously for me had been mostly early morning bites from 5 am onwards with the chances , as it got past 11am in the morning. This time I had the first bite at 2 am which produced a 23lb common, then I had the misfortune of losing two carp in a row to hook pulls, it happens as I was fishing locked up solid fishing to big beds of lily pads. Luckily I have landed most of the fish I have hooked in similar fashion previously so you have to take occasional losses on the chin when fishing quite extreme areas.

The following morning after my second night I had a small carp that I didn’t weigh followed by a fighting fit long 25lb mirror, so I went home pleased with 5 bites but wondering what I might have lost. My next trip was to my friend Dave Lidstones beautiful Emperor lakes near Kingsbridge in South Devon. We had got special permission to make the second film there that we were doing with my good friends Simon McCabe and fellow cameraman John Dunford, also joining us was my eldest son and keen carp angler Guy Warwick. The lake was busy with it being a bank holiday and we did think about postponing the trip until a quieter time, but Dave kindly agreed to accommodate us. Guy and I opted to double in a swim using 2 rods each as swims were at a premium. We arrived to horrendous rain and low lying cloud but luckily it miraculously cleared and the sun broke out, this sudden deluge seemed to get the fish going a bit and to our delight we saw 5 decent shows in our water, I commented to Guy “ if we are careful and quiet we are going to be in business here”! John and Simon were badly delayed by traffic jams and didn’t arrive until well into darkness after 10.30 pm. Guy and I used straight 18ml Mojo bottom baits with PVA mesh bags with broken boilies in and whole ones in a mix, we pulted a few freebies over each rod and back leaded to avoid spooking any fish present, rigs were the same as previous at the Cheshire syndicate.

Guy had a screaming run at 2am in the morning and had a right old scrapper he was battling with, it unfortunately hit both my back leaded lines and badly wiped them out so much so I turned of my alarms as they were screaming. Once the beautiful big plated mirror was safely landed I decided to re do the left hand rod I had just retrieved it to hand when the remaining of my 2 rods burst into life with the spool spinning madly as the culprit blurred off, as soon as I felt the carp go I knew it was a lump slow dogged lunges and bulk. As we netted it I knew it was a chunk instantly as soon as I saw the huge shoulders, and so it was. It was recognised by Dave and head bailiff Gav to be a really old carp of over 45 years of age called Moth – a highly sought after famous Devonshire carp. What a stunning start as the lake is far from easy and can be very tricky indeed. Imagine if I’d have chose the wrong rod to wind in – WOW!

Guy did some real close quarters stalking on camera on the upper lake and all his fish fell to plastic maize and corn fished over Daves very own mashed fermented flaked maize a very under used particle. I had another smaller carp on the main lake which I didn’t weigh as it was in the dark and I guess it might have just been a double on a good day. Simon unfortunately didn’t score but like myself and Guy we loved every second, especially the amazing wild life we saw around this stunning lake, we saw a Wryneck which is a very rare bird indeed and a first for us all.

Until next month be lucky.

The common
Frank’s son Guy with the scarlet 22lb mirror
The big 40.8 mirror