Monster carp from the Graviers

@27,4 kg this was my last fish of the trip...

The first weeks of May I was again on banks of "Graviers" after missing last years trip due to travel restrictions. As I would be spending quite some time on the lake I decided to take my chances and bait the end of the lake I would be fishing quite heavily everyday with a big scattering of 22mm DT Cold Water Green Beast boilies all over and and half a kilo concentrated over each rod.I decided to use simple balanced 22mm Matching Hard Hooker / 15mm pink Supa Fruit snowman on 9 inch 20lb IQ 2 D rigs with size 4 Kamakura Widegapes on hybrid leadclips with a good length of Darkmatter tubing. The mainline was a new prototype of 18lb Kontour that I have been testing for the last year with great success!    

The weather was a bit moody with frosty mornings and long periods of rain and I really was expecting the first days to be quite as the carp would need to get on the bait - just after lunch on the second day, the first rod was off and after a lengthy boat battle a long mirror of 70lb and 1oz was ready for pictures - what a start!

31,8kg!! What a start - look at the length of that..

A BIG surprise @ 32,8kg what a carp! 

The next days didn't produce anymore action - even changing spots, hookbaits and every other trick in the bag helped - but sometimes the carp just aren't interested. After a weeks fishing the weather changed to milder temperatures and the carp reacted straight away. In the comming days the action would be more steady without going crazy and I finished the trip on a total of 11 carp including two 50lbers, a 60lber, the 70lber that I landed early in the trip another 70lber @ 72lb 5oz and a new PB - a massive 88lb plus mirror that took me the length of the lake in the boat and 45min to land!

@around or just over 40kg and new PB! A true beast..

Back to Rainbow Lake

For me Rainbow Lake has always been something special. The whole atmosphere, topography of the lake and the sheer size of some of the carp swimming around there makes it an awesome venue to tackle - nothing is left to chance when it comes to gear, only the toughest hooks, line and end tackle will do. This December trip would be a fortnight spread over two very different swims. The weather was mild and the lake had been hit by the fist frosts of winter a week before we arrived cooling down the water a fair bit. 4 rigs were put out in deeper water, spread out nicely around the swim and as expected the fishing was slow and we were not seeing or hearing any signs of carp in the area. After 3 days I had the first take ending up with a hard fighting 53lb mirror in the net – this would prove to be the only take the during that week and moving to another swim was a very welcome change.

This 24,1 kg mirror was the only bite during first week in swim 14. 

After getting set up in the new swim, 3 rods were placed against the far bank of an island fishing up to a mass of fallen trees and the last rod was place in open water on a raised bar. Late morning the following day I had a take on one of the rods fishing against the trees and after a quick battle a 30lb mirror was in the net – a welcome result after the last week’s slow fishing. I quickly got the rig back in position and decided to leave the other rods out for another day hoping not to spook any remaining carp out of the swim. Unfortunately the fish were not interested and the next two days went by without any further action. I started to notice that after dark I could hear a few fish – definitely carp boshing out over deeper water around 30 foot of water. So after no action in 3 days I decided to move one rod into deeper water – I found a hard spot just where the bar I was fishing on flattened out into the silt. The rig was lowered into position and a couple of handful of boilies were scattered around the rig. After just 5 hours the rod was away and after a good battle from the bank a nice 43 lb common was in the net – a quick result after trying the new spot. After getting the rod back on the spot I took the chance and moved one more rig away from the snags and onto a harder slightly raised area in about 28 feet of water and a again just a few handful of boilies scattered around. The next morning the rod was away again and this time I was connected to something more serious, no head shaking or quick bolts, just a steady, heavy bend in the rod. I applied maximum pressure to get it away from the bottom, in my experience; you can’t afford to give the carp too much line, as you never know what obstacles are hidden on the bottom of Rainbow Lake. The fish came quite quickly close to the bank, but decided to stay deep and as soon as I would gain a few yards it would take them away again and after what seemed like a lifetime of being towed around, the fish finally gave up and I could coax it into the waiting net. I broke up the net and coaxed the fish into a sling, so I could move it onto the unhooking mat. On the zeroed scales it went 35,1kilos, or 77lb 4oz! - A massive common and in awesome condition. After a quick photo session it powered back into the murky depths. A true trip and season saver – the days of waiting and choice to try something different had paid off big time.. The last few days went by, producing a take or so every day – hard fighting mid 30 commons that were very welcome. We decided to leave a day early due to all the demonstrations in and around Paris – as the20 hour plus drive home was long enough without the delays of eventual roadblocks. My choice of tackle for the two week’s fishing was comprised of 50lb Apex main line, two rod lengths of 65lb XT snag leader, two meters of 70lb XT Lead core. The rig end featured a Hybrid Lead Clip and a 9 inch combi-rig which takes a bit of time to tie up. For the main part of the rig I use 45lb Durakord with a loop spliced in both ends. To stiffen and get the boom effect I insert a length of 0.65mm Boom as the” core”. Baits used were DT Baits Coldwater Mix with Green Beast flovour....

@ 35,1 kg this masisve common was the trip saver!

Quality componenets from Korda - and quality bait from DT Baits.

The dark mirror

My autumn campaign this year was concentrated on a lake that has seen very little angling pressure over the years... To be fair, I have only seen pictures of 6 different carp, 1 has since died, but one of the remaining fish being a big well shaped dark mirror, that I would like to have a few pictures with. So I knew that I was probably fishing for very few fish - so I opted to bait 3 different areas with a calculated amount of 18mm DT Pukka Fish Boilies with Peach and Sour Cream flavour for 4 weeks to try and get the carp to open up the small holes in the weed - after a few weeks I could see that the few remaining carp were visiting the areas on a regular basis as the spots were nice and clear, perfect for presenting a single baited rig. When I finally started my campaign in the beginning of September I had high hopes...But alas the carp weren't having it and after 3 consecutive nights without a bite, I started playing around with rigs and different presentations - now this is normally where you would read the cliché about how all the changes made started putting fish on the bank! But no - my Nevill's were silent, not a bleep after 5 nights...So I went back to my standard bottom bait presentation and on the 6th morning the bobbin on the right hand rod tightened up, I decided to strike even tho' no line was taken off the reel, and right away I bent into what I could feel was a decent fish and after a quick battle there was a broad shouldered massive dark mirror in the net.. Later I could confirm, that it was indeed the carp I was after @ 19,3 kg.. I went on to use the next three weeks at the lake, doing around 3 nights a week - but I did not see or hear signs of any of the other few carp that inhabit the lake.......

19,3 kilo of pure darkness

Vertical zander

So, I thought I would post a little selection af some of the better zander I have caught over the last 2 winter seasons - all have been caught on pleagic "sharp shooting" - at the moment I am getting ready for the comming winter season, and I will try to post some updates...

Echo sounder presentation at Danish fishing clubs

What is what and how do I read it?

For those interested, I will be doing a series of presentations on the use of echo sounders, hosted by different fishing clubs I Denmark in 2017. Two venues, Ishøj Sportfiskerklub and Sorø Lystfiskerklub have been confirmed and I am just waiting for the exact dates – I will publish them here, but more plans are being made as several other clubs have shown interest. 

I will be going over general use and setting of the echo sounder - I have spent literally thousands of hours looking at “sounders” on salt and freshwater over the years, and I am sure that I can help improve your use of echo sounders, so you can get more out of your fishing trips. I will be bringing the latest from unit from Humminbird along, so we can go over the latest and leading technology from Chirp to Mega Imaging. I hope to see you there.

Tight lines

Peder

The new Humminbird SOLIX!

Most of you who keep up to date with echo sounders, should have heard the news! Humminbird has finally revealed their new “monster” the SOLIX – available in 12” and  a whopping 15” version, and they have not spared on groundbreaking features, packing the SOLIX with the revolutionary Mega Imaging, full CHIRP, Bluetooth and Cross Touch, just to mention a few. Everybody knows that I am a big fan of the ONIX unit, and I have used it for all my lake and sea angling since it came out, and my personal point of view is that it has the best 2D, Down View and Side Imaging out there. So I am really looking forward to get my hands on the SOLIX – if they are just half of what they are promised to be, then they will be a game changer for sure! I will keep you updated when I have had the chance to try one.

In the meantime, check out the SOLIX units here:
http://www.humminbird.com/Freshwater/Lifestyle/SOLIX_FW/

Family carp vacation

Lilja with her second ever carp - the fist one got away before we got the chance to take photos!

I brought the family along for a ”work week” at the Graviers in France. The plan was, that I wasn’t going to do any fishing this time around, but hand my tackle over to my girlfriend and our kids, so they could do some hours fishing on Luke’s back lake a few times during the stay. We baited an area for a few days with a mix of 18mm Pukka Fish boilies before getting the rigs out, and it didn’t take long before the first of the two rods was of, and after a good battle I could lift the net around a nice French common for Alexander, his first ever. This was only one of many carp for the new anglers, and the bites kept on coming on the simple snowman of a pukkafish bottombait and a new white test pop up. During the next short 1-2 hour day sessions, Lilja, Hekla and Freyja also managed to catch their first ever carp, and more – with several thirties mixed in. Again a great time at Luke's together with Nick, Christian, Simon and Lonnie.

Alexander with a lovely French common

Hekla with a nice 30lb plus mirror

Teaching the next generation correct fish handeling

Back she goes...... Until next time...