Cow Tipping and Common Carp

Once in a while we have a laid back session , a couple of nights where we bivvi up on a water where we are on our own , or book a lake so we can have a social , drink beer , have a laugh without effecting other anglers . These end up a with sore heads , but always fun , but rarely coinsides with good fishing . We fished a couple of day ticket waters , even hired the original Olivemead lake for my 50th birthday bash . Although the lake has changed ( for the better ) we can recommend the set up there , now it even has fish to mid 40,s !. When sat down in our break time at work and ran through some waters that would suit our weekends fishing , one under fished water kept coming up . It was a club water , a complex of the river , and a few pits at Sharnbrook run by Vauxhalls AC. These were very under fished often deserted , and one where 5 of us could pitch up on one of the lakes almost guaranteed to have it to ourselves , so a weekend was picked , job done. 

Lovely Sharnbrook pit looking up the arm .

We roughly had one of the 5 lakes in mind , on turning up it was indead very quiet with only a couple of practicing match men on the lake we fancied , and after a good look round I dumped my gear behind one of them to move in after they had finished , there was no rush . We had the whole bank to ourselves , with no a soul there , and I spent a bit of time before my mates turned up by climbing a tree in the spinny close to my swim mapping out the weed beds in front of me , working out where I thought fish may move through . There was a natural bottleneck to my left where the weed got a lot thicker , but with getting up and down the tree , and moving my marker float around I found a couple of cleanish areas in channels of the weed leading to the narrower end . We pitch our bivvies along the bank in a row with everyone happy with their water with the odd fish showing . The plan was get the rods out , sit back in the sun with a few beers ( lots ! ) , having a laugh , and a big BBQ. That exactly what we did !. Just before it was fired up I got the rods spot on , marked the lines for recasts , and spodded hemp / boilies tight into the channels before we carried our low chairs to the center point between the swims so we were all close to our rods , but next to a mountain of beer cans. 

The famous river Ouse runs thorough the complex

Much alcohol , and meat was consumed through the afternoon , with my son and his mate joining the social for a couple of hours laughing before driving the 25 miles home . As it was getting dark it was obvious we were running out of beer , but we did not mind , just sat chilling , and micky taking . Just on dark what we thought was a couple of bailiffs came walking through the dusk towards us, but it was both of them returning with more beer and a bivvi to join us , true life savers !. After a few more beers we decided , well most of us , to return to our beds . Not long after I had a couple of bleeps on my left hand rod in a tight channel , and a bream hung itself . After rebaiting I clipped up the rod and trusted the cast when it hit the clip , and the lead pulled the rod down . 20 mins later the same rod ripped off , a proper one toner , and I found myself hanging onto the rod in pitch black with a light drizzle starting . The fish really pulled hard into , and out off the weedbeds between us . At one point it was a stand off before it bolted out again pulling the rod round to the left heading up the narrow arm . I did not want it going that way as the thicker weed would defiantly cause me grief , and gave it the beans pulling round back my way . Dazza came alongside me with a net , and after a fight I won't forget in a hurry we bundled it into the net . We went about weighing the fantastic looking common , with the social to our right seeming all quiet ?. We noticed the size of its tail , it was massive , that with the fact that these fish hardly get caught showing why it was an extended mad fight .

An awesome mad common in the rain. 

 We slipped it into the net to recover,  and went to get the lads to show them , but lots were missing ? With just the lads fishing in their bivvies . The others had decided to try out cow tipping through a beery conversation of how you could push a sleeping cow over , and had wandered off looking for one !. With none about were on their way back when they see my headlights and hid in the trees , giggling . Once we all gathered together I had a few pics done , with everyone now having the serious fishing heads one we all retired to our beds . In the morning I looked out at the damp scene in front of me , with the sunny afternoon of the day before being replaced with a damp night . It got up early as I always do with a cup of strong black coffee and looked at the steaming lake . I strolled along to the others , all was quiet , but what was that bundle on the floor behind our swims ?. It was James , who managed to sleep in his JRC sleeping bag on the wet grass , pulled over his head oblivious to the rain he slept like a baby . He did in fact start off in a bivvi , but his mate Miller had moved the Titain to a more comfrey position for himself ! , a good mate !. No cows were harmed in the catching of this fish . 

Hatter

Carp Matches , and Gravel !

There was a time I helped out my mate Stu as a regional organiser for the Carp Society for the Chiltern region , he did the booking of speakers , and then we run the meetings in a church social club . We got fantastic support , always over 100 , and well over 200 for Rod Hutchingson . I loved helping out on the door , selling the raffle tickets , and meeting other carp anglers . It was because of this the the "Almost Famous Five " ended up doing some shows , with me doing the talk on our local waters , and Martin Clarke doing the second half talk on the big fish from around the country. The Almost Famous Five was bit of a laugh with the name a play on Maylins Famous Five who were banned from Savay , who the five of us were good friends with . It was through the Carp Society that I become good friends with Alan Atkins who run the next region to us based in Stevenage , who also run the junior fishing side of things , with get together weekends , and a big conference just for the kids . I thought that the syndicate that me and Stu were in would make a great venue for one of theses weekends for the kids , I wrote to the owners who gave us permission , and some top carp anglers like Andy Little , Zennon Bojko , and Tim Paisly gave up their time to give the kids a great weekend . We showed everyone to their swims chosen as best we could to suit everyone , with Tim and his wife in the willows , a really good swim with lots of room , and advice from us as to where to fish as best we could . Stu had caught a mid thirty from this swim showing Tim where the gravel hump was , explains to pull over the bumpy gravel into the silt where they fed , and popped a marker float up on the spot . The weekend went well , lots of fish being caught , with Andy Little losing a obviously big fish on a floater , although in the follow up write up in a carp mag Tim did think that the lack of action in his swim was down to people not finding the gravel in his swim properly for him ?! , ah well , the silt spot was lost on him some how ! .

Looking across to the willows on the fantastic kingfisher muddy lake ( chettles)

It was also at this time some of the earliest big carp matches started up , and with Horseshoe lake the venue me , Stu , and Desperate Dan ( Gary Bearman ) decided to have a go . We were backed by Big Carp magazine  ( Rob Maylin ) with a donation , tee shirts etc . In the lead up to the match I had some problems with my brand new to the general market Fox buzzers !. They had a production fault , I was really annoyed after paying out a lot of money for them . But to be fair to the company after explaining to them about the carp match Mr Fox himself sent me his own buzzers to use until replacements arrived , good service . We all went to the HQ in the carpark for the draw with lots of the best carp anglers , we drew the far end of the Whitney bank , up in the 40's , people saying not a great area but as it was the end peg in a one of my favoured areas I was happy . Funny , Tim Paisly was pegged dead opposite , and I took the opertunity to send a bait bag full of GRAVEL around to him with one of the stewards , and a note inside saying " this is what gravel looks like ", my little comeback !.

Our swim

We all fished hard all day , very little caught was caught around the lake , but I was very confident of action on my margin rods in the dark . At sometime in the night my right hand rod blasted off , a fierce take ripping line from the bait runner . I had put the rods out in the water to get a good line angle to the spots , and I woke to find myself up to my knees in water with the rod being pulled hard . After some moments where the fish got weeded , and some where it gave it the beans , I somehow managed to bundle it in the net with the fish between me and my buzzers !.  At a couple of ounces under 20lb I was well chuffed , and knew it would be a good fish to beat . The match drew near to it close with people telling me I was still winning with the biggest fish when I herd a buzzer on the entrance to summer bay , and when the fish went in the net a northen lad punched the air landing the biggest fish in the lake at mid twentys , the best way to get beat .

Turbo powered carp .

After my little tickle in the ribs about Tim Paisly , it has to be said that his vision for a different style of Junior Fish-ins was fantastic , turning it into the Carp School with a more structured weekend of picking skills from anglers who specialised in different areas , and tatics  , something he , and the CS should be proud of . So there you go , second in my only , and one the of the biggest carp matches , with a awesome looking beast of a fish , happy with that ! .

Hatter