A Day In The Life Of Thomas Sugden

So just a little bit about me and where I’ve come from, I’ve been fishing from a very young age and caught my first carp here at Brafferton fisheries, as years have gone on I’ve joined the world of specimen fishing. We all have that dream of working on the local lakes and fishing 24/7 and without me realising it, that’s exactly what I was about to embark on. With a management/bailiff role at Brafferton fisheries offered to me and the opportunity of opening my own tackle shop, I set about changing the scene with a smile from ear to ear. 

First things first… the lakes, with 4 lakes to attack I set about the smallest, our Island Lake. The path now feeling like a tight rope with pegs swaying like jelly I decided to get the mini digger down there, get it all ripped out and a new path set around the outside of the lake, I wanted to be careful not to lose the character of this lake, it almost feels like you step back in time as you break through the entrance. I won’t lie I nearly lost the mini digger a few times but within a couple of weeks and a million brews, it was all dug out and ready to be lined for the path and pegs. A few more weeks and another gallon of tea and I’d finished off the island lake with some added family pegs ready for our teaching weekends.

I moved straight onto the ghost lake, this one had islands which looked like most of us during lockdown without access to hairdressers! Hedge trimmer, chainsaw and some snips in the boat and I was on my way. I don’t know whether it was the old school rock music blasting through my headphones or something else but it definitely felt like I was entering the jungle like a Rambo movie, apart from the fact I’m shy of 6ft and being attacked by brambles, not automatic rifles! With that being said I don’t know who came off worse the brambles or my skin, the islands were finally cut back, some snags were removed and again a new path had been lined and laid. 

I decided I wasn’t fully happy with the pegs on the ghost lake either so I pulled most of them out to replace them with new structures or re-secured the old and replaced the top sheet. At this point I’m raring to have a rod in and walking up the left-hand side of ghost lake I noticed the water had gone brown as if the fish were stirring up the lake bed, and I knew that was the spot. I quickly went back to the store for some pellet mix to bait the area for my return after I’d finished the other pegs. I must have set up at around 6 p.m. for a few hours and managed to get myself a lovely common at 17lb 2oz followed by a 16lb fully scaled. 

With my carp fix being filled, I moved onto our F1 match lake which needed some margins cut and raked back and around 30 pegs replaced, all done by the 30th of April. At this point my Tackle shop “Tom’s tackle” was receiving stock ready to launch and with only one lake to complete and general maintenance to follow I felt in a good position (apart from my old back telling me otherwise)! 

From the 1st of May it was hectic, to say the least, I managed to get stock in and on the shelves in 2 days along with making the shelves... however I’d completely forgotten about getting signs, bags or well just anything else apart from the bait. Even though I had stock, I knew there were a million and one improvements I wanted to make over the coming months. 

Over the next couple of days, the shop really came together just in time for the Fish North event on the 7th of May. At this point, all the pegs around our F1 match lake and Ghost lake were completed and ready for the eager anglers awaiting in the car parks. The fish north event went smoothly with the match starting at 11 a.m., I went to spend some time with the rods out on island lake and managed a lovely afternoon picking up 6 carp between 7 - 15lb on a bed of corn and robin red pellets. With the match now coming to an end I quickly got packed up and headed back to catch some photos and the results. 

With mid-May showing some warmer nights we started to see a bit more activity in the water and with all the islands and margins cut back the fish had been on the move again. Some anglers are taking time to find a new spot for the following season and asking what sort of stock to expect from each lake. This allowed me to get people excited about the pull & 20 and get a free bag of bait competition I was running. A few days later I received a message to say a 20lber had been caught on the top end of the ghost lake, I grabbed the bike and cycled up to check out the catch. The fish was just a touch over 20lb and meant the angler was able to come back to the shop to choose his free bag of bait. 

Over the next week, Tom’s Tackle became a bit of a slow burner so I decided to start working out how to remove most of the rushes from our Spring Lake. After many afternoons of googling I came to the conclusion that it would be best to net the area off after flushing the fish out, after netting the area I could carefully work away at the roots to achieve a nice snag free lake bed. With everything planned out for June’s maintenance on the spring lake, I decided to plan a night's fishing on our Ghost Lake. 

With the day at the shop out the way and bivvy already set up I set about getting the traps out into some carpy looking spots… It couldn't have been more than half an hour and my left margin rod was away with a lovely 9lb Ghosty, the night went on providing bites from both margin rods continuously. It was like clockwork at one stage, a fresh 12mm pop up, check the putty and hook, dropped in and 20-30 mins later another fish falls to the traps. 

I always enjoy whatever I catch. I'd say I spend more time talking about the weird and wonderful ones over the big chunks and lumps, however nothing beats a single tone at 2 a.m., scrambling out the bedchair and slipping on the bank in your nice toasty socks (that of course are now ruined and soaked). Well after the 25 minute battle I brought in a lovely dark 16lb 9oz common, it had an immaculate mouth which always puts the cherry on top for me. With that lovely common in the net, I brought the rods in for well-needed sleep! Before I knew it I was back up at 6:30 a.m. to get packed away and back on the bank as a bailiff. 

Just as a quick last job for the month I had received a big flag and few other bits from dynamite baits so it was about time I got them flying high…. a massive thank you to all the team at CARPology, Rollin’ Baits, Dynamite Baits, Mark, Lloyd and of course Hannah without your support and help none of this would be a reality! 

See you next month with an open match and the start of the carp academy.