A Gift Or Two From Above!

As I mentioned in my last piece in CARPology, ‘One Last Horton Hurrah’; I have now switched my attentions and one itch in need of a scratch was to have a dabble on Kingsmead 1. Next-door to Church Lake, Kingsmead 1 has a history as a big fish venue, but for some reason, in my mind, it never provided the nostalgia that Church did. After seeing photos of fish like Mr. Pink, Starry’s and Posh Sutton, I was definitely up for the challenge.

48lb 2oz! To say chuffed would be an understatement

I managed to get out for the usual mid-week overnighters and began walking Kingsmead for at least an hour before setting up anywhere, gathering my thoughts and watching the water intently for any signs of fish. On my first few trips I was lucky enough to drop on some showing carp, and it seemed that between the hours of 4pm and 6pm, as it got dark, the carp would make their location known with a brief head-raise or two.

I managed a nice brace of thirties on my first evening on the venue when I dropped into a swim called Starry’s. I had some fish sheeting up around sixty yards out, with the occasional roll thrown in as well. I assembled my rods swiftly and flicked the first rig out just to the side of the fizzing, as I didn’t want the lead to smash down right on top of their heads. The rigs were simple and standard for me, comprising a RidgeMonkey Curve Shank hook blow-back style and, most importantly, a Mainline Cell hookbait. I put the rod on the ground and loosened the clutch and was halfway through setting up the second rod when I heard the clutch on the first rod start to purr nicely. Unbelievable really, considering I had only just sunk the line some 90 seconds before! The fish gave a very hard fight and at first, I thought I had latched into one of the larger residents, until it hit the surface around twenty yards out. Then I could see it was a nice fish, just giving a very spirited battle in response to getting snared on my rig! Eventually a clean mirror rolled over the net and on the scales it weighed 30lb 8oz… a lovely start!

I quickly set-up the same rod, anticipating another bite. Ten minutes or so later, just as I was putting the first fish into a sling to recover for a few minutes, the rod was away again. This time I landed one of the stockies from three or four years before, but now weighing 35lb… she obviously liked some feed!

Following that trip I returned the following week after work, and on arrival at around 5pm I could see carp on the opposite side to the car park showing very close in, in a vacant swim. However there was a chap in the peg next-door and I knew I had to get there quickly before he moved in, so I grabbed a bucket and made a dash round.

35lb - Ice cold conditions didn’t stop me sneaking a few out - this one went 35lb

Anyway, as I got there the bloke in the next peg popped in for a chat and as it turned out he had been in the swim I was standing in for four days; he’d only moved out because he had to, due to the rules. He did however, mention that he hadn’t caught anything, but that they had only just turned up in the swim. As I stood there for a moment I saw three carp show, all at close range at around 35yds.

I prepared the rods with the usual set-up, but this time I included five-bait stringers, just so I had some feed around the rig. Sometimes I feel you want a bit of feed out there around your hookbait, but catapulting a few kilos on their heads just is not the way, so a stringer - albeit perhaps under-used these days - fitted the bill on this occasion. I managed to get my brolly set up this time, before the rod screamed off and as soon as I got the fish into the net, I recognised it as as a carp called ‘Wonky Chops’ at 29lbs-plus - my pal, Greg Ellis had named it last year after it graced his net numerous times during a campaign.

I nodded off around 10pm as I was shattered from work. I had reasonably broken sleep and I could hear carp breaking the surface every so often, and it must have been the mid-morning hours when my middle rod absolutely tore off aggressively. I could hear the clutch melting over the receiver’s tone. The carp didn’t fight particularly strongly considering the violent take and I soon had a ragged old common in the folds of net. She swung the needle around to 35lb and was a real old character, so it was nice to be getting amongst the real variety of the carp that K1 holds.

The bridge of dreams!

We were fast approaching mid-November and the temperature was dropping rapidly and although still mild for that time of year, it was obviously that the carp were feeling the fall, because I wasn’t seeing shows during the usual late afternoon window, or at all for that matter. I did manage an upper-twenty mirror on one overnighter, but things had definitely started to slow down bite-wise as all anglers were experiencing dwindling catch-rates, if any.

Now, whilst I’d been catching the carp that I had been dropping on during my time at the lake, I’d also been trying to give myself a little edge by baiting a swim further down the water that sees extremely little attention. I had been trickling in around a kilo a week for the first fortnight, but then upped this to five-kilos to really try and encourage those big fish to have a final feed-up before the winter set right in, all the time not fishing the swim. This was until I walked past one night and saw some of bubbles come up where I’d been feeding. I needed no more encouragement to start fishing and I was soon sitting there, making a brew behind the dispatched rods.

I saw nothing as the night hours quickly flew by and I soon hit the sack. I got up for a pee around 1am and the temperature had really dropped. There was evidence of a slight frost forming on my barrow, but I heard two fish rollouts beyond where my rigs were located. I didn’t want to spook anything with a recast, so left them where they were, all the while wishing a carp would come closer and towards my rigs whilst on the munch! Another hour or so passed and my wish was granted as my right-hand rod registered a steady bite as a fish slowly took line. I applied steady pressure, but the fish had too much weight for me to control and I knew this time I had something a bit bigger than I’d previously enticed from K1.

The fish slowly hugged the depths at distance, before it came into the margins and went absolutely nuts going down to my right under an overhanging bush. It must have taken around 40yds of line down the margin, but applying side strain whilst on my knees for around ten minutes, I managed to turn her towards me. Then the fish broke the surface in close, but on the other side of the overhanging bush and I got the dreaded grating sensation up the rod and realised my line was caught around a piece of sunken branch. I managed to just flick the line off and fortunately she was still struggling on the end. As she came up again just in front of me, I lunged forward and she was in… and blimey was she big! I wasn’t sure what fish of the A-Team it was, so rang my good pal, Rupert Whiteman to ask him to come around and do some pictures for me. His colourful reply cannot be put into print, but it was around 4am, he told me that he would be with me for first light.

On lookout duty as autumn turns to winter

I unhooked the carp which was absolutely nailed with one of the new RidgeMonkey Curve Hooks piercing the bottom lip and pulling right around exposing the point; that’s always a nice feeling when testing new tackle. I lifted the carp onto the mat and realised I would need the crook for this one, but I soon had the needle settled on 48lb 2oz! To say chuffed would be an understatement!

Sure enough and true to his word, Ru was there at daybreak to help me out and he took some pukka shots as always - cheers mate! He also confirmed that the fish was a carp called Mr. Pink and that she was at her biggest weight to-date; I strolled off to work on cloud nine (after re-baiting of course!).

As you can imagine I was absolutely buzzing and desperate to get back to the lake for another crack at the swim, however one of the dearest people in my life passed away the following day, a person who was Mr. Reliable and a bit of a father figure and guidance in my life. It was a couple of weeks later therefore, when I actually got down and in very late November. We’d also had a few frosts and the lake seemed like it was beginning to shut down a bit.

Kingsmead is around 35-acres and has a main ‘bowl’ type area with a couple of bays and then a slimmer-in-width channel at the opposite end. Most anglers were concentrating their efforts on the middle patch of water especially, due to it being good in previous winters for bites. I still felt though, that I had a good chance in the swim I had constantly been feeding as it had virtually no angling pressure.

I finished work on a Thursday and drove to K1 for a quick night session before work the following day, and my dear friend sent me a gift from above. I had a brief walk around and saw nothing, which was to be expected at this time of the year, so I decided to dispatch the rods down the channel where I’d snared Mr. Pink previously and where I’d put another big hit of Mainline Cell along with a new prototype boilie before I left last time. Although this would be long-since eaten, I just hoped they would still be searching the area, seeing as I’d been feeding them there constantly for weeks.

I put all three rods out at approximately fifty yards range and each rig had a small PVA bag of freebies attached. I didn’t put anymore bait out other than the bags, as I just wanted them to be looking for more of the same feed really. My pals were down for a bit of social on this particular evening and after plenty of laughs and a few beers we all turned in for the night.

In the early hours, my middle rod signalled some activity. I shone my head-torch out while still in the confines of my sleeping bag, and could see my middle rod had signalled a drop-back. Reluctantly I got out and tightened up the slack and it began dropping back further as I was tightening, and I could see the rod tip bouncing ever so slightly. I picked up the rod and wound down for England, as whatever was attached had clearly made its way towards me quite rapidly. Suddenly, the rod hooped over to reveal its full battle curve with a solid weight plodding on the end…

This was no bream - as I’d first thought when the bobbin dropped back - but definitely a good carp; it swam slowly about the swim, occasionally taking line, but all the time feeling heavier and heavier. After 10 minutes or so, my pals Rory and Justin walked into my swim to see if I needed any help. I told Rory to grab the net as we were going to see the fish rise any second. I shone my head-torch into the water and could see a good mirror struggling to free itself from my end tackle down in the deep margins. As the fish turned towards me, Rory and Justin, almost in unison, said, “Coxy… it’s Posh “Sutt”!” I didn’t really say anything and couldn’t comprehend what I was about to land, until Rory bundled her into the net and I was delighted to see they were spot-on. There was only one carp with shoulders on it like hers swimming about in K1. The one they all want in K1 was mine… Posh Sutton at 43lb 12oz! Again, Rupert did a sturdy job with the pictures and she swam off strongly to make another angler’s day.

One final look before she goes back into her watery home

I carried on plugging away on Kingsmead and managed to catch some lovely carp in some really cold conditions; that was a real pleasure. I popped down for a social with Rupert one Friday evening and we had planned to go to the Sandown Show the following day, so it was just a quick night, but wow the temperature dropped. The frost was thick and the air was bitter and well into negative figures. No bites were anticipated that night, but carp angling does throw up surprises from time to time and this was one of those nights. It must have been the early hours when my middle rod melted off and I played a lovely bruiser of a mirror of just over thirty pounds into the net. I was delighted with the result, but all the same quite wanting to get back into bed and try to keep warm. It wasn’t long before I had another run on my right-hand rod and this saw a lovely scaley mirror around the twenty-pound mark grace the bank.

The Posh in all her glory

30lb 8oz of hard scrapping K1 mirror

I’ll end this piece with the last two mirrors I caught on the final night in November… Again, a real horrid and bone-chillingly cold night befell me on the banks of Kingsmead. I was tucked up fast asleep and one of the rods began to signify a steady take. I shot out and began playing a chunky-looking mirror towards me, but when I went to grab the landing net the handle was frozen to the platform I was fishing from! I had to kick it a few times to free it, but after this brief mishap I landed a thickset mirror of 35lb, and an hour or so later another of 30lb… happy days!

Kingsmead 1 had given me a nice return in the short time I’d focused on it, but now a small lake next-door was drawing my attention: Horton’s Boat Pool… I’ll be in touch soon!