Covert Carping With Greg Ellis

So bring us up to speed from where we left you a couple of months back—you’d got off to a great start landing a 38lb 8oz mirror…
“Well, I wasn’t entirely honest in the last interview, and with January fast approaching and the chance of my target fish doing its winter capture, I had to play it cool—basically I lied! I didn’t lie just to be a dick about things, and if any of the members are reading this, I did it for a couple of reasons… 

“I wanted to stack the odds in my favour and not draw attention to the swim I’d been putting all my effort into over the autumn, as this would inevitably ruin my chances! This particular carp is one of the rarer ones for the pit, and it doesn’t visit the bank much over the year—maybe once or twice, if you’re lucky! I didn’t want it on the grapevine—we all know too well that news spreads like wildfire in the carp scene! 

“The lake was slowly but surely seeing fewer anglers arrive for weekend sessions. Many had either pulled off for pastures new for the colder months, or they’d simply hung up their rods up for the foreseeable and left the men to it, shall we say. If I had told people what I was catching, making everyone happy by sharing my every move, no doubt I would have a lot of friends who would all love me. Instead, though, I chose to be less social and tried not to interact or get involved in many conversations, fearing the dreaded question as the chat flows—you know the one, “How are you getting on? You had anything?” I hate lying and would much rather avoid that awkward situation. It was purely to keep the lake quiet so as not to see other anglers return for a dabble. 

“If word gets out that your local water is doing bites still, it’s tempting to go back. This would also have caused issue with the hardcore boys who stay on for the winter, the influx of other anglers hitting the bank and making it busy again. I would get the grief and the blame, for telling people that I’d caught, or with them finding out that I had after I’d posted a catch shot on social media. Sometimes you just can’t win, and although I keep some anglers happy by doing this, I upset others if I lie to their faces.

“I’m sure this will explain it all, and if I did upset anyone along the way, hopefully they will now understand. I’ve fished many pressured waters and I have a lot of experience on how things can do you more harm than good. Trying to make friends by sharing your every move will only do you harm when there’s a big prize at stake like a 60lb mirror!

“The weekend after I had my thirty-eight-pounder, I was up in London with my girlfriend, celebrating her thirtieth birthday. Conveniently, lockdown restrictions had eased massively a couple of days before and we’d all been encouraged to ‘Eat out to help out’—oh, how must they feel now! Anyway, we had a night out in a mega-expensive restaurant-cum-nightclub and I ended up spending a bomb. London was normal that weekend, and the bars were buzzing—mental!

“Shortly after, we went into another lockdown, with the various tiers being announced. Everywhere closed down again just in time for my birthday… how’s my luck? 

“The following weekend, I was back on the pit and we had a full moon on the Saturday. Having missed a weekend, and having also missed my weekly opportunity to bait my spots, I wasn’t at my most confident—it’s funny how a regular baiting campaign can have such a positive effect. I got down on the Thursday and I blanked for the first two nights. Reluctant to vacate the swim for a mooch around to look for any signs, I decided to sit it out and see if the moon had any effect on the lake, and funnily enough, it did!

“On the Saturday night I managed a rare tench from the venue, and two carp. One was a fairly recently stocked mirror of 24lb 2oz, the other a common of 31lb. I had to do my self-takes quickly, out of sight of anyone who might be peering through binoculars from the opposite bank. I kind of messed it all up, and thanks to a misted-up lens, I ended up with an out-of-focus fish shot. It didn’t matter, though, I had another two carp under my belt and the hunt for the one I really wanted was on—or so, I thought! 

“I blanked the next couple of weekends, but I stuck to my guns and kept applying the bait to my spots. Everything I was doing was all a part of my plan for when January arrived.

“The next full moon fell on a weekend again, and I managed two bites. Unfortunately, I lost one of the fish in thick weed, but the other turned out to be a lovely 38lb mirror. There’s definitely something about this place and full moons. The pattern had started to form, and although I was basically camping out in one swim all the time, I was getting to know things about the place.

“Whilst the ball was rolling nicely and my plans were seemingly coming together for my grand finale of the capture of the big mirror, in the end, all my effort and determination were wasted. The country went into an even stricter lockdown, and travel restrictions affected fishing nationwide! We could do only the days and only fish locally. This brought my winter campaign to an abrupt halt, given that the lake is one hundred and thirty-seven miles from my home! 

“Oh well. I will not be beaten, and shall return in due course—fingers crossed!”

Talk us through this ‘covert carping’ approach you’re having to take… 
“In my last interview with you guys, I made mention of the 38lb 8oz mirror and that I was being watched at first light through binoculars as I retrieved my prize from the margins. This meant that every man and his dog with a ticket on the lake would come to know that I’d caught from a less popular swim. Catching on a busy lake, from a swim like this particular one is the jackpot for me. Being a weekend angler, usually arriving in the dark at ten o’clock on a Friday night doesn’t leave me with much of a choice of swims. I would have to try and be less obvious the second time around, if I wanted to start a baiting campaign on this place.

“Everyone I spoke to said that you couldn’t keep anything quiet on there, and that there are eyes on you all of the time. This put in place a new challenge, and as well as catching the carp, I also set myself the task of catching fish without being seen. This was a buzz in itself—I’m a true adrenaline junky, and if there’s a challenge, I’m accepting it!

“I set myself up a little area out of the way in the bushes for my filming and photography, and instead of retaining my fish in front of my swim and in full view, I walked along the bank and waded them out under the snaggy and binocular-proof area of overhanging trees which my side offered. Two carp later, nobody had a clue. Mission accomplished!

“The 38lb carp which quickly became my last fish, was a harder one to hide, however, but I was ready to up my game. I had another angler in the swim next-door, and he had a visitor at first light who just wouldn’t budge. The clock was ticking and I had two options: return the carp without any photos, or draw a decoy into play. The decoy option seemed far more fun to me. 

“My good friend, Lenny, who I met on Burghfield, was fishing up the other end of the lake, so I called him and told him that I could do with a hand. He was off to Burghfield for a work party later that morning, so he was already packing up and said he’d pop round. Soon after he arrived, and he immediately joined my neighbours’ conversation, getting straight to work with his distraction tactics, whilst I was in the snaggy margins retrieving my prize for a shoot. I don’t know how I got away without being seen, but I did. 

“Three nil! I quite like this covert game now!”

Lol! What other tricks have you been up to?! Baiting close-range spots when people are watching, and baiting the margins for the birdlife? Tell us more… 
“Ha ha… have you been watching The Ellis Diary? It’s not something I do regularly, but it had to be done that day, so, I thought I’d film it for a laugh. When I do bait a different spot to the one I’m fishing, I do so because I’m being watched, I wouldn’t put that on YouTube for everyone to see, as that’s my little secret. I’d planned to do the whole winter and make a video at the end, if I had been lucky enough to catch the one I wanted. When the lockdown started, however, and I was done, I decided to edit the video and I put it in there as I knew I wouldn’t be back to finish what I set out to do in that swim. When I return, I won’t be doing again what I did during this campaign… I need to keep one step ahead and that’s old news now.

“As for the baiting in the edge for the swans, that’s just bad angling and I strongly advise people not to waste such good quality bait on birds…” (‘Wink’ emoji!) 

Talk us through how you pick spots within a swim; don’t you pick them with the thinking that you could hit them from a different swim if someone jumps into yours? 
“This question is hard to answer, and I kind of hope nobody paid much attention to that on my Ellis Diary to be honest. Saying that, I’m going to be brutally honest here, and not type a thousand words of lies to swerve the subject, so I’ll politely ask for the next question please…”

Fair enough mate. Up until the national lockdown, were you still applying a lot of bait, and how much?
“Yes, my heavy baiting campaigns start around October time when the carp like to have a big feed-up ahead of winter. I would usually use ten kilos of Mainline’s Cell boilie every weekend. I wouldn’t just turn up and chuck it all in, though. I would fish for a bite first, and try to catch a carp from an area before I started to apply the bait. Once I have caught, that’s when the baiting begins. If one carp has fed there, this gives me the confidence I need to try and catch another from the same zone. I would generally bait with the majority of the boilie after my session, though. This gives me the determination and drive to get back the following week to see how it’s performing. I never reduce what I take each week, even during the harshest cold weather! I will always take my ten kilos of Cell and apply it each visit. The approach, though, only works well once you have found an area they like to feed on, and it’s only effective if you have started the heavy baiting before the cold weather arrives.

“If I was going to a lake in the winter, without any previous baiting or bites from the end of October, I wouldn’t dream of pulling ten kilos of boilie out of my freezer for that weekend. There will have been no groundwork and I’d have no knowledge of how they will respond to it, so I would go for a much lighter approach.

“If you set your winter campaign up at the end of the autumn, you can usually get consistent results all the way through. If you haven’t, then you’ll probably struggle with this approach.”

…In the same swim and to the same areas, or where you spreading it around?
“I use a lot of bait, and to do well, I feel I have to concentrate on just one swim. Usually, I will have one or two big areas in that swim which I can spread with boilies, putting two rods on the same spot, maximising my chances of a pick-up from whatever spot does a bite first. A spread of whole boilie is much better than a tight and proper carpy ‘dinner plate’ spot in my experience.”

Bait obviously plays a big role in your angling, and during the winter months when it’s quiet, you can get away with putting a lot in, but how do you go about it during the spring and summer months?
“Good question. This type of approach only really comes into play in the autumn and winter months, as I find the carp are more partial to a boilie before it gets cold—and the more the better. This one-swim tactic of baiting and waiting is only possible for a weekender like me when the lakes are far less busy. During the spring, I will be much more mobile; and in the summer before they spawn, I don’t do these big baiting missions as they just aren’t interested in too much food. That, though, I’ll explain when we get to it.”

How much importance do you place on moon phases? Which are your favourites? 
“I never really believed in the moon phases and how they affect the behaviour of carp until a few years ago. There have, though, been too many apparent coincidences over the last few years which can only be explained by the effects of a full moon. Obviously, I’m not a die-hard moon enthusiast who picks his days only around a full or new moon as I don’t have the luxury of choosing exactly when I go. My fishing is all weekends, and if a full or new moon falls on that particular weekend, it feels good, and my confidence will be much higher than on others, that’s for sure!”

During those early sessions on your target lake, you picked a swim with unworn grass. Is that something you do on a lot of lakes… look for those quieter, often overlooked areas before baiting them heavily? 
“Yes, most definitely. I want to bait a swim which I will have a chance of getting into the following weekend, so the less popular ones are where I will concentrate most of my efforts of getting them going on the bait.”

Unlike a lot of anglers, you’ve been fishing quite a bit with one rod, rather than two or three, just to keep the line pressure down. Is this something you often do?
“I strongly believe that line pressure on these busy pits plays a massive part in whether you succeed or fail on the day. The swims are quite close to each other on this venue, and if the angler next-door has three lines out—as my neighbour regularly had—I would opt to fish one or two rods, just to keep the line pressure down. Sometimes, less is more—I swear by that saying. A lot of carp anglers use three rods all year, and that third rod is usually chucked somewhere in the hope of an extra bite. This could be the reason they blank on such a session. In my experience, that extra line in the swim can most definitely do you more harm than good.” 

That lodge (and the whole lake) at Johnsland Fishery is next level! How much did you enjoy that trip!
“I absolutely loved my time at Johnsland Fishery. My usual angling is fairly serious stuff, and bites don’t come easily—ten carp all season from the waters I target is a good average.

“To go to a holiday venue like Johnsland with my girlfriend and our dog, with the water’s luxurious setting, in the winter, and to go on to land 8 carp between us to 34lb 4oz was a like a breath of fresh air. I loved it, Becky loved it, and Bailey our boxer loved it… so much so, that we’re returning again in May this year.”

You fined down for your trip to Devon—smaller Ronnies, bait size, hookbait size etc. Does your approach change as you move from winter into spring?
“No, never. This scale-down was just a one-off.”

Your mix for Devon was very bitty—crushed Cell, pellets, maggots—and not your normal approach. Why do you love a boilie-only approach? Does it just make the fishing easier, both in terms of baiting up and hooking them, because of the way they feed on boilies?
“I never fine down for the winter and I never change my ways, but I had no choice at Johnsland. If I was going to be successful, I needed to adapt my approach, which is something I do only if I need to. The braided main line was swapped for mono; the size 4 hooks were replaced with 6s; my hookbaits were smaller than usual; my boilies were crushed instead of being used whole; and I added some pellet and maggot to my mix. This was all for one good reason: the majority of the fish were fresh stocked. They had softer mouths and had been fed on pellets, so probably didn’t know what a boilie was. I knew my straight, whole-boilie approach wouldn’t be as effective on this venue as it normally is on my usual waters.

“As for the change from braided main line to mono, this was for the stretch factor. Braid has no stretch, and as mentioned, these carp had soft mouths. The mono gave me that bungee-type effect under the rod tip and would definitely prevent the dreaded hook-pull which the braid might bring!”

When does your boilie-only approach start? Will you use a lot of bait from March to May?
“My boilie-only approach never normally ends, and I changed only for the trip to Devon as I’ve just explained. I usually leave my chosen winter venue in March to head for pastures new, and although I’ve been using a lot of boilie up until now, the new venue is fresh and I’ve done no groundwork. As such, I will fish with minimal bait and for one bite at a time. The carp in the spring aren’t really up for a mega-baiting campaign and a single pop-up cast to a showing fish, or perhaps a Zig, can be the most effective styles of angling. I start to apply more boilie only after they’ve spawned, and I’ve found anytime from August onwards is when the bait-and-wait approach can come back into play again.”

What have you been up to since the country went back into lockdown with fishing restricted to just days? 
“I’ve been pulling my hair out and going crazy, basically! I have managed one day session with an old friend, on a local lake in Corringham, Essex. It’s become quite a well-known water over the years and goes by the name of Jimmy’s Lake. My friend got me a ‘guesty’ for the day, as the usual day permit at the time was a special winter ticket, so you can’t just ‘pay as you go’ like you usually can. I managed a 24lb 10oz common, and it was heaven to hear an alarm again and get a bend in the rod. Good times, indeed!” 

Finally, is the plan to keep fishing on the big lake in pursuit for that 60lb mirror, once night fishing is allowed again? 
“My plan for the big pit was only for the winter, when the big mirror would potentially go 60lb. I’d planned to angle elsewhere this spring and summer and return for another try in October. This lockdown has really thrown a spanner in the works, though, and I may return in the summer for another go after they’ve spawned. I won’t get my expected 60lb mirror at that time of the year, but the fish has grown on me now and I want it regardless of its weight. I’ll spend my spring on a non-publicity water now, though, and I may be fairly quiet on my YouTube channel and social media platforms. Don’t worry, though, I’m still out there doing it… I haven’t given up, ha ha.”