Guest Sessions with Mark Pitchers

Here I visit a stunning old Cambridgeshire pit that contains some of the most incredible looking carp I have ever fished for: Rivermeadow Fishery’s BP Lake.

BP is made up loads of bays and cut-throughs and is completely weed-choked

Key Point 1: About The Venue

Situated on the outskirts of Peterborough, The BP Lake is seldom publicised and rarely spoke of by name, yet the fish it holds would get anyone’s tongues wagging.

Like many waters that lay within close proximity to the A1, the pit was created to fulfil demand for gravel used in the construction of the road. It is thought that extraction ceased in the 1950s and the lake was then stocked some time in the 1970s with a mixture of coarse fish, including some small, scaly carp which many believe to be direct descendants of the original Leney strain. Since then, further stockings have taken place and today it is estimated that around 100 carp swim around in the six-acres of water. The largest caught to date is a stunning common of just under 40lb, although it is thought that bigger fish are present. That fish in particular managed to evade capture for 12 years, and there’s another common which was banked at 36lb seven years ago and hasn’t been landed since. There are also a handful of very large grass carp which have been landed to over 33lb, although there is an even larger one that has yet to be banked and is estimated at over 45lb.

The lake itself is spectacular although highly irregular in shape with little bays and channels making it something of a maze which just adds to its unique charm. As you can imagine, it is wonderfully mature, with tall willow trees adorning the banks and dense reedbeds and lily pads festooning the surface. Basically, if you closed your eyes and imagined a perfect carp lake it would look like this place.

Photobombing on James’s result!

Key Point 2: Session Preparation

Although I had heard plenty about the BP and seen numerous photos of the very special jewels it contained, it is a venue I have never actually fished before but dearly wanted to. As always, my preparation for tackling an unfamiliar venue began with a phone call to the fishery owner who in this instance was Dave Meny. I’ve known Dave for some years after I had spent a few sessions fishing his other lake, Greenacres, which is situated just the other side of the fence. Dave informed me that the weed was pretty severe and covered most of the lake’s surface, plus there was an abundance of dense lily beds and a few hefty snags to contend with too. He also mentioned that some of the members had been down raking the weed and pre-baiting swims and that these areas were reserved for them. This was totally understandable; after all, I wouldn’t want to take the Mickey and catch fish on the back of others people hard work anyway.

I decided to kick-off free-lining a couple of floating pellets

Dave also mentioned the fish regularly frequent the margins, often just inches from the bank, and also that they are partial to a floater too. This certainly sounded promising, especially considering temperatures for my session were set to reach the high 20s and were likely to be prime surface fishing conditions.

So, having taken all that info into consideration, tackle was prepped and I can remember feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve; I couldn’t wait for this session!

Creeping into position

Key Point 3: The Session

After a leisurely two-and-a-half hour drive down the Great North Road I arrived at the lake on an overcast yet rather warm and muggy mid-summer’s morning. With just one other angler present I made my way over to introduce myself and have a bit of natter. It turned out I had actually been chatting to the lad who was called James the night before on Instagram after he’d heard from Dave that I would be fishing a guest session. James was one of the venue regulars and he was more than happy to share any info as well as suggesting a few areas for me to investigate further.

So, having grabbed my polaroids from the van I set off on a tour of the lake to try and find a carp or two. This was easier said than done as the lake was like a labyrinth! Amongst the tall undergrowth there were little paths leading off in all directions, many of which came to dead ends, and with the lake being such an irregular shape it took me a while to find my bearings! Even then it didn’t make finding the carp any easier and after completing a full circuit I’d only seen a handful of solitary carp which were in the dense weed with just their backs shimmering in the sunlight as they broke the surface.

With a good number of carp in the lake I was sure there would be small groups of fish hidden away somewhere, and over the next few hours I trod the banks in search of their whereabouts. But, with so much of the lake being overgrown and inaccessible it did make for tough going; there were just so many areas where the carp could escape prying eyes. I had been told that many of the lake’s residents often go years without visiting the bank and with so many hiding places it’s easy to see why this happens!

As the day wore on, the sun’s rays grew in intensity and consequently more fish did start to come into view. Once again though, the majority of the carp were laid up in the heavy weed in the main body of water. The weed was so dense the fish had difficulty manoeuvring their way through it. In fact, there was barely any water actually visible, apart from the occasional small depression in the weed which were no bigger than a bin lid and looked like a puddle in a grassy field. Every now-and-then the weed would “rock” slightly as a fish shuffled its way into position and in doing so giving away its presence. I was in no doubt this was where I wanted to be, but I felt the only way to fish and safely extract a carp from these areas would be to don the waders, get out into the lake and drop a hookbait in position.

Thanks to getting battered by the tench, I decided to switch back to my tried and tested Hinged Stiff Link

As I was a little unfamiliar with the rules regarding wading, I quickly give Dave a call to explain my plan and to see if it met the fishery owners overall approval! Dave was in full agreement that from a fish safety point of view it was certainly the best approach, and he also assured me that the water was only three-feet deep and shallowed up to less than that towards the centre. As well as thinking of the fish safety you also need to consider your own, and obviously if the lake been any deeper then I wouldn’t have even attempted it, so if you are unsure of of the lake’s depth or topography then you shouldn’t either!

Having scrambled back to the van to sorted out some kit I immediately heard a cheer from where James was fishing and having gone over to investigate I found him with a lovely dark mirror in the net. At just over 20lb it only whetted my appetite further, so having photobombed his pics I made my way back to the swim carrying only a few essentials hoping to replicate James’ result.

Getting the traps set

Having got rubbered up in my chesties I took to the water armed only with a landing net, a rod and a reel loaded with 20lb Fox Exocet Trans Khaki which was tied direct to a size 6 Stiff Rig Beaked hook. Two soft floating trout pellets were simply side hooked and having waded into position I flicked the free-lined offering into the “hole” in the weed where a number of fish were situated. After standing there motionless like a heron for what seems like an age (it was probably only fifteen minutes) a pair of lips broke the surface and edged closer to my hookbait. My heart was racing, but as the fish tried to engulf the free offering it ended up pushing it further away before it realised something wasn’t quite right and it bolted taking all the other fish with it! Back to the drawing board then!

After that fiasco the carp seemed to go into hiding and one thing that Dave and James had both mentioned was that the carp often move out of this weedy section on a nighttime and venture into the side/back channels. So, after completing several more laps and failing to locate any more carp I felt this info was certainly worth acting upon.

I set-up halfway along one of the lake’s narrow arms that would allow me to fish into both the narrow channel itself and also the main body of water should the fish not venture far from the weed. After simply casting around each swim and feeling the lead down to the lakebed I soon found two nice clean spots in the margins amongst weed, silt and debris on which to set my traps. I had been warned the tench could be quite troublesome so I opted to use tiger nuts as hookbaits. That’s not to say they are totally impervious to their tenchy attentions but they do seem less favoured than boilies or bright baits. A handful of creamed tiger nuts and 15mm Odyssey XXX boilies over each rod and the traps were set.

The result was one of the oldest, carpiest looking carp I’ve ever caught!

Due to the severity of the weed, lilies and snags that were in close proximity, tackle was substantial to avoid any losses. The main line was 23lb Fox Exocet which went down to a lead clip set-up and a simple bottom bait rig tied from a 25lb coated hooklink and a size 4 wide gape beaked point hook.

Within just a few minutes or so I began to receive liners on both rods and things were starting to look very promising indeed as time and time again the bobbins would smack the blank of the rod before falling back down to their original resting place. After an hour of this happening I started to feel like something wasn’t quite right and I began questioning whether these were in fact liners, or whether it was tench picking and dropping the rig and leaving it in a tangled mess. I decided to reel in the rods to investigate, and sure enough they were in a tangled mess in big balls of weed. So, the tiger nut bottom bait rigs were duly removed and substituted for my ever faithful Hinged Stiff Rigs and Odyssey XXX White Pop-Ups.

With the rigs back in place just in time for nightfall I gave both spots a fresh introduction of bait and retired to my bed beneath the stars. It was then I received a message off James asking how I was getting on and he sent me a pic of a stunning jet-black scaly mirror which had been on his target list for some time. After seeing that pic I went to sleep brimming with optimism, so when I awoke at first light without with nothing to report you can imagine my disappointment.

The clock was very much ticking on this session, I only had a few hours remaining and right now it was looking like I would be leaving with a blank. I decided to spark up the stove for a much-needed cuppa and no sooner had I done so when the alarm sounded and all hell broke loose! The rod slammed round violently as a carp made its desperate bid for freedom amongst the lily pads. I was on it in a flash but the carp had no intentions of giving up just yet! With the carbon creaking and the fish thrashing around in the pads all I could do was apply the pressure and hope everything would hold.

And here she is. Wow

Thankfully it did, and I quickly got the upper hand and following a short yet intense battle, a stunning looking scaly mirror slid into my net. As I lay the fish down on the mat I couldn’t help but gasp; it was stunning. A jet-black scaly warrior, as old as the hills, only more majestic. The weight was immaterial, but for the record she weighed 23lb 9oz. This had to be one of the most impressive looking creatures I had caught in a long time, and also one of the oldest.

With the photos done we slid her back and a short while later James came to see how I was getting on so I showed him the pics on the camera. He could hardly believe his eyes; it was the same fish he had sent me a photo of the night before! James went on to say it is one of the most-sought after fish in the lake; I’d got lucky with my very first bite!

Although it was almost time to be hitting the road I decide to recast the rod while I packed my kit away; and I’m glad I did, because just ten minutes later it rattled off again! Once again following a frantic yet short lived battle another jet-black BP carp with nestled in my net. Weighing around mid-doubles it was one of the lake’s smaller residents but was still very much welcomed all the same and was a superb way to finish off a very memorable session.

Weighing around mid-doubles it was one of the lake’s smaller residents but was still very much welcomed all the same

Key Point 4: Session Summary

Considering this was my first visit to the venue I understandably came away feeling very happy indeed. Bagging one of the lake’s most desirable residents with my very first bite was a massive stroke of luck, and to back that up with a second fish was just the icing on the cake. The info I received from Dave and James was absolutely spot-on and was a huge help during this session, but I learned a vast amount about the venue during my short stay, and if I was to revisit the venue under the same conditions then I would fish it in exactly the same way; hopefully I’ll get the opportunity again some day?