Up close & personal

It really didn’t take long to realise where I had to be when I arrived at Thorney – even before I’d technically arrived at the venue I could see them.

There’s a small, public bridge that crosses the ‘Channel’ section of Thorney, and as many of you may know, this section is actually out-of-bounds and the carp certainly know that – ‘stacked up’ would probably be an understatement. I only had to stand on the bridge for a matter of minutes and I lost count of how many fish I could see, and some good ones too! I just had to get as close to them as possible to try and nick a bite when the carp are flirting around the out-of-bounds rope, which signaled the furthest point that you are allowed to cast. Luckily, the swim that would enable to fish up against the out-of-bounds rope was actually empty, so I stood in the swim for a good twenty minutes, simply to try and get a rough idea of whether the carp were confident enough to come ‘this’ side of the rope. Three swirls, two patches of fizzing and one show later, I think I’d seen all the evidence I needed to know that the carp were confident to move out – right into the areas where I could present a rig – perfect!

So I’d found them - i just needed to get a couple of rigs in position without spooking them 10yds back into their home where they know they can’t get a razor-sharp piece of metal through their bottom lip. It sounds simple enough, but when you’re fishing an underarm flick away, any noise made whatsoever can affect your chances. I probably spent more time creeping up and down the swim putting my rods together than actually looking for fish.

Making minimal disturbance was really going to put things in my favour for the coming night – and I know what I’m about to say is going to sound counter-productive but I’ve got a bit of reasoning behind it: I decided to opt for solid PVA bags on both rods. Solid PVA bags and minimal disturbance – I know they don’t go hand-in-hand, but my idea was two casts, two splashes and that’s it until the morning. If I decided to opt for anything else I’d be inclined to put a couple of free offerings around and end up making a bit more disturbance, but with a solid PVA bag I know I’ve got more than enough attraction and free offerings to get a bite. Plus, I’m also mega confident in them, which is always nice.

They won’t even know you’re there!

Both of my rods were an under-arm flick away, with the right-hand rod being placed nicely under a canopy from the far bank, and the left-hand rod going in the middle of the channel as close as I could get it to the rope. That’s all I needed for the night, and coupled with some very slack lines I thought I was in with a good shout at some point, especially through the hours of darkness.

It soon became time to get the kettle on in anticipation for the forthcoming night, and with that ‘H’ was round in my swim for an evening social – you could call it a social but we found ourselves whispering for the remainder of the evening. Close-range angling isn’t really suited to having a social with your pal(s).

Keep hidden or you can ruin your own chances!

As the cliché ‘carpy’ pile of tea bags starting piling up, the fish started to show themselves on a more frequent basis. They began showing in large numbers further down the channel past the bridge and to be completely honest they were nowhere near where I was actually fishing, but as the hours of darkness progressed, the fish started to follow suit. Before we knew it, time had started catching up on ‘H’ and I, and it was time to hit the sack, full of hope that I’d be woken up by probably one of the most exciting sounds in carp fishing: de…de…de… Delkim!

First blood

Jumping forward six hours to about 5:30am, I find myself still very much asleep and startled by the early morning sunlight, but attached to a nice scaly mirror. It wasn’t the biggest of carp, but nice to get off the mark on the first morning! However, before that one could be lifted up for the cameras, my left-hand rod was away – with line absolutely melting off the spool as the fish shot off further down into the channel. ‘H’ told me to grab the rod while he placed the fish into the floatation sling for ten minutes while I landed the second fish.

An eventful night leaves a sight we all wish for…

Immediately after lifting up into the second rod, it become clear that it was a much better fish and I struggled to turn it. With a lot of too and throw, I managed to get the carp making its way back towards me – it’s incredible to think how long the fight lasted, considering I was basically fishing under my rod tips. A couple of minutes later was the first time ‘H’ saw the fish I was attached to. “Chunk!” exclaimed ‘H’, as it twisted and turned under the rod tip; trying to spit the hook right in front of our noses. We both knew it, but we didn’t want to mention the fact that it could be a personal best common for me, which at the time stood at 29lb 12oz, as knowing my luck it’d end up falling off. There was no messing around when it came to netting this one though, the first time its head come above the water, ‘H’ managed to scoop it up in one clean movement – unit in the net – get in!

Before I could even attempt to get the fish on the bank, ‘H’ decided that that it would be very important to get the kettle on and have an early morning coffee to wake us up – and just wait 15 minutes until the sun was burning across the horizon for some lovely shots – suppose I don’t really want to look like a zombie with a potential personal best common in the net either!

A double-figure scaly… Start as you mean to go on

The little mirror we ‘guestimated’ to be around the mid-double mark, so ‘H’ took a couple of quick shots and we slipped it back, with the excitement and anticipation building up for the bigger common that was languishing in the folds of my net. On the bank it really became clear what size this common was; I was almost certain that it would top the 30lb barrier but I didn’t want to speak too soon. The short solid bag rig worked perfectly as the hook hold was perfectly positioned in the bottom lip – this one certainly wasn’t getting away with it! Once she was all treated up with the Klin-Ik, it was time to hoist her up on the scales to see what she went.

32lb 4oz bar of gold posing in the morning sun!

‘H’ done the honours for me and revealed, after what seemed an age, that she topped the scales at 32lb 4oz – what a result! It was good to finally have caught my first 30lb+ common, but I think the capture was made even more special as I caught it basically under my rod tips – which is a style of angling that I haven’t really done much of in the past, and not to mention to colours of this thing were just out-of-this-world! Buzzing.

I held her up nice and proud in the early morning sunlight, which really helped to capture the golden tones of this common – a very special one from Thorney. Then came along the best bit, watching the old-girl swim strongly away back into the depths to make someone else’s day.

With the session off to a flyer, I was soon back in my swim preparing pre-tied solid bags on Core Zero leaders, with the idea being that I could quickly attach a solid bag using the Loop-To-Loop method, should I need to recast or if I was to be lucky enough to catch another one.

It all seemed to be going well until it came to the time where I had to recast my left-hand rod, and then… well, everything just went downhill. I’m a firm believer that when something good happens, something bad will also follow suit and this was definitely the case on this session. I just couldn’t seem to get the underarm cast right for my left-hand rod – I seemed to manage it fine the evening before – so I started getting frustrated with myself – and we all know once the frustration kicks in everything just gets ten-times worse, so it was time to get the kettle on and calm myself down!

After that, I managed to flick the rod out first time – why couldn’t I do that ten minutes ago? Back to tying solid bags in preparation for the day, if this morning was anything to go by it looked positive for a couple of fish throughout the day time.

Settling in for what could be a busy night…

It all looked very positive for the next couple of hours with a fish rolling just behind the left-hand rod and I also had a couple of liners – the fish were still here. And then came along 9:00am, and the builders – oh no! Many of you may know that Thorney has had some problems in the past with ‘youngsters’ riding their bikes all around the mud tracks around Thorney, so we were informed that the council were putting in barriers to prevent the bikers from getting onto the tracks, and this meant a lot of digging up concrete and a load of noise, which wasn’t exactly discrete… Back to square one as the fish instantly decided to remove themselves from the situation and go and hold up in ‘The Bowl’ for the rest of the day. It was nice while it lasted.

I found myself trying to set little traps and trails of bait from bridge to the out-of-bounds rope, presenting them with an immensely-attractive bed of hemp, snails and crushed Cream Cajouser boilie. Nothing seemed to get them interested throughout the hours of daytime, I don’t think all of the noise coming from the workmen helped and they were simply reluctant to come past the bridge. They were acting as if there was a huge laser beam going through the water – and trust me, it’s very infuriating when you’re standing about 5yds away from a group of 10 fish that are probably all around the 30lb barrier with a few pushing mid-upper thirty, and you’re not allowed to fish for them!

A typical low-twenty from Thorney – lovely

There was literally nothing I could do within my power to get these fish near my rig – it’s not all sunshine and rainbows is it? I found myself wasting the day away tying plenty of PVA solid bags and rigs for the coming night, as I figured the hours of darkness would be when the fish gain their confidence to venture back out from the out-of-bounds. When the sun was at its highest point, I decided to wind in and have a quick walk around to the far margin to see if any of the bait I had put out had actually been eaten – and to my surprise there was actually 90% of my bait sitting on the bottom. After seeing that, I thought it might be wise to reposition my right-hand rod closer to the out-of-bounds rope to try and increase my chances of catching multiple fish on the final night of the session. Once the rods were positioned for the night, the quietest social ever commenced for its final night, with both of us highly-anticipating the next twelve-hours after the result I had the morning before!

Last knockings

Similar to the first night, nothing actually happened through the hours of darkness, but as soon as the sun started to creep up over the horizon, my left-hand rod pulled up tight and I was away. After a very short battle I had an awesome scaly mirror in the net – a typical Thorney Weir carp and one of the reasons I love coming to this place – nailed on the same set-up as the common. I’m always confident when I’ve got one of my PVA solid bags on the end, they just provide you with a very effective method of presenting a bait over 95% of lakebeds, whether you’re fishing on silt, weed, gravel or clay, a solid bag will always offer a good chance of a bite. They are still very under-rated and underused, but I think the carp find it extremely difficult to deal with the short, supple hooklink and simply end up bolting off the spot – resulting in very good hoking potential.

Once again this mirror was perfectly hooked in the bottom lip, that 2.5oz inline and 3.5-inch hooklink working dividends! We quickly placed her in the sling and gave her a quick weigh, and she topped the scales at 22lb on the nose – but trust me, size really doesn’t matter when they look like this. I know you hear everyone say that phrase, but honestly, this mirror was an absolute peach! ‘H’ snapped away on the buttons and gave me the thumbs up when he was happy, which meant I had the green light to get her back in the water and released back to her home.

With only a couple of hours left of the session, I decided to flick out a single hookbait as I simply wanted to try and nick one more bite before I left. I could have stayed for the rest of the day but I wasn’t really in the mood for sitting on the M25 for hours on end. Leaving early afternoon and missing the M25 rush sounded like a better idea in my head. The weather turned a bit colder, with a very strong westerly blowing from right to left down the channel, which I think completely killed it off and pushed the fish right down the end of the channel into the ‘Back Bowl’. With the winds picking up, and almost no signs of fish, I decided to cut my losses, take my rewards, wrap up and get on with the drive back to Essex. It was definitely worth the visit up to Thorney and thoroughly enjoyed getting up close and personal with the carp, if you haven’t done it in a while, I’d highly recommend getting out and doing it. It’s all very exciting when you can pretty much everything that is going on in your swim and around your rigs!