JOCK’S DINTON DIARIES

Part Three

Monday June 26

After catching 4 in my first session of the season, I am full of confidence for the next couple of days.   It’s cold and raining though, and the area I was fishing looks completely dead.  JimCarpenter is down and fishing his usual spot, and he reckons I should fish exactly the same way as I did at the start.  I take his advice, but I’m not happy – there are fish in front of Jim, but nowhere near me.  I fish one night and then move down into the car park end.

Tuesday June 27

Fishing in Jason’s swim, I manage to get a few fish feeding about 50 yards out on a clear spot.   I’m spodding out and there are fish rolling next to the spod as it empties out!  Its as if they are sitting waiting for the spod to land!  Despite this, I get no takes, and gradually during the day the fish melt away.  There are now few fish in the area, and I’ve got to go home tonight.  I pack up the gear and wander off round the lake.  To my irritation, I find a group of good fish back on my original spot, hoovering up the bait I’d put in the day before.  Jim says “I told you so Jock!   You just need to sit and wait for them to find your bait.  They obviously like it so you just need to sit and wait for them.  You should listen to Uncle Jim, he knows best!”  Now I’ve only got a couple of hours fishing ahead and to my horror I find a couple kids in the swim chucking boilies around.  They eventually leave and I manage to get in the swim for 1 hour.  I catch nothing.

Saturday July 1

Excellent!  I manage to get down to the lake to prebait the margin spots.   It’s roasting hot again, there’s hardly anyone else around, something about a football match against Portugal!  I get about 20 kilos of sludge mix into the swim, there’s nobody to see me do it, and all the carp are up the other end.  Perfect-I won’t spook the fish and nobody is likely to see me put the bait in.  I’m due for my next session in 3-4 nights.

Tuesday July 4

It’s roasting hot, about 31°C, but I manfully struggle round with my laden Carporter.  Actually it’s dead easy but I want you to think it’s difficult so you’ll be impressed!  Anyway, there’s quite a number of fish in the area, and although I don’t actually see any right on the spots, by now I know that the fish will get on the bait pretty quick.  One of the fish I see that evening is Sid.   Last year she weighed 54lb!  It’s a steamy hot night, and the fish are on the top all night.

I’m a little surprised not to get a take that night, but some of the fish look like they are going to spawn again.

Wednesday July 5

I’m up early and although it’s a beautiful clear morning the forecast is for heavy rain and thunderstorms.  By 8.30am it’s clouding over, and shortly after the thunder starts.  The rain gets heavier and heavier until a blast of rain of tropical proportions arrives.  I’m in a good waterproof jacket but when I get a screaming take I feel sure I’m going to get soaked.  A very powerful fish buries itself in the weed about 50 yards out after running down the margins with immense power.   With lightning flashing all around and the rain at full force, it’s all I can do just to hang onto this fish.  After a couple of minutes it comes out of the weed and despite its obvious power and bulk, I get it within netting range.  OK, so I’ve now got a 12ft carbon rod in one hand, and a 6ft carbon landing net in the other, with thunder and lightning all around me.  The rain abates slightly, and then a huge fat mirror rolls into the net.    My first glimpse of it on the unhooking mat makes me laugh hysterically.  It’s enormous!  In the scales it wobbles around 51lb.   With rods all over the place and me soaked to the skin, I nip round to see Jim who’s fishing his usual area.  Ben Hamilton is sheltering with Jim from the rain, and for a few moments I just stare at them with a stupid grin on my face.   “OK, what have you caught?” says Jim.

We check the weight and agree on 50lb14oz.  It’s Sid, and although I’ve seen photos of the fish before I’d never thought it a particularly good looking fish.  Seeing it in the flesh blows you away though, and you can clearly see why so many anglers want this fish.

The awesome Sid at 50lb 14oz

Just a short while later I get another take off the same spot and land a stunning 32lb common.  It looks like it should weigh about 38lb, but its obviously just spawned and has no belly to speak of.    To be honest I don’t really care what size they are.  At Dinton every carp is worth catching whether its 5lb or 50lb.  Looking down onto my spots from the tree, the fish are ripping up the bottom to get at the bait.  Stuff is drifting around being kicked up by the fish, but the water is now going green from an algae bloom, so its harder to see what’s going on.  Another screamer results in a very powerful fish that continually weeds me up and refuses to come in.  After about 15 minutes pulling and tugging, I get the fish to the net where Dean Fletcher does a grand job and immediately identifies the fish as the Chantecoq Mirror-the same fish I caught back in those freezing days in March.  It’s a little heavier now at 41lb.  What are the chances of this happening?   More than 100 carp in the lake, and I catch the same one twice within 3 sessions despite never catching it before in 25 years fishing the lake!   Later that day I catch a 17½lb common.

Jock with the Chantecoq Mirror caught at 41lb.  This was the second time in three sessions that Jock caught the fish.

Thursday July 6

The weather is much cooler now, but the fish are still feeding hard.  I can hardly believe I’ve caught four already, I’ve still got two nights left, and the fish are still on the bait. At  3.30am I get a screamer from a cute 12lb common that causes me more trouble than any of the other fish.  Later on my old buddy John Spiers turns up.  I knew he was on the lake because you can hear his insane laughter from 1 mile away.  Next door in Dean’s swim, John is full of laughs as usual, taking the piss and winding up like always.  While we’re all having a laugh I’m in again and it’s a beautiful 23lb 2oz mirror, nearly fully scaled.  Dean takes the photos with my digital camera, but while I’m returning the fish, he photographs John’s bare arse.  Thanks guys.

Jock with a fully scaled 23lb 2oz Mirror

By this time I’ve used another 15 kilos of sludge and all the other stuff.  The most successful hookbait has been tiny home made cork ball pop-ups made with Hinders Nutz boilie paste.  They are nice slow sinkers fished ½inch off the bottom, and smell and taste just like the groundbait.  Hooks are ESP D-7 Raptors or ESP Longshanks, both with the barb crushed down.     Hooklinks are 20lb X-line Fished Combi-link style with 2” Fox Coretex tips.

To be honest I was now a bit numb after catching such fantastic fish, but it wasn’t over yet.  A stunning 29lb mirror was next, one of the best looking fish I’ve ever caught.  My good friend Phil turned up shortly afterwards.  Phil has fished Dinton in the past, but gave up his ticket a few years ago.    As we looked out from next to the rods, the swim was a veritable Jacuzzi of bubblers.    Now they were going mad!  As we watched, the right hand rod screamed off, and after a tough battle in the growing weed, a 27½ common hit the net. This was the last fish of the session.      8 carp in a session at Dinton Pastures. Somebody told me it was probably 10 years since anyone had caught 8 in a session.      I’m pretty sure a major factor in this catch was that I was fishing a bait the fish loved eating but hadn’t seen much of for several years, and also the fact I was fishing a relatively underfished area of the lake.  These 2 factors, along with the ideal weather conditions resulted in a massive catch from a difficult water.

Jock with a 27 ½ lb Common the last of an eight fish haul

Jock with 29lb Mirror

As I write this piece, I am looking forward to a weeks fishing at Mirror Pool in France, home of numerous lumps up to 75lb.  If I can continue this run of success, I’ll be well pleased, but Mirror Pool is a tricky venue to fish and I will need to be on good form to catch well.  It will probably be mid-August before I’m back at Dinton, and things will have changed.  But I know I have a bait the fish love eating.  Dave Lane once wrote that Dinton carp were the fussiest feeders he had ever encountered, and I think he is right. But it looks like I’d found something they loved eating