On the weekend of the 19th to the 21st of September, both Dad and I had a great result on our southern syndicate, we arrived at the lake early Friday morning to find 2 good swims free, so we immediately got our gear and went about setting up in them, Dad had his first fish that evening a common of around 16lb, he was using 8 inches of Sandy Yellow Coretex along with a Size 8 SSC and a 3.75oz horizon lead, and was fishing up a channel at 140 yards range, for bait he was using a Mainline Cell Bottom Bait tipped with a piece of plastic corn, he baited with 50 boilies and around 2kg of Hemp. The rest of the night went without a bleep, we awoke early next morning and re cast the rods, I went round and catapulted a further 40 boilies over my dads rods, around 3pm Dad had a belting take on his left hand rod, the fish took lots of line and it took around 30mins to land, all the way in dad was saying it felt like a good fish, and he wasn't far wrong, once in the net I knew the fish was well upper 30s if not a scraper 40, on the scales she went to 40lb 11oz, a new pb for my dad. His first 40, he was over the moon, around 6pm I decided to find a new spot in my swim, I found the drop off behind an island at 145 yards range, and baited with 1 large bucket of hemp, crushed hemp, corn, response pellet and chopped cell boilies, and fished a single 14mm cell over the top on all 3 rods, around midnight I received a roaring take, resulting in a stunning 33lb 6oz mirror, not long after that fish had been returned I had a bite on my other rod, this time the fish felt a lot better, all the way in the fish fought hard, and once in the net it looked huge, on the scales it went 37lb 5oz, a stunning mirror. What a result, the rest of the session was fishless, but we didn't care, Dad had caught his first 40, and I had caught 2 stunning 30's.

Andy with a New PB Forty

I arrived down the same southern syndicate lake early on the Tuesday morning on a high from the weekend, but this time decided to fish a different area of the lake, which fishes to the middle on the lake, I knew from last year that this swim has a spot at exactly 106 yards to the left hand side. I immediately went about finding it with the marker rod and getting my rods clipped up to it, the spot is 22 ft of really smelly silt, as the swim is renowned as a night time swim I didn't cast my cast my rods out till dusk. I was using 12 inch Cortex Hooklink, Size 10 SSC Hooks, this was fished on 3ft of weight tubing on a lead clip set up, with a 3.75oz Horizon Lead. I spodded a mixture of hemp, crushed hemp, pellet, corn, whole and chopped Mainline Cell Boiles, 15kg in total, around 10pm I had my first bite, a small common of about 17lb. Not long after I had another common of similar size, just before darkness I mixed up another 5kg bucket of mix that I would be spodding after each fish, once the rods were back out in to position I went about spodding some bait out, no sooner had the 3rd spod hit the water my middle rod was off again, the fish felt a lot better, and once in the net I had a stunning common weighing 25lb 2oz, a true gem. With the fish photographed and returned, I got the rod back out after about 5 attempts, and got straight back on the spod. I put 5 more out and got back in to bed, but I was soon woken by a take, I was playing the fish in and almost had her in the net, when my other rod burst in to life, I got the first fish in and played the 2nd, both fish were mirrors weighing 26lb 10oz and 29lb 2oz, at least I still had one rod out fishing I suppose. I photographed the 2 fish and returned them, when all of a sudden my 1 remaining rod ripped off, this fish felt a lot better, and fought like mad, once in the net I could see it was over 30lb, a true leather, on the scales the fish went 31lb 6oz. I was kept busy for the rest of the night and landed a further 4 commons between 15lb 6oz and 19lb 4oz, as well as spodding in between.

As the sun rose over the trees I knew the bites would dry up, and they did, I spent the rest of the day walking round trying to stalk a fish, but to no avail, around 5pm I tied 10 fresh rigs for the night a swell as made more spod mix up, the night started of badly, as I lost a good fish to a snag, but things changed for the better over the next few hours as I landed 4 carp, 22lb 14oz, 28lb 15oz Common, 34lb 11oz Mirror and a mint 37lb 11oz Mirror. So that was 14 carp in 2 nights a right result, I had to move swims for the next 48hours, and decided to fish the swim where I landed the two 30' s the week before, but with the cold weather the fish didn't play ball, and I caught nothing. On the Saturday I moved back in to the same swim where I caught the 14 from 2 days ago and my dad came down and managed to get the same swim he had caught the 40-11 from the week before. My rods were still clipped and I was megga confident, the night started of slow and I didn't get my first run till 2am, and in 6 hours I landed a further 6, 3 doubles a 22-15 Common and a pair of stunning mirrors weighing 30-1 and 35-10, my dad also managed 3, two 24lbers, a mirror and a common and also a mirror weighing 32lb 9oz. So what another great session I had landed 20 carp in 6 nights. 5 of which were over 30s.

Tom with a 33lb 6oz Mirror Carp