Diaries of a Northern Carper

Bolesworth, a peaceful 12 acre lake in th heart of Cheshire countryside is run by Stoke-On-Trent Angling Society (SOTAS).

It is a pictiresque hidden-away runs water on. Many an angler used to enjoy multiple catches up until Summer 2006 when due to oxygenation problems, some of the stock died. It is not really known how many fish died away, but im sure if it were not for the quick response of the Society, it would have been much worse.

Since its re-open at the end of August 2006 all members have noticed a change, with what used to be 'easy' multiple catches has now come on hard times with alot of anglers finding it much harder to get a bite.

Some-what luckily for me, I started September 2006, just after the lakes re-opening when a new deep area near the carp park was opened to help oxygenation. I never managed to fish the lake previously therefore didnt carry the expectations of regular anglers of the lake.

I still remember my first visit to the lake, quite new to the sport at the time I was walking past a couple of anglers when I witnesses a guy catch a nice low double mirror...needless to say I couldn't get the rods out!.

The area which appealed to me was the first two swims in the far forest where the lake was much shallower than that near the car park (almost a mile's walk!).

The lake is approximately a mile long and only 50 yards wide, givind the impression of more like a river than a lake. By placing baits four or five yards from both the close in and far bank I began averaging a carp every day session I fished the far forrest swims, which really pleased me considering almost everybody else was blanking or at least not being as consistent as me.

My success carried on until the beginning of February when the like died a sudden death after a mid-week frost, which lead to no more bites between then and mid-june (taking the March to June Closed season into account). When the closed season ended and Bolesworth's gates re-opened naturally due to the warmer weather my catches increased I dont remember blanking...a time when others were calling it quits on the water and moving off.

Then on 06/07/2007 I achieved my target for the year. I wanted to catch my first twenty and with rumour being that the odd twenty-pounder was in Bolesworth, I set myself a target for 2007 to catch a twenty pounder at Bolesworth. It was a beautiful pale Mirror carp with scales along the top of its back, weighing in at exactly twenty pounds!. I was chuffed and over the moon.

Since the capture I decided that id move around abit and try other areas rather than stay in the same swim, a hard twenty-five minute walk from the car.

I tried the Meadow a few times, with a good few catches near the snags, casting towards the far bank, but nowhere else really looked 'carpy', so I began trying the 'snags' swim itself and after catching a few I soon realised it wasn't the 'best' swim on the lake as crowned by previous anglers....the far forest was!. But, still wanting to try different places I tried a swim literally a stones throw from the car, in the new deep swims next to the bridge.

This, if you cannot be bothered to travel to the far forest, is your best bet!, especially if your night fishing as the angler noise will have died down. Iv'e never had a blank in that swim. Simply cast one bait under the tree and another a few yards short of the far bank to trap any coming under the bridge.....simple as that!

As the lake has an extra closed period of November to January and iv'e caught one of the biggest if not the biggest (as I cannot find proof of any other twenties from Bolesworth) I will not be renewing my ticket for the 2008 Season which starts January and wont be making it down this weekend for one last session as last time the place was about to close it was rammed. So, wanting to preserve the image I have., Iv'e decided to blank on a new water instead...

If your reading this and want any more information on the water, please ask as there's plenty more I know that can help you put more on the bank there.

Bobby,

Buying ready made boilies is a convenience, but for me thats all it is and nothing I would do again. They cost twice the price of making your own, your not certain of the ingredients (and therefore the quality) and you love the extra buzz gained when you catch on something youv'e made from scratch.

A kilo of boilies from your local tackle shop will normally set you back a tenner, buy by creating your own your looking at at least half the cost (although obviously you must buy the ingredients in bulk th begin with).

Using my winter, as mentioned in my 'Winter bait' blog, here's how I make mine -

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and add the flavour (in this case it was 10ml Orange Extract).
2. Weigh all the dry ingredients and pour them into a large mixing bowl. A nice tip for the egg shells is to place the 3 egg shells in the microwave for one minute to completely dry them out. This helps crush them (to crush the egg shells, simply out in a cup and use a wooden spoon to crush the shells into small pieces).
3. Once all the dry ingredients are weighed, empty them into a re-sealable food bag, fold over the seal (so it doesn't open!) and shake for a minute to mix the ingredients thoroughly.
4. Now its time to mix everything together. Pour the liquid into the large mixing bowl and begin slowly adding the dry mix abit at a time. Eventually you should end up with a play-dough like paste that isn't too sticky. Using the ingredients for my mix, you will be left with a pefect pliable paste, but with other mixes you may find its still abit sticky. To get around this, put the paste in the fridge for thirty minutes, which will solve the problem.
5. The next job is to roll your mix using a sausage gun and rolling table (I use the Gardner one's). A handy tip if you want to be different would be to roll a 10mm sausage on a 14mm table giving to pellet shapes boilies. Or alternatively you could boil the sausages and take them fishing in sausage form so that you can cut them to the required shape on the bank.
6. Bring a pan half full of water to boiling point and place around 20 boilie's in a chip pan and leave for forty seconds to one minute.
7. Once boiled, place on a towel in a dry place over night and freeze and your done!

Just remember that the night before a session you need to take them out of the freezer to dry again.

Welcome to my Blog!,

Over the coming blogs im hoping to give you an insight into my thoughts on Carp fishing - my hobby, main interest and also a subject to day-dream the long working days away in an attempt to land a few more.

There are heaps of magazines available these days, all based around one simple theme....money!. As you flick through them you will see advert upon advert of such and such a company selling the 'new best' thing. I as well as alot of new comers to the sport will have fallen foul to buying these catalogues and although to begin with they are a good read, you will find that after a month or two you come across an article that you read not so long ago. Why is this you ask yourself. Well, the truth is that there isn't too much to write about fishing other than catch reports and new gadgets (which sometimes are useful), so the magazine companies literally churn up old articles and re-write them to try and fool you, the buyer.

Well recently I have decided to think for my own. To catch carp there are alot of things on any given day which must be right in order for you to catch your quarry, such as bait choice, location, wind, air pressure, temperature, rigs.

There's a myth that carp are magical masterminds able to outwit anglers, probably set-up by tackle companies to try selling more un-needed gear.  I think this is utter rubbish. Carp are simple creatures that need to eat & re-produce, nothing more, nothing less. You just need to find them and put a food source in front of their eyes that they cant resist. 

What I hope to do over the following blogs is explain a few of the things which I do in order to put a few on the bank. A few tricks, a few ideas and abit of thinking.

I also invite you to ask any questions you may have and question anything I might write. As after all...two heads are better than one!

So, ill see you for now and ill get my first 'real' blog up when I get time to write it!

Bobby,