World Carp Classic - Offical Global Website
Lake Bolsena 3rd - 9th September 2012

Well it’s been a quiet couple of days, certainly no 70’s or blonde babes, the weather is still up and down which I’m sure is having the greatest impact on the fishing. Mick arrived yesterday morning after an eventful journey from England but was pleased to be back on the Monkey Lake after a couple of year’s absence.

He was to move into a swim to my left about 150 metres away from where I was fishing and I there was room for me to move next to him and fish down to my same spots, just made things a little more sociable for the forthcoming week. The wind blew up strong overnight from the left to right and also more rain but not so bad. Infact as I was moving my gear this morning Mick had his first action and a nice mirror round the 20lb mark was landed, tiger nuts in the edge doing the damage. I was further away from my spots but not sitting right on top of the fish may encourage more into the swim plus the lines would be at a different angle which might also make a difference, only time will tell.

With the move will mean I can re do all the rods, check the area again with the echo sounder as the water levels have been rising all week and apply some more bait having made up a nice bucket of chopped and whole Monster Pursuit, tiger nuts and pellets both betaine plus and the halibut plus with some food dip poured in for good measure it smelt delicious and would surely pull in some carp.

Well it’s been quiet on my side of the swim but Mick has found a spot close in down his margin that has thrown up a further three fish although all males between 19 and 25ib cracking looking fish but he is hoping for something a little bigger will come along in the few days. Weather has still been very happy and down, one day its hot and sunny and then it clouds up and there’s the most horrendous of storms. The one last night which lasted most of the night had the most intense lightening I have ever witnessed and I have been out in storms over the years. The lightening was so bright it turned red at some points and blinded you even if you weren’t looking at it. The storm finally blew over by about 5 in the morning and just as it stopped was when Mick had the biggest of his fish and then another turned up at first light. All the fish falling to tiger nuts in 20ft of water and 20ft from the bank the margins are that steep.

My cause hasn’t been helped by a French carper turning up opposite my side of the swim and thinking he can share my margin spot with a couple of rods and cutting off any fish. Hopefully he will do tonight and be off although the wind has picked up nicely coming along that margin and if it stays a reasonable night I am still confident of some action. I redone all the rods and gave the spots double helpings of Monster Pursuit/Scopex Squid livers/pellets and tigers all glugged up so plenty for them to get stuck into. It’s been four days since any action and it’s about time I had some more can’t let Mick be having all the fun.

Today’s on the bank tackle test – Nash Mutants

I think I have mentioned it many times but the waters I fish tend to be inhabited by crayfish that seem to have a neverending appetite for boilies. Now even rock hard baits will succumb to these little fellows although some of them are not little, they even chomp through tiger nuts with ease. So when the mutants came out they were a real aid to being able to keep some sort of bait in the water.

My favourite set up with them is to use them as a snowman with a hardened 25mm boilie, this will last at least 24 hours on the most prolific crayfish water I fish which is Monkey lake. Now the mutants come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, there’s boilies, pellets, maize and maggots and all sorts of different colours from red, brown, white, yellow, orange and a couple of flouros. I have only used the boilies so far and my preference has been to match the 25mm boilie with a 20mm mutant, i did try a 25mm mutant but that just didn’t seem to catch as well for some reason. Colour is also important but depends a lot on the type of lake you are fishing and a bit of experimentation is needed. My personal favourites (as they catch me more carp) are the two flouros in yellow and orange although that could be because I am fishing them in a deep, steep lake around 30-40ft down. As i mentioned you need to experiment to find the right combination, but it is worth it, i know on lakes like this most of the fishing is done with particle and so the carp don’t see a great deal of boilie. So if you can fish this way it can be a real edge as the carp are not so wary of your presentation and mutants allow you this option. Very useful to have some these tucked away just in the case the situation arises.