Guest Ticket On Knipton Res Not So Happy Return

My boss had brought me a weekend ticket to fish Knipton for a christmas bonus so i could have a few days with my brother who is a member on there. I made my mind up to fish the easter bank holiday of 2011 that way it would not get in the way of fishing the nene valley complex when the ticket started in june also it was just before we was due to go to France and i thought it would get the juices flowing get the buzz back ready for the Trip abroad. Well it did not go to plan well the fish didn't anyway the sun came out and just ruined the weekends fishing totally not a sniff from any of the rods a big fat blank.
I thought that i had blown my chance of a knipton fish when my brother phoned me and said that Antony from ajs fisheries had invited me back on a guest ticket i over the moon. We made arrangements to fish the next bank holiday which was August. I fished the same swim because after reading the catch report book it had been throwing a few up in the last few weeks plus it was easy to get your gear round there too as you can drive to the swim drop your stuff off before parking the van in the carpark.
We did 2 nights the 1st was very quite and the second not being much better to be honest. The fish are very shy at knipton and don't show that often so the sights of carp are very scares indeed. The only show we did have was when i spotted what i thought was a lose buoy only a small one which was heading up the lake towards us which was very strange because the wind which was not strong was blowing down the lake away from us. But this buoy was bobbin a long nicely as my brother was in the next swim to me i walked round and told him about the orange buoy that was coming towards us Although it had been a few minutes since i had spotted it i still had not clasped what it really was. My brother started to laugh as he was telling me in fact it was a local woman that swims the 40 acre lake on a regular occasion.
She had not seen us tucked up in the trees in the swims we was in because as she made her way out of the lake she stood on the porch of the lodge to dry herself down and peeled her swimsuit off there she was stood in her birthday suit drying herself down oblivious to the fact that we stood watching from the other side of the lake be rude not to now wouldn't it not.

At 7.00am i was up and about with a fresh brew on the go when the right hand rod pulled up tight held for a moment or two before the bobbin dropped back to the floor nice i thought as i sipped on the hot cup of tea. Then the right hand rod gave a single bleep intresting i thought i had fish moving threw my swim and seemed to be have a little taste of the bait that was down there. All went quite for 10 minutes or so when the bobbin on the right hand rod slowly tightened up to the rod butt the rod tip was pulling round and i could see that the fish was hooked i grabbed the rod and pulled in to it That's the bit the carp did not like it shot down the lake to my left trying to pick up the middle rod's line as it did so but i was not having any of it so i bullied it away from the line and started to get line back of the carp that had my hook in it's mouth.

The fight did not last long and it was soon in the net a nice dumpy mirror laid in the bottom of it and as i left it in the net to rest Andy came walking in to my swim asking if i had had one. We weighed it at 28-06 took the photos before slipping back the mirror. Revenge was sweet and i was happy to no that i had banked a carp from a water that i had blanked from previously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIT6LIjqpmw


But my happeness soon changed to sadness because as we packed away the rods and put the gear back in the van ready for the off i had the radio on in the van when the news came on and the tragic news came of the death of marco simoncelli a motogp rider that had been killed at the start of the race at the Malaysian MotoGP in Sepang at the age of 24. Both me and andy have been folowing the motogp all season and we was real fans of the young rider and had watched him come threw the ranks to be such a great if not a little crazy rider. So i would like to dedicate this chapter of the blog to marco simoncelli may he rest in peace.

Very Lean

After i had the big common the idea was to carry on fishing the lake as there was other fish to catch. But the next time i went down the swim was taken so i walked further up the lake only to find that the next two swims i had in mind was taken by anglers. So it was time maybe to move on to another lake after all there was three more to have a go at. I found myself having a go on all three over the next few month's and not one of them was kind enough to throw a fish my way.
What i was finding and i was not on my own with the problem was that the weekends on the complex found that the main lake was rammed and the carpark lake was seeing enough anglers too. The trouble was that anyone that joined and paid the £600 price tag worked during the week so like me the only time that they can go is the weekends hence why the lakes are full on a weekend. You cant blame the anglers they had paid there money just the same as i had. Also with so many lines in the water the fish would do the off. After a word with a mate of mine Tone we came to same conclusion about the weekend so i decided to sunday night as well think that when everyone had gone home the fish would go on the munch mopping the bait up that had been put in over the weekend.
I had got down there on the friday and was camped up on swim they called the baby elephant a cracking swim that is up the first arm which meant you was fishing in to the first bay. Saturday came and went leading in to sunday not a fish had been seen by mid afternoon i was the only one on the lake time to see if my theory was right. Ed Betteridge turned up and after a brief chat he made his mind up to fish the 2nd point which turned out to be a good move on ed's part.

The Baby Elephant swim


As dusk started to drop the sun down the fish started to show first off the top of the arm at the point to my left little shows that all at first it seemed they was making there way in to the bay as the fish started show more and more with full blown crashing as they lept right out the water on several shows. It was like i was on a different lake all together. It did seem that me and Tone's idea's was right my Confidence was pretty high by the time it got too dark to see any movement.
It was five in the morning when the fish picked up the bait from a hole in the weed i had found while leading about a rod length out by the time i had the waders on and pulled in to the fish it had bolted a good 40-50 yards in to open water in the bay. After a brief scrap it was under the rod tip plodding left and right hugging the bottom for a few minutes till i managed to pump the fish to the top and with just one gulp of air it was beaten and the net slipped under the common. What a fish it was a stunner with a nice dark back and mint scale pattern and to top it off it was another 30 plus carp tipping the scales at 34-08



The other side


Sadly that is the last fish i had out of the complex in 20011 i still fish there and i will keep on fishing it till the ticket runs out in june 2012 so plenty of time to maybe bag one or two more if the carp gods are on my side that is.

Till next time tight lines

Russ

In Again

It was a couple of weeks before i could get down there again. As i pulled up to the gate to unlock it i could see that there was a lot of cars at the bottom of the track. I started to count them 21 that cant be right i thought so i counted them again i was right 21 cars plus me that was a least 23 anglers as i could see Ants car and he sometimes brings his mate Steve. I had never seen that many on before normally it was 12 -14 on a friday night so this was going to be a wasted weekend or so i thought.

The van was unloaded and barrow was loaded i had a quick peep at the carpark lake that looked full up. So off i went at a steady pace towards the swim in which i had been in when i had the linear. I was all set up for the disappointment that someone would be in there already so was was shocked to find it empty i parked the barrow up and had a walk down the causeway to see how many was on the lake i was going to fish.
Seems everyone was not interested in my lake as there was only my mate yoda set up in his normal swim 22 anglers dotted around the complex and not one of them set up on the prison lake Thank you very much i thought. Not wanting to waste anymore daylight hours so i soon had the waders on and withg a baitbag full of belecan and seasnail i was marching round to the other side to bait up THE area where i had had the linear from. Half a kilo was soon on the zone then it was back round to set up the rods. One rod was placed on the zone which was a snowman rig. The second rod was placed on the other end of the reed's near the corner of the lake with 50 baits around the hook bait which was a double bottom bait And the third rod was put on a gravel spot about 30 yards to my right that was just a single bait again with about 50 baits placed around it but was nice and tight rather than spread in a wide area. Everything went pretty smooth so i still had time for a brew and watch as the sun set on what was a cracking summers evening.



I had not been in my sleeping bag that long when i had a bleep on the left hand rod that was the one on the zone i switched on my headtorch and sat looking for line pick up it bleeped again it was like that scene out of jaws where he gets a touch on the rod and he starts to strap his self into the chair. I new i had a fish on i was waiting for a more positive take before i lifted into the fish i was trying to get the waders on and keep my torch fixed onto the bobbins when bang all hell broke out alarms reels and line bobbins all started to sing and dance as the fish took off down the lake with my hook and bait in its mouth.
Within a second i was on the rod and pulled up the line and it was game on i could not believe it two fish in such quick succession after all them weeks sat there seeing nothing week after week then like buses 2 bugger's come along but i was not complaining not by any means. The carp had started to come towards me as the rod's arc started to straighten up so i reeled in what seemed a hell of lot of line before the arc bent over again the fish rolled it was only 10 yards out i must have reeled in about 50 yards of line. The fish started to just use its weight to hug the bottom and go from left to right i was in no rush to bully this now and have the hook pull after all this time would have been madness so i was happy to let do what it liked for a minute or two which i did just to wear it's self out a bit. Right it was time to get its head up so i started to lift the rod up and gain some line within a few minutes it broke the surface once or twice on the last time it was all ready for giving in and i slid the net under the fish. I put the rod on the rod rest and looked inside the net to see what my prize was laid in there it was a very big common at well over the 30lb mark.
I left the fish in the net to rest while i got the scales,mat,camera and bucket of water set up. I was ready so lifted the fish out of the water and placed it on the mate unpeeled the net and unhooked it slid the fish out of the net into the weigh sling and raised it up the needle was bouncing around as i struggled to lift the weight on my own. I was just not strong enough to hold it up steady so i could see what it weighed all i could make out was the needle was around the 38lb. I needed back up so only one thing for phone yoda ask him if he would help with the weighing. As i had a trakker retention sling it was easy just to put back in the lake while i waited for yoda to get round.

We both lifted the sling out and placed it back on the mat as we had to drain the the sling i unzipped it to show the common to yoda he took one look and said 'Well done that's the one' 'what you on about that's the one ??? i said 'it's the big gal' was the reply i had only gone and caught the biggest carp in the lake which at the right time of year was 40lb plus but was it that time?? We both lifted the fish on the scales and i let yoda tell me the weight 38-15 is what he said not the right time of year then but i was not bothered not one bit it was a new pb common and the biggest in the lake just to top it off.

The photo's was done and the fish was slipped back into the dark water back in to it's home ready to fight another day

As you can see it had a swim bladder lump sticking out

Over she goes to take photos of the other side you can see how wide its back is from this photo

After the capture of the big common i never got to fish the swim since because the following week the swim was took up so i just moved from that lake and fished the main lake or the Island lake once i had had a go on them two lakes i felt that i needed to catch from them so i just moved between the 2 lakes depending on how many and which lake had swims free.