Club Lake Success for Roy Russell! 10 fish in a day session - Surface Fishing!
A Floater Anglers Dream!
Roy Russell has been having some great floater fishing success on his local club lake this Summer/Autumn. With Grass carp to over 30lb and lots of upper 20lb mirrors these short day sessions have really been enjoyable for the Birmingham shop manager.
Here is a lovely common from earlier this week, caught off the surface using CC moore Floater Hookbaits.
This venue holds some amazingly large grass carp to 50lb! Roy's best has been 32lb so far (pictured below)
Roy goes onto say the following:
A lot of anglers who know me know that I love my surface fishing and stalking and it plays a massive part of my fishing in the warmer months. Recently in Carpscene me and the lad’s carl and cam were chatting about our pbs for grass carp which for me was 27.12 and the other lads had never caught any before. It had me thinking where we could go to try and catch some big grass carp, and it was then I remembered the perfect place which is a Dudley Park Lake which runs a day ticket and night syndicate with loads of massive grass carp. Unfortunately, its September and not the best time to be hunting grass carp, but this did not deter me or my mate Ryan as the weather was still lovely and warm on our first visit. On arriving to the lake straight away we could see loads of fish on the surface and the tell tail signs some were very big grass carp with fins popping up the size of your hand. To say I could not get the spomb and floaters out quick enough is an understatement and within minutes fish are taking and not shy. When I see fish react like this on any water I like to test and see how they will react to certain hook bait presentation and line thickness. It turns out just a simple side hooking of an artificial esp surface mixer and size 6 korda mixer hooks and 14lb atomic zig line was absolutely perfect.
Every venue can be different with lines and hook bait presentation it’s all down to your observation of how they take freebies and respond to your hook bait, and then tweaking things to suit the fish from hard to easy fishing. Spreading a large area with floaters always works for me on venues and even the birds like sea gulls or ducks can bring up fish to the surface from the layers even if you don’t see any signs of fish. Another very good tip is oil and plenty of it, the best one for us has been parker baits flat spot and if there is a ripple or wind on the lake flattening a large area off with a load of oiled up floaters creates a very large visible area with a lot of food floating inside. Carp are inquisitive creatures and it just takes the one to come up to realise its food and that can change everything.
Me and Ryan had 10 fish between us that day with Ryan beating his pb mirror carp, but unfortunately, I lost a massive grass carp after a hook pull.Over the past 5 weeks me, Carl, Cam, and our good friend Ryan just doing day sessions either on a Monday or a Tuesday have used the same tactics and caught fish every time we go off the surface and its now into October and still catching.
Between us we have worked out we have used around 140kg or more of floaters in those 5-day trips. Luckily, we are bulking out the 11mm floaters with Tesco mixers to cut cost down. Yes, you feed a few birds off and the odd swan, but carp and grass carp have not been bothered they happily feed side by side and compete for the floaters with the birds. Over these 5-day trips for us all I have caught over 20 fish carp to 28lb and grass carp to 32.12. Cam, s first grass carp was 34lb plus pb, and a 32 and carp to mid-twenties. Carl had his first with an upper 20 grass carp and carp to low twenties, and Ryan carp to 27.12 in total over 50 fish between us. What we did find was at range the fish were more aggressive for taking bait and a lot of the time we could be fishing with 50g surface interceptors or bolt machines way past 100 yards for faster bites. We have been testing our new Carp scene custom Daiwa floater rods out this summer and they have been put to the test on here and my local large club lake and Norton Disney the 2.5lb and 2.75lb test curve are the best floater rods I have used so far.
Roy used the following Tackle Components to catch his fish:
Korda Mixa Barbless Hook Size 6
Korda Interceptor Surface Floats
For any advice, tips and tricks for surface fishing don't hesitate to pop in store and speak to the guys! They will happily help with any questions you may have!
Carp Scene Birmingham - 338 Aldridge Rd, Streetly, Sutton Coldfield B74 2DT - 0121 274 3199
Carp Scene Somercoates - 205 Nottingham Rd, Somercotes, Alfreton DE55 4JG - 01773 609772
Carbon Fiber Vertical Texture Vector Background. Vector illustration[/caption]