Diary of a carp man - Marcus 2022

November 2022

The eagerly awaited winter syndicate place on the Road Lake at Riverton in Devon finally started ! The 4.25 acre lake is crystal clear, fairly weedy and home to a fantastic selection of hand picked English fish that are growing very well and have just gone past 50lb last year.  My ticket runs from Nov 1st to the end of Feb so I settled on a true winter bait based on milk protiens, digestive enzymes and a very low level of fruit flavours.

Acid Casein

Rennet Casein

Calcium Caseinate

Whey hydrolysate

Whey protein concentrate

Micronised wheat / Wheat germ

cheese powder

parmesan cheese

liquid and powdered enzyme blends

Active CSL

very low level blend of Fruitella, Pineapple, Orange, N-Butyric acid

Rolled in 8mm & 10mm, coloured orange-cooked for a few seconds

There are basically no nuisance fish picking up boilies, 72 proper carp and a few home bred smaller carp so i had lots of confidence in the little baits.

NOVEMBER 1st 

Arriving at the gate for the 7am opening time excitement levels were sky high...There were a couple of vehicles in the car park so I picked up the rod quiver and strolled down the Streambank as all the swims were empty this side. Arriving at the last swim in the corner before the dam wall I decided to set up here as it offered loads of water and options - what really appealed was the dam wall to the right as there are no swims along it. I had the next 4 days ahead of me (the maximum single stay)  so i set up slowly and quietly. There was no surface weed to give clues so it would need some leading about - i set up the nice slim ESP marker with a fairly light 2 oz lead and started searchimg for clear spots, a process that took a while and to be fair I only had one consistent spot 7 meters off the dam wall so a rig was poled out with the bushwacker and half a kilo of the small baits were spread across te area.

This session was an absolute luzury as id not done more than a single nights carping for years so the bivvy was set up properly, the cooker put on and I could just sit back and soak up the atmosphere....dusk fell and I started getting a few liners which raised confidence and at 9pm the RHR off the dam wall was away, but the resistance was more like a weight with a bit of kicking as i wound in a ball of weed- but behind it was a small common! The mint home bred fish was due to be moved to the stock pond so I popped it in the landing net ready to move soon.

The dam wall rod was put back to the same area with another kilo of boilies and the 2nd night was a rerun of the first with a quick lift of the bobbin tight to the rod and a lively little black mirror is in the net ready to join the common in the stock pond - the rest of the session passed by quietly but i was confident with the two pickups, even though they were small ones

Mid November- quick overnighter

Arriving just after the gate opens for my second visit there were 3 anglers set up or setting up at the deeper dam wall end and mid way swim so I decided to leave as much space as possible and try the extreme shallows...Bait was the same little orange milk protien baits in 8mm and 10mm mixed together...Again it took a few hours to find clearer spots among the weed but soon one rod was positioned on a lovely clear spot just off a weeping willow and two rods were poled out either side of a marker to an area that seemed clearer than the surrounding area. mid afternoon the wind swung round to an easterly, then dropped completely before the first hard frost of the year. There was no acton on the lake so i packed up mid morning, popping the underwater camera over the baited areas where i could see all the baits uneaten. I didnt mind this really, as it showed I'd not been cleaned out buy rig wise carp in the night

DECEMBER 2nd

I arrived to an empty lake so set up in the main hot swim that had produced literally 75-80% of the fish caught.

There was a super clear hard area at 13-13.5 wraps, the bottom mostly clean stones with just small lowlaying weed clumps. To the right was a steep upward shelf  covered in weed where the lake shallowed up dramatically from 8-10ft to 4ft. The fish seemed very reluctant to leave the deep area and go up an over this wall to the shallows from what I'd seen and been told by the others.

The area was 52 meters, 35 Bushwacker poles which was fine as i had a few more than that! I use the big xl end, it's more stable and can steer into a side wind better without flipping over.

1st rod had 1kg of freshly made 10mm king crab boilies and an experimental rig with seperate 10mm and 8mm pop ups

2nd rod was same range, a few meters to the left and 1/2kg of 10mm king crab boilies with same hookbait combo

3rd rod was same range, another few meters to the left but with just a small handfull of the 10mm boilies. same hookbait arrangement

it was dry and sunny, firly flat calm and high pressure - not great for a big hit but good for a winter chunk I've found. 

4.30pm 1st rod is away! the fish hits the top, top tail lobe out the water as it powers about, she goes in a big ark and I draw the fish closer to me and see in the clear water a beast of a common! it stops under the rod tip and starts spinning round, rolling so it actually goes upside down at times - jelly legs time - the fish sets off to my right along the near margin, I let it go, after about 30-40 yds she swings out on a tight line into the lake - basically back to where I hooked it. This time though the fish was on the top and facing me so I started a steady wind and just kept the fish coming without any pauses - leading it 'dog on a lead' style and I kept winding until in one smooth motion the fish came all the way into the net - it was massive!

49lb 110z - fishery record common and county record common (Devon 2022)

king crab first time used at the lake and it did it in style