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A Bruteof a Lady

Kev WilsonP A R T T W O

Following on from his capture of The Brute in last month’s issue, consistent big-carp catcher Kev Wilson heads off to St. Ives Lagoon in search of one very special Lady.

Having caught The Brute, Kev set his sights firmly on a new challenge... St. Ives.

T he alarm was set with every intention of me getting up at 5.00 a.m. Sunday morning! However, early starts and lack

of kip (typical day fishing) from the previous two weeks had really caught up with me and, without knowing it, I flicked off the alarm whilst still half-asleep! I awoke a tad shocked about 9.30 a.m. and ended up rushing around like a madman, before the gear was loaded into the van and I made my way to St. Ives via the local Tesco Express for supplies.

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About five minutes had passed since getting back to the swim when I heard a ‘spladoosh’ in the bay to the right, shortly followed by another

Early success in the shape of the Dumpy Linear at 24lb 3oz.

The Works – the swim that produced the first two takes.

the swim before continuing around the lake.The rest of the lake was pretty busy and I

didn’t see anything to inspire me elsewhere, so I loaded the barrow and made my way back to my water butt. About five minutes had passed since getting back to the swim when I heard a ‘spladoosh’ in the bay to the right, shortly followed by another. The carp were showing over the same area every time, so I hastily chucked a hinged Chod Rig with a light lead into the diminishing rings of one of the shows.

Sitting back with a brew, I watched, but that cast seemed to have stopped the activity, even though it was only a 1oz lead, which was cast once! Another couple of hours passed and I hadn’t seen anything else, so I set about having a feel around the area in question.

The area was clearer than the surrounding ground but wasn’t totally clean, so a critically-balanced 18mm Odyssey XXX cork ball went out on a Multi-Rig fished Helicopter-style with 6ins of movement to hopefully guarantee good presentation.

Over this, a kilo of 18mm XXX went out via the catapult, as tightly as possible around the marker float. The other two rods went into a deeper silty gully – an area I knew had produced The Fat Lady before – on bottom bait rigs at 20yds’ range with a kilo of bait spread over each area, again with the catapult. A lad called Ben, who was fishing the swim on the other side of the bay in The Reserve, had popped round and introduced himself that afternoon and informed me how one of the carp showing was The Black Pig and that usually when it shows it just subtly sticks out its dark head. Around teatime that evening the shows started up again. Worryingly though, the fish seemed to have moved a little further out into open water.

Watching on, what looked to me like The Black Pig began showing again, about 20yds further out into the lake than where my bait was positioned. Slowly it made its way nearer the bait, showing 10yds from the spot – before then showing 30yds from the spot! After an hour of watching this it was obvious that the fish kept returning to the same area, an area which lined up with a swim on the far bank. Another half hour passed and the carp hadn’t made their way near the bait, so the rod in the silt gully furthest from the activity was brought in. A hinged Choddy, again with a 1oz lead, was flicked just past the rings this time, before being pulled back and left to rest, with a bit of luck, right on the money.

Finally arriving at the lake around 11.30 a.m., I hastily headed up the wind-facing bank with water butt in hand. The third swim I came to looked really inviting with the wind pushing into a small bay to the left of the swim. A quick call to a mate identified the swim as The Works, one of the better known swims and one which had produced the carp I was targeting, The Fat Lady, many times in the past. After sitting in the swim for half an hour I hadn’t seen any signs, so I left my water butt in

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Whether the carp get a mineral or vitamin from this grey-type clay, or there is something natural

that grows in these patches, I’m not sure, but I knew from captures in the past that the carp

loved feeding on such areas

Bob’s Linear from the same spot as Dumpy, a week later at 27lb 2oz.

The fish obviously tookan instant liking to the bait, but so did the naturals – snails and pea mussels were in abundance

around the spot!

hear quite a bit about. Martin kindly made me a couple of brews and we filled in the gaps, so to speak, as you do when meeting someone you know of but have never met. Leaving the water butt there, I had a quick trot round to see if I could find anything. With nothing to go on, I decided to head back to The Works and Martin’s tea supplies, and watch the water from here, especially keeping my eye on the bay to the right.

It was a bright sunny day and nothing showed, nor did anything turn up in the margins of the bay. Martin left around 4.00 p.m. and I hastily got the rods clipped to the marks and back onto the same spots as the previous session. The gulls were a real problem that evening and I had to keep sinking the float and waiting for them to disappear before

popping it back up and getting out as much as possible as quickly as possible! About three kilos went out over the rod in the bay, with a kilo over each of the silt gully rods. Nothing happened that evening, or the next day. Confident the rods were still on the money, I left them from the night before.

Rob turned up for a brew in the evening and while we were sitting watching the water, something caused me to have to recheck the ‘money rod’, which I wasn’t overly impressed about. A pair of ducks had been hanging around the edge of the water all day and for some reason, probably them not being able to see the fluorocarbon against the sky as well as they would normal mono, one of them took off like a Harrier jump jet – vertically, with my line stuck just behind its neck! I was sure it had moved the rig so had to rechuck. As I swung the lead into my hand, a fish showed about 20yds from the baited area. Sod’s Law – fish about and I needed to make a cast I could well do without! After quickly legging it up and down the bank behind me to reclip to the mark, thankfully, a dullish thump was felt first cast.

Rob disappeared a short while later, after once again trying to boost my confidence after the recent duck incident. Settling down early that night I was rudely woken about 1.30 a.m. by the rod in the bay giving a few bleeps, then ripping, and then stopping pretty sharpish. This fish gave a far better account of itself and, to be honest, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to see one of the big two in the net. However, it was neither and turned out to be a carp known as Bob’s Linear turning the scales to 27lb 6oz. With only a chap called Paul on, right up the top end of the lake, I decided to take a few quick snaps on the mat before returning it. The carp wouldn’t sit still though, and I couldn’t fathom out why. The carp was obviously in distress, so I got a couple of rough shots just for identification purposes (I didn’t know it was Bob’s at this point) before getting him back pronto. On

Hopefully the carp wouldn’t spook from the cast this time because I had cast slightly further, then pulled back to minimise disturbance. Wrong! I didn’t see a thing after that cast and went to bed that night with the hump, wishing I’d just left things as they were and been patient. The Black Pig was obviously having a good feed up and could well have made his way onto the baited area through the hours of darkness – hindsight is a great thing, as they say! Waking up in the morning after a biteless night, I still had a bit of a bottom lip, feeling I had wrecked a good chance at The Black Pig, and on my first night too; now that would’ve been a result!

After watching the water for the morning I hadn’t seen any signs so had a quick feel about where the carp had been showing in line with the swim on the far bank. The first sweep revealed a choddy bottom, but after giving the rod a quick tug to clear, the next sweep was smooth and clean for roughly 5ft. The float came up at around 8ft and a few chucks with no rig on to sort out the clip saw a few nice globules of grey clay attaching itself to the 3.5oz distance lead. Whether the carp get a mineral or vitamin from this grey-type clay, or there is something natural that grows in these patches, I’m not sure, but I knew from captures in the past that the carp loved feeding on such areas – often I’ve seen carp in the edge with their heads plastered in the stuff from where they’ve been in it, feeding and rubbing themselves.

Knowing the carp’s love for this clay, the critically-balanced Multi-Rig went onto the spot, giving a dullish thump back through the rod, over which two kilos of bait were fired. There was a lot of floating weed drifting about, so, as I wasn’t fishing over 50yds on any of the rods, the Mirage Fluorocarbon replaced the 15lb GT80 I normally use for most situations – the plan being to fish slack so the fluorocarbon would sink out of the way of the floating stuff and also get the line out of the way, reducing the danger around the baited zone. The other two rods went back into the silty gully, as they had the night before. A mate called Rob, who I had met during my time on Elstow Pit 2, had been fishing on the other lakes on the complex recently and paid me a visit that evening. It was nice to see him and we sat catching up, drinking my tea supplies from about 4.00-7.00 p.m. when he had to head back to Bedford.

After telling him the woeful story of the previous night, he was sure I would get some action (think he was just trying to get my

confidence back up, bless him!). About 15 minutes after Rob had left, one sploshed out in the bay – the disturbance on the surface was just to the right of the spot! Another five minutes had passed when I received a couple of bleeps on that rod, before one showed right over the spot. Within a minute the bobbin smacked the rod, pulled out the clip, and took a bit of line from my tight clutch. The fish was coming in nicely, until it managed to find sanctuary in a weedbed. The chest waders were already on, with me standing in about 3ft of water with the waiting net. Trying to bend into

it a little more was having little effect due to the soft bottom

I was standing on, so hastily I backwound

onto dry land again.

Once pressure was applied from here things started to move, and before long a linear of mid-20 proportions was in the confines of my net – get in there! A chap called Rich was setting up to my right, so I grabbed his attention for some help and a few trophy shots. The carp turned out to be a fish known as The Dumpy Linear and weighed in at 24lb 3oz – I was buzzing! Nothing else showed in the bay that I either heard or managed to set eyes on that session, but I did see a couple about 70yds over towards the island on the last morning. A quick lead about told me the area was pretty clogged with weed, so the productive spot received a couple of kilos before I headed home, chuffed at having caught on my first trip.

All I could think of at work that weekend was getting back to the lake! Managing to get up this week, I arrived at the lake around 7.00 a.m. With the weather forecast pretty much the same as the week before, I made my way with my water butt to The Works once again. There was someone set up in there and, on chatting with him, it turned out he was a friend of a friend, who I subsequently got to

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Morning soon arrived with no activity to the rods, but around lunchtime I saw a big fish clear the water on the far margin, just off the reeds to

the right of The Reserve

First take from Fatty’s – the Dark Common at 22lb 4oz.

checking the sling afterwards, it was littered with snail and pea mussel shells. I had noticed the baits coming back in, golf-ball-type-looking, but just put it down to silver fish sucking at them – thinking about it now, the snails and mussels must have been attracted to, and getting on to, the XXX too. The carp were getting naturals as well as the boilies when they fed on the bait, surely making my bait instantly more attractive to them.

Nothing else really occurred for me that session, so I baited the spot with what I had left once again before heading home. However, Paul managed a 22lb common and a chap called Dave, who I was later to become mates with, landed The Black Pig at 42lb 8oz – well in mate!

There is a new bus/train route going through Cambridgeshire, which just happens to pass right behind The Works and along the edge of the bay to the right. Whilst I was baiting the spot, a couple of workmen started chucking rocks into the water and making smart cracks like, “You should be catching them, not feeding them,” and suchlike. I ignored them the best I could and carried on baiting before leaving. It later turned out that they told the bloke who went in behind me exactly where my spot was and how I’d baited it! On chucking the float onto the spot the next week it went down with a real donk. I chucked again a couple of times around the area but a hard drop was felt every cast – it had changed in a big way. I think the chap must have spodded it up with particle or pellet

because the bottom was so much cleaner than before and I caught at least one bream per night from the spot that session! Staying put, I hoped the carp would return, having eaten the bait I’d put in before leaving, but it wasn’t to be. Dave managed another couple that week though – The Leather at 29lb and The Light Common at mid- to upper-20s.

Returning the following Sunday, it had already been decided that I wouldn’t be fishing The Works unless I was 100% sure the carp were there. A few fish had showed in the middle of the old lake the previous week, so after seeing nothing, I started around the other side of the pond, fishing Chod Rigs around these areas and spreading a bit of bait around each rod with the throwing stick. Just into dark, a carp cleared the water in front of the swim known as Fatty’s, which was to my left. Quickly running round to see, the carp had shown roughly halfway across to the island and I made a mental note of the area ready for the morning. An action-free night saw me up at first light, but I saw nothing to go on, so I moved into the next swim where the carp had shown the previous evening.

Another silty gully was found around the area the carp had showed so I put two rods there with a good spread of bait over them – a couple of kilos in total. The other rod went on a silty spot about 50yds out to my right. I positioned the chair right at the water’s edge around 4.00 p.m. and sat there watching like a hawk until the light went, but I saw nothing at all!

The next day was exactly the same until about 7.00 p.m., when a carp stuck its head out on the island margin, then it did it again slightly further off the island. Hastily, the 50yd rod came in and a Choddy with a bright pop-up and drop-off lead went out to the area. Just as I was tying this up, a chap who later turned out to be called Eddie (who I also knew of, but had never met), arrived at the lake. He asked if I’d seen anything, but as I didn’t know him from Adam at this point, I replied, “No mate”!

We sat chatting and he introduced himself and I realised who he was! Shortly after this the carp showed twice again in the same vicinity. Eddie saw it and looked straight at me and said, “You sure you haven’t seen anything?”

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View from Fatty’s, the productive swim that produced the big girl.

I couldn’t keep a straight face so told him about the fish showing shortly before. It was on the limit of how far I can chuck with 15lb mono – 100yds+, and unfortunately it took me three casts to get the required distance, more than likely spooking the fish out of the area.

Morning soon arrived with no activity to the rods, but around lunchtime I saw a big fish clear the water on the far margin, just off the reeds to the right of The Reserve. The two coots sitting on the bank nearby went ballistic and hastily vacated the area.

An hour later my gear was in The Reserve and a small area was found among the weed a rod length out in front of the reeds in 6ft of water. This was roughly where the large carp had shown and I soon had a rod on it, with about a kilo of bait over the top. The other two rods went into silty gullies, one about 20yds from the island margin in front and the other about 40yds, probably a continuation of the same gully I had been fishing from The Works. One fish did bang out near to the close rod in the early hours when I was up for a call of nature, but no takes occurred and I left for home later that morning.

On speaking with Martin over the weekend, the fish were hanging about between the islands in front of Fatty’s where he was set up, which produced a mid-20lb common to his rods late on the Saturday morning.

Arriving at the lake around 8.00 a.m. on Sunday, nothing was showing. The wind was hacking a southerly with a little west in it, pushing nicely onto the corner of the island where I’d seen the carp the week previous in this swim. Martin left for home mid-afternoon, and with it looking so good, and having seen nothing else, Fatty’s it was. Using the spod rod with braid on and a 4oz lead I had a good feel around the area where they had showed off the island. It was pretty choddy, but around 15yds off the island margin it seemed a little cleaner – the 4oz lead moved without me having to apply too much pressure, so I popped the braid in the clip.

The area was definitely fishable with Chods but I felt the 4oz lead had to be dropped for me to land anything. Using a loop of stripped leadcore with the lead on, going back through a swivel-size ring, then using a rolled up PVA nugget through the loop in the end of the leadcore, this should hopefully be achievable – a mate known as Monkey had shown me this in the winter whilst on Christchurch, and although not used yet, I knew this would be useful at some point. Two 4ins Choddy Rigs with 18mm XXX cork balls with the drop-off leads were paced out to the clip on the spod rod and then whacked out over the 105yds to the spot. I placed them 20yds apart with as many baits as possible put out with the throwing

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As I looked behind the troublesome weedbed a large pale shape was sitting under the surface,

and once it had worked out what was going on, it slowly glided off into the depths and out of sight.

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First of the repeat captures – Bob’s Linear at 27lb 1oz.

Dumpy Linear second time around at 26lb 5oz.

stick, before the seagulls invaded once more!The other rod went back in the silty gully

halfway across to the island where I had fished the week previous. Nothing occurred on the Sunday evening, but around 7.00 p.m. Monday there was a subtle tenchy-type show near to the island area. Ten minutes later and a massive drop-back bite had me scrambling down to the rods. The lead setup had worked a treat and after a pretty uneventful fight, my mate Dave slipped the net under The Dark Common at 22lb 4oz – it was nice to get one on the bank again after the little blank period I’d suffered.

Around lunchtime the next day the same rod was away once more. Again, not much hassle because of the lead being dropped, and Bob’s

Linear made its way into my net for the second time, this time at 27lb 1oz. At 6.00 p.m. the same day that rod was away again and this time there was a bit more of a fight, zigzagging left and right before trying its hardest to get round a bush close in to my left. A few hairy moments followed when, whilst waiting to net it, I think

I nearly took off Dave’s ear with my line! The Dumpy Linear unbelievably rolled over the net cord – again. Five takes and two repeats already – crazy! It had been on the grub though, and weighed in at 26lb 5oz this time around.

There were obviously quite a few fish around the area and I hoped I was getting closer to The Fat Lady. Dave left on the Wednesday around dinnertime – he could have only been halfway round the track when I could hear someone shouting like a madman from over behind the island. A quick trot up the bank to my left to be able to see round the island revealed a chap standing with a net in the bay to the right of The Works shouting, “Get in there!”

I shouted over, “Is it The Lady?”To which the reply was, “Yep!”I rang Dave to tell him to stop as he made

his way round, before quickly winding in to go and have a look at her in the flesh. She had obviously had a good empty out because it had been at least a couple of weeks since they had spawned, with her weighing 49lb 2oz. An angler called Phil was the lucky captor and had only had his rods in a short while! Once the necessaries were completed, my gear went in the van and after stopping to congratulate Phil once more on the way past, I headed home

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The drifting weed wasn’t as bad as it had been but was still causing me enough hassle to have to recast three times that afternoon whilst Jon Pack

and Martin were punishing my tea supplies!The Fat Lady, all 51lb 4oz of her!

a little gutted; she’d been out, but still, three in a session wasn’t a bad result. Bob’s Linear is known to be The Fat Lady’s bodyguard, and the locals say that if you’ve caught Bob’s you’ve blown it! Surely, if Bob’s has been caught off the spot, then The Lady will have fed there too, and will return to the area at some point – well, that was my thinking, so I dropped back into Fatty’s on my return the following Sunday. After all, Phil had hooked her about 40yds round the island from where I’d been catching, so I must have been close at some point.

The algae bloom had really started taking hold on the lake now and big rafts of Canadian coming up from the bottom, floating about and wiping out our carefully placed rods were making a general nuisance of themselves for everyone. It really was a nightmare and having to rechuck regularly wasn’t exactly filling me with confidence!

Monday evening and just as I was tucking into a bowl of spaghetti Bolognese, the productive rod was away again. The hooked fish was moving fine until it all went solid after having gained about 20yds – my line was heading straight into a weedbed, which had just appeared. Getting up onto the higher ground behind the swim I leant into the fish which,

slowly but surely, started to come towards me. After five minutes of pumping, the fish was now only 20yds out behind the big raft of weed. As it neared the edge of the marginal weed, I was just about to run in the lake fully-clothed with the net when my line parted… No! Gutted is not the word, and as I looked behind the troublesome weedbed a large pale shape was sitting under the surface, and once it had worked out what was going on, it slowly glided off into the depths and out of sight.

No other takes that session, just more headaches with the floating green stuff, and I left for home a rather gutted man.

Managing to pull the hook out of another fish the following Sunday evening, not long after the take on the productive rod, in all honesty left me feeling pretty low. With the floating weed becoming worse than ever this week, the regular recasts weren’t exactly picking me up either, and nothing else happened for the rest of the session. The two consecutive losses had seriously knocked my confidence, to say the least.

The next weekend saw the second of the annual barbecues taking place, so I made the journey down on the Saturday night, arriving just into dark, thankfully near the

end of another bait boat debate. Martin had already informed me how there had been a lot of fish hanging around between the islands and around the productive area, but the chap in Fatty’s was only fishing short and was off around lunchtime on Sunday. Camping in the car park behind Fatty’s that night, I was up at first light to see what was what – the first thing I did was drop my water butt behind Fatty’s to reserve the swim! Dave was in The Lawns next door so I wandered up to see if he was up and about. After a few brews a fish started bubbling up over his area and continued to do so for the next half hour or so before the conditions changed from overcast to bright sunshine, when it stopped feeding and didn’t return.

I left Dave to it and got the two long rods tied and clipped up ready for action as soon as matey had vacated the swim. He left around midday and I wasted no time in blasting the two rods over to the zone – the wind was really pushing over my shoulder helping the line off the spool and they both hit the clip first cast. For some weird reason the seagulls left me alone that afternoon and 200 x 18mm baits were put out tightly around the zone with the throwing stick. The drifting weed wasn’t as bad as it had been but was still causing me enough hassle to have to recast three times that afternoon whilst Jon Pack and Martin were punishing my tea supplies!

Not long after they had departed, another weedbed made a nuisance of itself and the ‘money rod’ had to be redone yet again! I then set about putting the third rod out onto a spot 25yds(ish) to my right, close in between the point I was fishing from and the island.

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Two month’s previously the capture of The Brute had totally shocked me when that went on the scales, and yet now I’d

bettered that – unbelievable

Setting her free back into the depths of The Lagoon.

Around 6.30 p.m. Dave arrived in the swim just after I’d got a satisfying drop and as I finished baiting the rod with the catapult, I commented, “Looks good for a take, mate if the damned weed will leave me alone,” and began retrieving the float.

The marker must have only been halfway back to the bank when the ‘money rod’ let out a few bleeps before the tip slammed down and the line pinged out of the clip. After almost taking out Dave’s eye with the tip ring of the marker rod, I leant into a weird-feeling fish, which surfaced shortly after at about 80yds.

Dave subtly mentioned how he thought it was ‘her’, which I told him I didn’t want to hear, and to get the chesties out the van quickly! The fish was slowly zigzagging left and right on the surface but felt heavy – as you can imagine, I was shaking like a leaf at this point! Steadily I gained line before it surfaced once again, this time at about 50yds, with a bit of weed over its head. This seemed to calm the fish a little and before long it was nearing Dave with the waiting net. The whole weedbed went in the net before Dave announced it was indeed The Fat Lady!

I asked him to have another look to make sure, and to confirm the hook was in the mouth, before shouting out “Fat Ladyyyyyy,” and a few other choice expletives at the top of my voice like a loony! My feelings had changed massively in an instant from the dejectedness of the losses, to the highest of highs. Rob, the only other angler on that evening, turned up in the swim commenting how he hadn’t even tied a pop-up on yet, let alone wet a line, and started laughing! Rob zeroed the sling for me before we brought the beast ashore to gently rest on top of both my and Dave’s unhooking mats. The pole was lifted and we settled on a weight of 51lb 4oz – a new PB and my first 50 to boot – words cannot describe how I was feeling – ecstatic just doesn’t come close.

Two month’s previously the capture of The Brute had totally shocked me when that went on the scales, and yet now I’d bettered that – unbelievable. We got some great shots of her, both on the bank and in the water, before setting her on her way back into the depths, leaving me totally and utterly blown away. With it now being about 7. 30 p.m. I asked Dave if he was staying or going. As I had decided to do one last night, he stayed on rather than make the long drive back up to Blackpool.

We celebrated the capture that night, before heading off for home around 10.00 a.m. the next day.

The Lagoon is a lovely place to fish and I really enjoyed my time there – I’d even go so far as to say I miss fishing the place already. A big thanks to Gordon for the ticket, Dave for some top shots and netting skills, and to Rob for coming around to help out with things – a moment that is sure to stick with me for the rest of my days! KW