FANTASTIC FLOATER FISHING


We regularly walk  our dog Paddy over a local country park of a weekend and on our walks there ive noticed theres a lake in the middle of the park. When theres water involved i mhave to explore and upon walking round this small lake i,ve noticed quite a lot of carp activity. On our last visit there it was quite obvious that the carp were very happy to feed on the surface as i saw them bow waving and sipping down insects around the lily pads and marginal reeds. A plan was hatched and later that evening i arrived at the water armed with my stalking rod and a bucket full of mixers and loaf of bread.
 It was a red hot evening with not even a hint of a breeze, perfect for surface fishing but not great for a knackered old fisherman walking the 1.5 mile needed to get to the water. After finally getting my breath back i proceeded to chuck out some mixers and straight away the water erupted with carp of all sizes fighting for the free food. Great thought i, banded mixers on the hook should snag me a shedload, how wrong was i. Although they fed heavily on my free offerings they turned away from my banded baits, so out with the old faithful breadflake and first cast resulted in a lovely common of a couple of pounds, result. Feeding regularly with the mixers and using breadflake on the hook resulted with somewhere in the region of 20-25 carp banked varying in size from a few ounzes to the cracking common at the top of this entry which i reckon went around 18lb, i didn,t have any scales with me. All the carp caught were in cracking condition and the big common put up an immence fight on my 9ft Sonik Stalker road. Not a bad result for a few hours fishing.

 
After my previous success the week before i decided to have another go for the carp of the surface. I used to only fish this way when i was a teenager, making my Dad take me to local club waters after work/school to spend the evening stalking carp from various bays, weedy corners and reedbeds. I regularly 'pissed off' the proper carpers by fishing a couple swims up from them and easily catching fish of the top whilst they had been struggling all day with nothing to show for their efforts. More than once i got told to 'fcuk off boy or i,ll chuck you in' as another carp splashed over my net cord. Anyway where was i, oh yes back at the country park lake. Sharon had come with me to walk Paddy so i only had an hour or so to wet a line and as previously the fish were definately interested in my bread. By the time 'Melady' had returned i,d netted over half a dozen carp topped by the two fish shown, both around the 8lb mark i reckon. You can,t complain about fishing like that on a free lake deep in the middle of a beautiful country park. I,ll give the place a proper go with bottom baits in the larger part of the lake at some point as talking to a guy who says he fishes it quite a bit, theres carp just into the twenties living in there. Its got to be worth a go.

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