I have always been told through my life that I seen to carry a fair amount of luck. Im not sure this is true however the story below is one which may add fuel to such comments.

After a year of not fishing much at all in suddenly got the bug back for some action, I only had a day a week for a month to go before other commitments would end my rekindled enthusiasm.

The time of year was late October and with such limited time I didn’t really see the point of heading to a hard lake in search of some big girls. So for the first few days I had available I headed across the border to the dark side and fished at Weybread fisheries. This is a super little water and I soon had a bend in my rod.

The two sessions I did on the place resulted in 17 carp and 10 of these being doubles. However not that I am complaining but I was craving something bigger, as I said I had done much fishing that year and really wanted something above 20lbs under my belt. after the second session on Weybread I decided to head down up to Taswood lakes.

I’ve heard so much about this complex over the years, and although I live 12 miles away I had never even seen the place!! On my arrival I was pleasantly pleased with what I saw, the lakes looked well kept and to my delight were almost completely empty, just what I like.

I had decided from what I had heard about the complex that Heron lake would probably be the best for me. The lake contains a very large head of carp for such a small amount of water, many of which are around the 30lb mark. However after a good look round the lake I was completely uninspired. The lake looked dead, nothing was moving. Time for a rethink. Up the path I went and there was Broadwing lake, the jewel in the crown of the complex. Straight away it looked so much more appealing, its without doubt one of the best lakes I’ve seen. It just looked like it was prime for the taking. After a good look round I stumbled across a group of around 10 fish holed up tight to a water inlet. They were actually cruising on the surface, and the date was 3rd of November!!

I couldn’t fish for the next couple of days so I decided to foil a plan. I went back to the car and made up about 40 grounbaits sticks with a piece of pepperami at each end. These were then baited into the spot along with about another 3 pepperami chopped up. I then did the same the following day, the fish were still about and looked like they were responding to the bait, I had to fish, and soon.

I went home and un arranged everything I had to do the next day, there was no way I wasn’t fishing. Taswood has a rule that day ticket anglers cannot enter the site until 7am, however season ticket anglers can come as they please. I got to the lake at around 6.00am as to beat all the other day tickets, but in the time I was there 4 season ticket anglers went passed and proceeded down to the lake. I crossed my fingers and preyed they wouldn’t jump into my swim, I just had a feeling that something special was going to happen that day. 6.45am came and I was let in early, I think the owner could see how keen I was to get there. Maybe it was the bald patch I had now acquired after pulling large chunks of my hair out after each season ticket angler strolled on by me that gave it away.

As soon as I was let in I was like a greyhound chasing a rabbit, I drove to the top car park and could see that all the cars were parked here, this meant that all the anglers had to be on Heron or Broadwing. I grabbed my water bottle and ran past Heron and onto Broadwing, the trees obscured my view so I just kept running. Finally I came round the last corner, and to my utter delight the swim was free. In fact the whole lake was, those carp didn’t stand a chance now!!

Off back to the car park with my swim saver in place, collected the gear and got set up.

Once set up I walked back to the spot where I had seen the fish over the last two days. They were still there, nice one. I trickled a little hemp onto their heads to semi spook them, the idea being that they would drift of the spots for enough time to let me cast and bait up.

Once the baiting up had taken place it was time to cast. The problem was the cast was a very tight one, and the 20mph+ wind didn’t help matters either. Anyone who has fished Broadwing will know where I am talking about and how tight it is. I needed to be as close to the lilies as I could. Anyway to cut a long story short, about 20 casts and 2 sets of end tackle later I was in place. I decided after all the commotion that one rod in the area would have to do, I couldn’t afford anymore disturbance.

It was now sitting on my hands time, I wasn’t sure if id blown my chance with all the disturbance I had caused, however it was too late now. Over the next 4 hours fish were showing them selves everywhere aprt from the spot I was fishing. There was no way I was moving the rod now though as the wind had picked up and I felt I would never get it back in there again.

My decision was rewarded at 12.00 noon, I had a drop back. I hit the rod staright away although I felt no resistance, for that split second I thought I had blown my chance. But I hadn’t, after some frantic winding I felt the comforting thud of a carp on the other end of my line, game on!!

The fish didn’t do much at distance, it just came straight in. once under the tips it wouldn’t give up, my heart was in my mouth the whole time as I hadn’t used a barbless hook for years and I have no faith in them.

The hook held though and after a 10minute spirited fight a good common slid over the net. At first glance I thought it was a good 20, maybe around 25lb so I was over the moon. I set about getting everything reading for the beaching. Once I was sorted I lifted the fish out and straight away realised that I had misjudged the weight, there was no way this fish was a mid twenty. It was without a doubt a thirty, and a decent one at that.

Trio with a 32lb 5oz Common, Taswood Lakes

The old knees started to shake as I arranged my gear to weigh the fish, and what a stunning fish it was. Absolutely immaculate, scale perfect and it had a beautiful colour to it too. On the scales the fish easily passed 30lb and cruised past my old pb of 30lb 8oz. After a while I managed to stop shaking enough to finally settle on a weight of 32lb 5oz, I was gob smacked.

Taswood lakes don’t allow you to sack carp but after a polite phone call to the owner he allowed me to hold it in the net for photos to be taken. There was only one person I was going to phone for the photo shot, the original Essex boy Basil, top man with a camera.

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur, basil came down and took some ace photos as usual.. I then fished for a while before heading to basils to collect the photos. On arrival, to my delight, the boy had been shopping, pizza and several bottles of red capped a brilliant day, cheers Basil.

So maybe I am a lucky boy, but I like to think that some people just have it!!

Grass Carp Facts

(Ctenopharyngodon idella)

Grass carp are a large member of the minnow family and are related to common carp and goldfish. However, their appearance is quite unlike other carp, aside from their large scales. Grass carp are generally a dark colour on the back that ranges from gray to green, dark olive, golden brown or bronze. The colour fades to a light brown-yellow or silver on the side before becoming white on the belly. Fins are clear to dark in colour.

They have a long, torpedo shaped body that resembles that of the chub, only much larger. The body is covered with large scales, of which 40 to 42 make up the lateral line. The upper-side scales have a dark fringe and black spot that often give the grass carp a checkered look.

Grass carp have a broad, rounded head with a short snout
Compared with other carp, the large eyes are set relatively low on the head. The mouth is located at the end of the head and has thin, rounded lips. Their mouths are clearly smaller than those of other carp. For easy identification purposes, grass carp do not have the barbels found around the mouths of other carp.

The common name of the grass carp is "white amur", which comes from the Amur River in Asia, where it is believed that grass carp originated from.
Because of their unique spawning habitat requirements, grass carp can only spawn naturally in few areas outside their native range. As a result, where they have been introduced, stocking programs are critical to maintaining their numbers.

They were first exported out of Asia in an effort to exploit their feeding habits for weed control purposes in selected waters.

Grass carp are exclusively a freshwater species that inhabits primarily temperate lakes, ponds, and large river backwater areas. They prefer areas with slow current or standing water that is teeming with vegetation.

They are very adaptable and can endure variations in temperature, salinity and low oxygen levels. In relation to water temperature, they are known to be able to adapt to water ranging from 32 to 100 F.

Grass carp are very particular about their spawning areas and habits. The eggs of the grass carp are heavier than water and thus require a relatively strong current in order to hatch. As a result, they are unable to spawn in lakes, ponds, and even many of the rivers in which they are introduced.

Grass carp are almost exclusively vegetarian. As a result of this vegetarian nature, they almost never compete with popular game fish or commercial fish for food sources.

Their name comes from their almost exclusive diet of aquatic grasses and weeds. Occasionally they will eat small insects, and invertebrates. Grass carp are capable of eating several times their own weight in vegetation each day.

Those who fish for grass carp are generally rewarded because they are strong fish that can put up quite a fight. They are even known to occasionally jump when hooked, make repeated runs and seem willing to do whatever they can muster to prevent being landed. Fishing methods are similar to those used for any carp.