“Off The Top”

by Rich “Fat Bloke” Adams

It was a warm afternoon in late April and I arrived at my syndicate lake to find a warm, light southwesterly breeze blowing into the top right hand corner of the lake. As always before fishing I decided to have a wander around, armed with some floaters a catapult and my Polaroid’s in hand I set off to see if I could find any fish. I had in mind two areas where they might be and on arrival in “the shallows” the first of the two areas I had in mind my suspicions were confirmed.

To briefly describe my syndicate water it is a mature gravel pit of around eight acres with a good head of fish up to just over forty pounds. Depth wise it varies from anywhere between two feet deep on the shallows up to sixteen feet in open water. There are two islands, one that is sunken and one that has gravel bars running off either side. It is a typical gravel pit with varying types of bottom and plenty of features both above and below the water level.

The “shallows” are in the top left hand corner of the lake and are surrounded by reeds with a snag directly in the middle, there are always fish in this area and despite firing some floaters beyond the fish and allowing the light breeze to bring them over the fish they showed little interest so I decided to move on to another shallow area in the opposite corner of the lake. On arrival I climbed the viewing tree above both the shallow area and the shelf where the water drops down to about eight feet deep, immediately I spotted a group of around ten fish just cruising on the surface about three rod lengths out. I eagerly catapulted a pouch full of Mistral Baits Green Mussel floaters (I like to use these due to the amount of birdlife on the lake and I find the birds find them harder to spot due to their colour) beyond the fish and allowed the light breeze to drift them back over the fish’s heads. To my surprise and most unusually for the carp in the lake they started taking the floaters almost immediately and within minutes and a couple more pouches full of floaters later the carp were feeding confidently on my free offerings. It was a very excited angler that half fell/climbed out of the tree to head back to the car for a rod, landing net, unhooking mat, scales and camera.

On arrival back in the swim, armed with all the essentials I quickly climbed back up the tree and found that the carp were still there, more importantly they were still taking the floaters and continued to do so when I introduced another pouch full. My floater rod was ready for action with a simple set up of a medium Gardner Tackle Flatliner and a 10lb Hydro Flo hook link tied directly to a size 8 Incizor hook. I quickly put a single green mussel floater on the hook and cast beyond the fish at the same time introducing some more freebies. I then gently eased the Flatliner controller towards the fish and sat in anticipation waiting for a take, almost immediately a fish took my hook bait and I struck into what felt a good fish. Within seconds the hook pulled and I had lost the fish as quickly as I had hooked it, I had complete confidence in my set up and although disappointed at losing a fish I just put it down to bad luck. I was more disappointed that I had probably missed my chance, however, on closer inspection the commotion hadn’t spooked the other fish and they were still taking the freebies that were left. I introduced some more loose feed and put afresh hook bait on.

As before I cast beyond the fish, which were now slightly closer in because they had followed the floaters on the slight breeze that was blowing and drew my hook bait back towards the fish. Once again a fish took my hook bait almost immediately and I struck into what felt like another good fish, this time there were no mistakes and after a cracking scrap I slid the net under what looked like a cracking common. On the scales she went 31lb (pictured above), some quick photos were taken and I returned her in the next swim. When I got back to the swim where I had caught her I couldn’t believe my eyes as the remaining fish were still taking the floaters, without introducing any more freebies (I had spotted another good common taking the baits) I put on another floater and recast, again I had a take straight away and struck into what felt like another good fish. After yet another explosive take and fantastic battle I slipped the net under another good common which on the scales went 32lb 8oz (pictured below).

I couldn’t believe my luck, however, this was to be the last of the action “off the top” but I did go on to catch a further four fish on bottom baits throughout the remainder of my 24 hour session, all of them were twenty’s the biggest being a lovely 27lb mirror. My session ended at lunchtime as I had things to do at home before going back on shift but on the way back to the car I spotted a group of fish in the bottom bay. I hurriedly unloaded my barrow and got my floater gear ready but the fish just didn’t seem interested, maybe it was the same group of fish that had witnessed two of their allies taken from their lair in front of their eyes the day before or maybe it was the combination of a swan taking a liking to the green mussel floaters and my Jack Russell "Bailey" taking a disliking to the swan. I think maybe the latter was to blame, but either way it was a very happy angler that headed for home with two surface caught thirty pound plus commons and a quartet of twenty pounders under his belt. 

Off The Top is sponsored by Gardner Tackle & Mistral Baits