River Carping

With

Leigh Hemsley

1989 was a landmark year for me as an angler as this was the year that my obsession with River Carping first began. This all came about when he moved to the Fenland market town of Spalding in Lincolnshire. Spalding was built along side the River Welland about ten miles down stream from the huge locking systems which distinguish the end of the fresh water river system and the start of salt water that is brought inland by the tides from The Wash. These stretches of the River Welland and The Coronation relief channel had become famous in the 70’s and eighties as an Angling Mecca for match fishing legends such as Ivan Marks and many other top flight match anglers who earned their stripes targeting the huge shoals of Bream that resided. For a totally different reason the River Welland and the Coronation relief channel was about to become my angling home for the next twenty plus years.

Over these past twenty years plus I’ve fished on and off with some degree of success, catching the odd carp to just over the 20lb mark but the Rivers full potential had still not shown itself to me. In 2007 a changed in work place meant I had to bike along the river every day, so I decided that it was time to put some serious effort in to find and capture these documented yet elusive Welland Carp. The first year was spent more looking for fish, pre-bait areas that looked promising and generally getting to know the river. 2008 saw me back on the bank and using the Nash Baits Scopex Squid Liver Plus as my chosen bait for my campaign. On one short overnight session at the start of September, I banked eight Welland beauties including four twenties and a pristine 36lb 8oz common. With expectations and confidence high after a productive year, I upped my game in 2009 but my efforts were fruitless.

Time for a change had arrived, so 2010 once again saw me back at the river this time I was armed with a new bait, the Nash baits IC-1 boilie, which I’d been field testing for a while with major success on numerous different still water venues. I have learned over the years when fishing rivers pre-baiting is one of the most important elements if you want to be successful. River Carp are very nomadic creatures, so keeping your spots primed is critically important as you never know when your quarry might turn up in your swim. So I try to introduce bait on the areas every night or as and when possible, even if it’s a pocket full of boilies at a time every other day, little and often is better than 10 kilo just before you fish. By piling it in, you can potentially destroy months of hard work, Keep it steady and reap the rewards.

Due to work commitments and other things that life puts in the way of fishing, I was only able to get five nights on the bank in 2010. The first night was two days in to the new river season which was non-productive but a quick overnighter after work the day after saw a fantastic 32lb 10oz common fall to a 20mm IC1 Shelf life boilie.  I was next on the bank near the end of July, as soon as I turned up at the swim I could see four fish milling about at the edge of the weed, so I took my time setting up waiting for them to drift away, as soon as they did I placed my three traps in the swim and sat back and waited. At 11.00 the alarm went into melt down and after a good fight I landed a 30lb 2oz mirror. The next morning as I was packing up, I had another run which produced a common of 30lb 10 oz. I returned three days later for another overnighter and again was rewarded with one of the rivers jewels a magnificent common of 31lb 12oz.

Footnote