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Back with a bang!

Posted in Catch Reports on 31st July 2009

After a short break from the big carp scene following his capture of the Black Mirror, Essential bait boss Mike Willmott wasted no time getting back into the swing of things by banking his latest target fish in the shape of this immaculate 37lb 3oz mirror (above right) from a very tricky undisclosed venue. Such was the carp’s confidence in the bait, when he went to remove the hook, he found it was lodged over 10” back and had to borrow a pair of 12” pike forceps to remove it!!

A number of other good fish have fallen to Mike and Lee following a pre-baiting campaign at the low stocked water, with the latest being a lovely dark chestnut coloured mirror that Mike believes is one of the best looking carp he’s ever seen!

Unfortunately on a sad note, the otters seem to be catching just as many carp from the venue as they are and having had first hand experience of otters on their own lake as well as Ashlea Pool, Mike believes it’s only a matter of time before these fish are wiped out.

Footnote: Mike has recently started a new mini series of articles in Carpworld for anyone interested and part one appears in the July issue.

Fluoro pop-ups

Whilst carp are not generally recognised as sight feeders, there are undoubtedly times when they are visually drawn to a food source and bright pop-ups are a classic example of this. It's not surprising therefore, that fluoro pop-ups have proved very effective, particularly if just using a single bait with no free offerings. The winter and spring months are a classic example of this and a single fluoro pop-up cast to a 'showing' fish has resulted in the downfall of many a carp.

But it would be a mistake to think fluoro pop-ups should be just restricted to single bait presentation. Quite often, a fluoro pop-up fished over a bed of bait can fool the wariest of carp and a little 10mm fluoro pop-up mounted above a standard bottom bait can act as a very good visual sight and lead to a bite or two when other methods fail to produce.