The Reserve by Mani morris

After a fairly short but very intense period of fishing on a busy club water near Yateley, concluding with the big 'un at 49lb+ in early autumn, I found myself freed up to have a go elsewhere with an early start through the winter and the spring to look forward to. I had a couple of venues in mind, but to cut a long story short covid struck and pretty much everywhere across the country had been temporarily closed, and even worse, ticket purchases had hit an all-time high with proximity restrictions from the complexes thrown in the mix had made these options a write off for the time being.

Target achieved, Mill Lane's Whiskers 49lb 8oz.

After a lot of consideration, I decided I would have a go on another lake fairly local which I hadheard about quite some time before through friends. From my understanding, it was a pretty lawless place with no restrictions, lightly fished due to its overgrown manner and a virtually unknown stock of fish, albeit a small amount compared to the size of the pit. Having spent my whole life fishing club tickets and knowing exactly what I was angling for, I relished a break away from the circuit waters of the south and delve into the unknown, a real rarity in this country nowadays.
​The first handful of trips I had done were pretty much all over the pond, fishing the open water swims to gain some knowledge of the bottom on prevailing winds and fishing close in when opportunities presented themselves, something I came to realise were rare and difficult to capitalise on due to the flighty nature of the carp. I recall those first two summers were a real headache in terms of getting the fish to drop and feed on bait, no matter how discreet and well placed it was, presumably the endless natural food sources giving them no need to. My first bite came, fishing in a shallow bay on the end of a south westerly where I had found around six fish, with its perimeter all wader depth so eyeing up fishable ground was an easy prospect. As mentioned before, trap setting with conventional tactics showed it wasn’t the way to go, but tried I did and watched those fish swim over my two spots all day almost unaware of the bait, really frustrating especially with so many fish on show. As a last minute decision with the failing light and visibility, I lowered in a choddy by hand on a long leader, baited with an Ocean Spice corkball into a deep depression in the weed where I reasoned the fish would pass through in and out of the bay. Using a foam nugget and holding the lead outstretched from the rod, it settled just out of view with the leadcore flush to bottom coming back towards me. I left that as a single, went to bed that night and woke up to a bite just on first light from that rod, not my cup of tea but it was ghosty of around 20lb, good to be off the mark all the same and a valuable lesson learnt.

One step forward, two steps back in the pads bay.

Summer slowly turned to autumn that year, and I had been concentrating on a swim with a good view and lovely clean areas close in before it dropped away into the deeps. More importantly, I was beginning to see fish showing which I was yet to see that first year, really exciting after a pretty lifeless summer and not a lot to go on at all. Early November, I managed a brace of fish fishing over bait onto relatively clear ground at the bottom of the shelf during a lovely bit of low pressure, again on chod rigs and a scattering of Spice. That trip was pretty much the breakthrough and the penny dropped, knowing the fish would drop their guard and feed on bait when the naturals had depleted, and the temperatures had dropped. To finish up that year with three fish was a good start and some valuable knowledge of the topography and what conditions they would turn up lifted the confidence.

Autumn seemed like the only time they were catchable early on, 27lb 12oz.

​After spending the winter chasing them down the depths for no success, spring came around which meant I was gunning for the shallower areas of the pond, both situated at either end. We had a cold influx of weather come in early March which brought with it light snow and Baltic north easterly winds hammering down into the pads bay end of the lake. I had been concentrating my efforts down the southern end of the pond, knowing they would most likely wake up and use the shallows once the water temperature began to climb. I felt quite disheartened by that cold snap, but if it wasn’t for what happened next I would’ve missed out on the most crucial opportunity which inevitably played an immense part in catching those carp. I ventured down to the bottom end of the pond where those freezing winds had been blowing to check the pad bay as its shape meant there was a protected area of water from the breeze with good weed and pads coverage. I couldn’t find anything inspiring, but on coming out of that bay and viewing from a swim that commands the entrance of the bay, and bowl like section of fairly uniform bottomed open water, a good common shuffled out amongst the chop. Minutes later another good fish showed more centrally and just to the right of a spot I had found through the winter, a shallower, cleaner raised area in amongst pretty soft and uninteresting bottom. The game was well and truly on, I couldn’t get my kit fast enough from up the other end.
​

Not my cup of tea but hard earnt, 35lb 09oz

Once in the swim I readied my rods knowing where I needed to be, it was simple case of getting two out the shallow hump and one off to the right where the common showed at the bottom of the shelf. To cut a long story short, I didnt receive any action despite seeing an unbelievable display throughout my stay, but I had decided with so much going on I was going to begin baiting the hump in a hope that I could establish an area. Each week, I was putting in around 25kg of mixed particles and around five kilos of Ocean Spice using a dinghy and popping up a marker from the bank for ease and accuracy. I continued this right through until my first bite came in the first week of June, not my cup of tea, but it was the Albino Grassy at just under 36lb. The evening before he had rolled directly over the spot sending up a huge amount of fizz, put it this way when the rod belted off around 2am I knew what was on the end!

In my heart it could only be one fish

The next week came around after heavily baiting once again, I dropped in and got the rigs into position with crisp drops and around a kilo of Spice over the top with catapult nice and smoothly. I hadn’t mentioned up until this point but I began baiting a spot in the edge up to the right where I had clocked the Grassy sunning itself in some snags. Initially, I used a large amount of Rock Salt and some hemp to prime the area as the bottom needed some work in order to present effectively. I got up the tree with a mate Chris to judge if it was worth placing the third rod in and within seconds I could see at least five fish, mind blowing stuff as it was really rare to see so many in a situation like that. A couple of fish down there I had caught already but on inspection there were two mirrors and to this day the largest common I have ever seen in the water pass under from right to left, absolutely incredible length and width and so black in colouration it was difficult to work out what it even was, mental! As you can imagine, I got down from that tree and ran back to the brolly to get a rod sorted, going in with a long leadcore leader utilising a weak link directly to a ring swivel and a short hooklink baited with a single balanced tiger to complete the trap. It was an awkward scenario as the only way to get the rod onto the spot was to use the boat so I waited as long as I could and got the rod in once the fish disappeared.

That evening I saw a good fish show to my right in the open water and went to bed feeling confident there was a bite on the cards. Next morning, just as the sun hit the sky the open
water area rocked and a deep bow wave shot off the spot with my middle rod absolutely melting off. As I picked up the rod the fish was having line at an alarming rate, but with boat the ready and thick weedbed at the back of the spot I wasn’t too worried to begin with. However, this fish had hit that weed and kept going which I thought just wasn’t possible, in my heart I knew it could only be one fish that had history of being an animal fighter from the very limited previous captures. After an agonising fifteen-minute battle I could see that unmistakable frame and black back tenting in the weed that had collected around it, walking out to max wader depth gave it the butt and heaved the whole lot over the cord. I'm usually pretty calm when it comes to landing fish, but once peering into the folds I knew it was my moment and she looked huge, I completely lost my head; three years of hard graft and well over two hundred nights culminating in one of the best carp I will ever catch. After a couple of phone calls to the appropriate people, Chris came down and got some blinding shots in the mid-morning sun, at 40lb 06oz she was everything I'd expected a wild pit big'un to be, dark tones mixed with purples and reds, immaculate condition and a carp not known to by the masses to top it all off.

Everything I'd expected a wild pit big 'un to be" 40lb 06oz

​I continued in that swim taking another three fish in a morning unbelievably, two repeat commons and a new one, a fish I had seen in the edge with that big common the week I caught the big 'un, an upper twenty leathery mirror.

One of three in a morning in biblical conditions, 27lb+.

I continued on until the end of the autumn down the other end of the pond that had been kind to me in previous seasons, with the big one under my belt ultimately it would be the end once winter was upon us and it was time for pastures new. I had another repeat during September of the first fish I had which was up an incredible 6lbs in that time, on a balanced Spice bottom bait at the bottom of the shelf on a tiny clay spot, but after that the bites stopped with the fish still evident. I decided for my last trip to change tack and bait heavily with hemp and caster out in the pond where I felt the fish were spending the majority of their time during a 24 hour period, and on the last morning with most archetypal autumn dawn, I finished up with a lovely 30lb 10oz common, a new one for me and sealed the deal on probably some of the most difficult but enjoyable fishing I will ever have.

​Thanks for reading and keep catching 'em

​Mani

Last bite on the casters, 30lb 10oz.