Autumn Carp Fishing On An Embryo Water - Back to My Roots - Amanda's Angling

As it was my first time here I didn't know a huge amount but from what I’d read before the session Norman Cross lake holds around 300 carp starting at 15lb and possibly up to 30lb. From the point where I chose to start I could see pretty much the entire lake, which was ideal for watching for signs of fish. It didn’t take long before I spotted a few shows, one in each corner of the bay, So I decided to act fast to try and get a quick bite. I cast a pair of spinner rigs at the showing fish and catapulted out a small spread of CC Moore’s Pacific Tuna Boilies in 15mm.

The plan was simply to give it a couple of hours and see what happened. I Felt the leads down nicely and I was confident that both rods were fishing. If nothing happened at all, then I would have a re-think and come up with a plan for the night ahead. After only a few minutes of waiting, however I had a delicate bite on my left hand rod and a lively scrap later, I slipped the net under a perfect little mirror, probably mid-teens. Getting off the mark that quickly on a new lake always feels brilliant, and the softly-softly approach of casting to showing was clearly the right tactic.

It's worth taking a moment to say something about why I chose a venue like Norman Cross for this session. Going somewhere where you have a better chance of just getting a few bites and not worrying too much about the size of the fish is really important when you are just starting out with fishing.

As the afternoon wore on, I decided to rethink my plan for the night. Most of my bites to this point had come from the bays, but the fish were kiting me into the snags near the margins during the fight, and I didn’t fancy my chances of getting to the rod in time once I was fishing in darkness. 

I’d seen a few fish rolling further out in open water, so I got the marker rod out, found a nice clean spot about ten wraps out (im no long distance caster), and started prepping a bit of bait. My mix was simple but effective; Pacific Tuna boilies, matching tuna pellets, a handful of sweetcorn, and a good squeeze of tuna liquid for extra attraction.

It didn’t take long. Once it was completely dark the spot out in open water seemed to really come alive.  Within five minutes we had a cracking old mirror followed by a lean common, both in stunning condition, I had a feeling the spot would only get better as the night went on... And I wasn’t wrong. Later that evening, I hooked into something that was fighting a little harder. I could tell it was a bigger fish and once I got a proper look at it I knew it was the twenty that I was looking for. After a tense battle and a short debate with the camera man, we weighed the fish and I was absolutely right the fish was just over twenty pounds and was once again in pristine condition. 

The morning was grey and gloomy when I woke up and while it wasn't the most picturesque those types of conditions are often ideal for catching carp.  I freshened up both rods with fresh boilies, topped up the spot with a few more spods of bait, and sat back with a coffee, hoping for one last fish before packing up.

At this point the session had been my most productive ever. I’d had seven fish in total, everything from lively mid-doubles to that stunning 20 all caught on simple rigs and a bit of careful preparation.

The session seemed to be winding down as the morning continued so I took a moment to walk you through the rigs I was using. The spinner rigs were my go-to early on for fishing over a spread of bait, but later I switched to a snowman rig on a short braided hooklink with a small blob of tungsten putty to keep everything pinned to the lake bed. I am using an Advanta Wide Gape hooks and a small mesh bag of crushed boilies mainly to avoid tangles on the cast. Nothing complicated, just solid setups that give me confidence.