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Meeting 'The Maker'
Both Hassan and Tom fished Peg 7 and with lots of features, including two islands and untold deep margins, it was fair to say that with six rods each there would still have been spots left unfished. The lake itself is a lovely, intimate, small water with a good head of some 700+ carp from low doubles to upper 20’s and thirties.
Being allowed to walk onto islands via the bridges and with sensible rules and purpose made bankside cabins in each swim it was a little slice of carping paradise and a huge thanks to Mark Bartlett for allowing us to fish and feature his venue. Both Hassan and Tom decided to fish up to the islands, walking round and hand dropping rigs as tight as possible to cover in shallow water due to the warm conditions. Being small water carp, despite good numbers, they don’t give them selves up easily.
Hassan chose to use solid bags and a light scattering of boilies and corn, whereas Tom has his own crafted ‘go to approach’ that has lead him to numerous big hits on Linear as well as else where.
THE TOM MAKER APPROACH
Despite not being at Linear, Tom pretty much sticks to the same methods, rigs and bait regardless of where he is, such is his confidence. TOM’s Bait Simple as simple gets: hemp, corn and small 12mm Sticky Baits Krill boilies, that’s it! TOM’S Rigs Two very simple rigs, one being a zig rig consisting of Fox Zig Aligner, Fox Zig and Floater Hook and Fox Zig and Floater hooklength fished on a Fox lead clip. For his bottom bait fishing a simple Fox Wide gap beaked point hook with silicon on the shank and cortex hooklegth, again on a Fox lead clip. Nothing else at all bar his 16lb Fox Exocet mainline.
Tom took time to feel for a harder patch of bottom to drop the rigs on and applied regular bait directly to his spot. It paid off, as he caught steadily from the island spot with some six fish up to 18lb coming over the next six hours, and one fish coming to a zig fished a foot beneath the surface.
It was clear that this simple approach was deadly effective regardless of the venue and size of fish. The regular feeding drove the fish crazy, and if Tom wanted it, I’m sure a big hit was on the cards. The lack of clutter in terms of Tom's rigs, bait and approach mean that, once he is settled and has located fish, he is confident in catching.
Hassan also managed to bag a few fish, but not at the same frequency as Tom. It was clear to see why he has represented England, and why his reputation for catching wary, pressured day ticket carp is so justified.
If you want to hear more from Hassan and Tom whilst they were on the session, head back and check out the AD Live they filmed whilst fishing at Acorn Carp Fishery.
