Mike Willmott - Essential Baits

Life and Carp Life Mike Willmott
Last February’s 38.
Was history about
to repeat itself?
tapping the rods vigorously. This vibrates
all the way down the line and dislodges the
build-up of tiny particles that gather on the
line, often making it look like thick rope!
The paste wrap I mentioned earlier not
only provides a greater release of attraction,
but gives the hookbait (boilie) a good few
hours of extra protection before the water
pressure starts to take its toll and softens
it up. Mind you, the smaller nuisance fish
are much less active at this time of year, so
I’ve usually got no qualms about leaving the
baits out for longer periods of time if I feel
it’s needed. I’ve usually got a tub of hard
hookbaits close at hand as an alternative
option should the need arise.
At 11.00 p.m. I had a single bleep on
the right-hand rod that needed further
investigation. It was raining hard and the
wind had increased to almost gale force by
now. Initially, I thought drifting debris may
have been the culprit, however, after closer
inspection it was clear to see my Dymag
indicator head was bouncing up and down
against the underside of the rod! At that very
same moment the line was wrenched from
The mild southwesterly
pushed itself down the
length of the lake.
the clip and the Delkim shrieked out into the
night sky. I lifted the rod and ‘cupped’ the
spool to help set the hook, and what felt like
a very big fi sh powered off in the opposite
direction. There was little I could do about
it other than to give it more line. Eventually,
I gained a little control and managed to stop
the fi sh and get it slowly moving towards
me, albeit very reluctantly. In typical big-fi sh
fashion, it plodded back and forth but, try as
I might, I just couldn’t lift it off the bottom
and into the upper layers.
I was convinced that I’d hooked a very big
fish and felt absolutely gutted when everything
went solid, which was unusual in this area
because I wasn’t aware of any underwater
obstructions. The fish had obviously found a
snag that must have blown down during the
winter gales and it was locked up solid. I gave a
few shouts to Terry Hancock, who was fishing
the swim next door, but due to the high winds
and driving rain it soon became obvious that
he couldn’t hear me.
To be honest, there was nothing he could
do anyway, but I must admit, it was going
through my mind to get my small inflatable
boat and life jacket out of the van, which,
in hindsight, would have been completely
suicidal in such conditions! It’s quite
frightening what goes through a carp angler’s
mind when big fi sh are involved. Often the
word ‘sanity’ doesn’t even fi gure and all
logical thoughts sometimes get thrown out of
the window in our quest and desire to achieve
our goal. I take it you’ve been there before!
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