THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

I can't remember how many fish we had in that last couple of hours, but it was measured in dozens, with
weights probably just about into double figures.
Our next trip took us to a small multi-lake complex on the Hampshire-Surrey border. This time we
chose to fish a quieter period to give us more scope to have the type of peg we wanted. Thankfully there
weren't too many other anglers about, and those that were there had already set up camp in their bivvies
with their boilies out and their bite alarms switched on.
What we did was try to get away from everybody else in a nice little swim with fringing reed beds just
either side of a wide enough gap between some tree's and bushes where we could put some feed in, then
drop the hook baits quite literally in over it with little or no casting involved.
We would be float fishing with the baits just at the bottom along the reed margins, Graeme on one side,
me on the other, and the bait would be bread flake.
We did have a few other options
with us just in case, particularly
hot-dog sausages which also
caught a few fish later on. But it
was using the bread flake that was
the primary objective, this time
with the whole day in front of us,
and it didn't take long to get the
first few fish in close and
interested. The start of a chain
reaction in fact that resulted in
sheer carnage.
At one point I was trying to film
as my rod was disappearing into
the lake which I had to put my foot
on or risk losing. On other
occasions, we couldn't film each
other at all, simply because there
was so much going on.
Mike Winrow, 25.14.0 Carp
As with the previous session in the margins, I couldn't say how many fish we ended up with, but again
it was many dozens into low double figures. Meanwhile the boilie lads sat across the way watching us
and waiting for their alarms to sound off appeared not to catch anything at all, never thinking to ask
what we were doing or attempting to switch tactics.
The third session wasn't a pre-planned carp fishing trip at all. We'd trailed the boat down to Boscastle
in Cornwall to fish for porbeagle sharks, but due to technical difficulties, didn't go afloat. So
appreciating that we wouldn't be going out over the subsequent days, and having already travelled all
that way, as you do, we started looking for alternatives.
What we came up with was Anglers Paradise owned and operated by a friend of Graeme's, Zyg
Gregorek, offering so many lakes to choose from and so many different species that we spent the first
couple of hours just walking and talking, trying to get a feel for what we should try and do, and more
to the point, try to film.
Again, we came across the obligatory bivvies and boilies. Then late afternoon on one particular lake we
saw quite a few carp topping, picking up bits of floating bait that somebody long gone must have put
in.
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