Hi all, it has now been a couple of months since I joined the Key Baits Solutions team. I have known some of the Key Bait team for a few years now, having seen the results they have been having on the bait, I knew it was only a matter of time before I joined the team. I have agreed to do a regular blog about my fishing for the team pages and the Website, or where space can be found for it, so here is my first blog for the Key Baits team.

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Since joining the team, I have only had a couple of one nighters on a what is a new water for me, so I hadn’t really had the opportunity to put my new bait through its paces. I was looking forward to a full week session on my trip to Parco Del Brente to do just that. After an 1100 mile drive taking 2 days we finally arrived at this iconic venue. The drive through the Alps was spectacular. We had been looking forward to this trip for 18 months and had been allocated our swim on booking, which was peg nine. To be honest this swim been a lot deeper than the rest of the lake does come into its own in the colder months, but we were confident we would still get a few bites, even in depths of 24 feet in the summer.

 

It was agreed Clint would fish the right and I would fish on the left. I had been told to put the bait in and the carp would come, so that was the starting plan. Find some spots, get some bait on them. Out in front of me it was mainly soft, wherever I cast my marker rod. So, I felt my best option was to create a feeding spot by putting bait continuously in one place. I positioned the marker rod at just over seventy yards, which was just left than halfway across to the opposite swim. I made up a bucket of bait and started to put it out. As it was relatively close range (compared to what I am used to), I could use the large Spomb as well for this. The bait I was using was made up of House Pellet, which is the main feed used here, so it would be daft not to use it, plenty of sweetcorn, and then boilies were added to this.

 

Just to talk about the boilies I was using, having recently joined the Key Baits Solutions team, my chosen bait for the rest of this year is the ASM, it’s an outstanding mix and has caught a lot of big carp for some exceptionally good anglers, the bait I was using was a combination of 12mm ASM boilies and ASM Dumbells, which is always a great combination. As to how much bait to put in, the depth was twenty-four feet where I was fishing. To get a good spread of bait at that depth I feel I would want around twenty large spombs to start and then top up a couple of times a day with ten or so spombs, or after catching. I know that will sound a lot, but the pellets were only 4mm, they will break up in a few hours, other bits will be eaten by smaller species. So actual bait left in the swim will disappear quickly. What also happens, is that the carp may visit the spot a few times and have a feed before they are feeding strong enough to get caught, this happens a lot more than one might think, I call it the difference between feeding time and getting caught time.

 

Clint ended up getting one or two bites a day all week on the right side, which to be fair is the favoured side in this swim. Me, I had to wait 2 days for my first bite, which wasn’t ideal. Whilst I had kept two rods on the bait, I was keeping one rod roving, looking for that elusive ‘spot.’ It’s funny how your mind works on a session isn’t it? It was on the third afternoon that I started to see carp show over my baited area, whereas before that, the carp just seemed to be moving through very fast. Late that evening I had a run from the baited area, which resulted in a 44lb Common being landed, excellent! Then Clint had a thirty from one of his spots. Just as we returned his carp my re-cast rod was away again, this resulted in a 45lb common being landed, this was more like it I thought to myself. A brace of 40lb commons in 30 minutes…maybe this is the start, sadly that was the end of the action that night, in fact I didn’t get a run for another 2 days, landing another common on the Thursday night.

 

By the Friday morning we were both very weary, more by tiredness and the constant heat than the fishing or lack of it, talking to others, some of them had a tough week and were heading home early, we did think about packing up but only briefly. I felt we had one more bite each to come, which turned out to be true, clint had a forty in the afternoon, his third forty of the week. Once again, I started to see carp over my bait. Late afternoon I had a very iffy take, it was just as if the carp was sat there shaking its head, trying to get rid of the hook. Once I picked the rod up, I knew I was into a very big fish, very big indeed. I steered it all the way into the deep margins in front of me, then it turned and as the rod started to flatten the hook pulled!! Chuffing hell…or words to that effect! I was absolutely gutted. All the fight went out of me at that point, that was my big fish moment, and it hadn’t gone well.

 

When I examined the hook, the point had turned outwards, so it had obviously not penetrated well. The other carp I had caught were all well hooked, so I had no issue about the set-up I was using, which was a Combi rig with a 12mm ASM hard hooker and topped with yellow plastic pop up corn, to give a balanced effect to the hook bait. I had changed the rig after each bite so I couldn’t blame neglect on my part, I felt it was just one of those things. I recast the rod and put some more bait out, but I felt I was going through the motions. What I will say, I should have put more bait in from the start, and more often topped up to build the swim, true the heat made this difficult, but I do feel if I had put more bait in, I would have got more bites during the week. A bit late to think about this now, the wisdom of hindsight is marvellous, isn’t it? We all fish a good session on the way home.

 

There was nothing more for either of us that night, or that trip, so we packed up and headed for home.

I definitely think a return trip here is on the cards, whether I drive again, or fly remains to be seen. It is an awesome fishery and despite my poor results, some of the guys had their PB’S a few times over. Having slept off the travel, unpacked my gear it’s time to get back to some Autumn fishing here in the UK, and maybe, just maybe one more trip abroad, a relatively easy drive to the Champagne region in France, once again in search of big carp,

 

I’ll let you know how I get on.

 

Catch you next time

Andy