carp by royal appointment
All carp waters are not the same. IAN LEWIS recounts his recent campaign on a very special lake in one of England’s finest Royal Parks…
OLD estate lakes evoke a special fascination for carp anglers.
The history and mythology associated with such places seem to generate a rare kind of magic, and these ancient waters are a far cry from today’s busy day-ticket venues where all the residents have names and a documented catch history.
For the past 15 years one such lake had been on my mind – Obelisk Pond, in Windsor Great Park. It’s centuries old, and the sheer beauty and ambience of the place has to be experienced to be believed.
Last September I finally got the opportunity to target the lake’s carp, some of which were as old as the hills.
Hatching a plan
I started out doing a few ‘recce’ trips, walking around the 18 or so acres and getting a feel for the place. Armed with a rod, I had a lead around in all the likelybiggest looking areas, diligently logging information in a notepad.
It’s a typical old ‘barrage’ pond, with one end being shallow where the water trickles over a dam wall below an ancient stone bridge, and the other end being fairly deep, dropping down to around 18ft. The other major feature was a channel running
through the centre described as ‘the old riverbed’.
On my first trip, I arrived after work and did a lap looking for subtle signs of life. Eventually, I settled on an area at the entrance to a bottleneck of a shallow bay, the idea being that I could intercept any carp moving in or out of the area, while still being able to see most of the pond.
I found a nice smooth sandy strip, in around 7ft of water, and decided to position all three rods along this, each fished with a different presentation in a bid to discern any possible preferences on the carp’s behalf.
That evening I landed a bream (the only one I’d ever catch from the lake, thankfully) and the next morning it was followed by a beautiful scaly mirror carp.
Interestingly, both bites had come on the same rod, rig and bait choice.
HEAVY-DUTY HARDWARE
On my next trip I decided to try something a little different, based an idea I’d been mulling over for some time. Bait-wise I was going to stick with the sweet pop-ups, as they had done the bites the previous week, but instead of using my normal hinged stiff rig, I decided to replace the boom section with a length of Camflex Lead Free material. At the leader end I spliced a size 8 flexi ring swivel, and at the other I used a three-turn bloodknot to attach another swivel. This would carry the short pop-up section.
In practice the spliced section acted as a really effective anti-tangle boom, being that bit stiffer along the length of the doubled-up spliced material. As well as being virtually tangle free, the new ‘hooklink’ was also mega abrasion-resistant and sank superbly, lying completely flush over lakebed debris. In fact, it perfectly mimicked a waterlogged twig lying on the bottom, of which there was an abundance in this old pond!
The pop-up sections of my rigs would be fished with big strong Rigga BCR size 4 hooks and 25lb Stiff Link. I wasn’t messing about, and I wanted to land whatever I hooked, so I figured that such heavy-duty tackle was needed, especially with all the treeline snags and underwater obstacles I knew were present.
THE BITES BEGIN...
After walking around the pond I found a lot of carp in a shallow arm and it wasn’t long before I’d dispatched two rigs quietly among them, with little 1oz leads attached to my heli set-ups.
About an hour had passed when suddenly a huge vortex erupted on the surface above where I’d cast my right-hand rod and the clutch started spinning. I was attached to a very angry, immaculate common carp that gave a spirited fight before being enveloped in the net. I checked the hookhold, and she was nailed right back in the mouth.
Fortunately, the other carp in the area hadn’t spooked so I repositioned the rod and introduced a few ABS Maple Cream boilies with a throwing stick, gently skimming them across the surface to keep the disturbance to a minimum. The carp soon picked up the scent trail and got straight on it.
There appeared to be a dozen carp sifting through the bottom, colouring up the gin-clear water. With things looking so good, I didn’t have to wait long, and I went on to catch another lovely common, followed by an ancient-looking grey mirror. Again, both were absolutely nailed, further reinforcing my confidence in the rig.
The commotion caused by this flurry of action pushed the other fish into the deeper, main body of water, so I packed down and headed off to set up for the night in the area, this time sticking out 1kg of boilies over my three rods, that were positioned close together. The following morning, I was rewarded with another stunning mirror. Only two trips in and my campaign was off to a flyer!
THE WINTER BREAK
Over the coming weeks the carp seemed to start favouring the opposite end of the lake,
spending a lot more of their time in the deeper water. Every evening, just as the water flattened off and the sun began to dip behind the trees, the carp would put on an incredible display, with multiple shows for an hour or more, often repeating the acrobatic performance at first light too. This pattern of activity went on for several weeks as autumn rolled on.
This behaviour pinpointed the zone where I needed to be, and over the next month or so I kept the bait going in twice a week and then fished the same area during my weekly overnighter.
My efforts were repaid as I went on to catch steadily right up until winter started to set in.
Satisfied with my first campaign on Obelisk, I went off to my local winter haunts, until spring 2019 finally arrived and I returned for another crack.
SHORT-SESSION SUCCESS
With the new season came a new bait, and although it was another sweet bait, it was based on a bespoke recipe which I was granted permission to use by its originator Terry Pethybridge. It was the famous ‘Chocomino’.
As is often the case in spring, things got off to a slow start. The fish didn’t seem to show at all, nor turn up in the areas that I thought they would. In fact, the pond seemed totally devoid of fish to begin with, and it wasn’t until the daylight hours increased and the temperatures rose that I started to see enough subtle clues to start piecing together a fresh plan.
So once again I started to introduce the bait regularly. I had no need to tweak my rig because of the previous autumn’s results, and sure enough, before too long everything began to fall into place. All I needed to do was stay on the fish by keeping mobile, and I often fished two or three areas, even on short sessions.
The key was to keep disturbance down to an absolute minimum so that the fish wouldn’t just ‘ghost’ away to find quieter areas of the lake.
OUT WITH A BANG
With the rig and bait continuing to work, decent hits during my overnighters became more commonplace, and over the next few months I managed to work my may through a fair proportion of the stock of Obelisk pond.
I was particularly lucky with the lake’s mirrors, which seemed to be greatly outnumbered by the common carp in the lake.
During my relatively short time on the lake I hooked 32 carp and landed every single one. And, every time the hookhold was rock solid, and more often than not set right back in the bottom lip – testament to the efficacy of the rig that I was using.
Fishing that old English estate lake was a wonderful experience, crammed full of the making of happy memories and new friends, with some fantastic old characterful carp landed along the way.
Obelisk is a truly special place, but it’s not unique. Our country is dotted with these ancient little gems, and often all it takes is a little research and perseverance to uncover them.
There are sure to be a few surprises swimming around in many of them too…
“There appeared to be a dozen carp sifting through the bottom, colouring up the gin-clear water. With things looking so good, I didn’t have to wait long...”