This weekend I thought I would try another of Mid Kent Fisheries waters, namely Lydd lake.  I had heard of a number of thirty pound carp being caught in recent months so reckoned on it needed some of my attention.

I made my way down to the lake Friday morning arriving at 8ish to find 5 of the 8 swims on this 15 acre coastal gravel pit taken with 2 of the 5 guys starting to pack up.  So with half the lake to choose from I opted to fish in one of the corners.  This lake is deep so the best attack at this time of year is to fish the marginal shelf, putting myself in a corner gave me plenty of margins to go at. 

I started by spooning in some Sonu Hemp and Crushed Tigernut on one side and Sonu Tuna spod mix on the other.  Walking along the bank with the rod I then dropped the baits right on top of the mix before then walking the rod back to the swim, baits were a simple 9 inch braid hooklink with a 15mm White chocolate boilie.  Ive been using these White Chocolate a lot just lately, Im thinking that with the coloured water of the lakes at the moment perhaps its a visual thing.

Soon after getting the baits in position one of the rods is away with a 6lb common.  Over the next 20 or so hours runs continued with these small 6 to 8lb commons and mirrors.  By 6am Saturday morning I had had enough and decided to move to another lake.  There are for sure a number of decent mirrors to 36lb in Lydd, but on talking to the regulars you can get plagued with the small ones, not what I am after at all.

So it was a drive of 45 minutes over to Chilham for a crack at some proper carp.  In the past month the weed has really started to come up meaning the lake is quiet so with plenty of choice I plumped for swim 31, one of the lesser fished swims and in the middle of a long length of unfished bank.  The swim had a few holes in the weed into which I could drop a bait, or so it appeared. On putting a lead on it soon became apparent that there was still a fair amount of weed on the bottom.
 
Time for some work.  I have for just these occasions a piece of kit which has proved so useful over the years, a castable weed rake.  I used to use a 3oz Breakaway with a cable tie round it but now use one of the AI rakes.  These really are superb for clearing paths through weed or areas to present a bait.  If you use one of these you must be geared up, I have a reel filled with 80lb braid and a heavy duty spod rod for such work.

After a couple of hours work and a big pile of weed later I had two holes to put baits into.  The Sonu Tuna Spod mix is just the job for putting into these holes, with several sized pellets you can be sure that some of the light one will sit on top of any remaining weed whilst the heavy pellets will reach the bottom, meaning the carp or tench will clear the whole area for you in no time at all.

With my spots primed and the hard work done I finally settled down and got the rest of my gear sorted, bivvy up, kettle on etc.  By evening the area had started to come alive, it is amazing how soon after all the commotion I had caused that carp started to show and it was no surprise when at 9 in the evening I found myself attached to a very angry carp.  This turned out to be a scale perfect common of 21lb.  I should just point out that fishing in weed such as this you really do need to be prepared, I was using 20lb mainline and an 18lb braid hooklink, an inline lead with the line going around the outside so it drops off on the take.  I also fish these areas with a solid pva bag, this time filled with 2mm s-pellet feed and a small 10mm White Chocolate on a short hair. However much raking I had done you can never be quite sure how your bait is sitting on the bottom so a solid pva bag solves this.

Night time passed quietly but at 6 in the morning I’m in again, at close range and with the carp ploughing through weed beds it really is a bit hair raising but the hook held firm and ive a cracking scaley mirror of 24lb 9oz in the net.

An hour later and we are away again, this one slips the hook though.  At 9 I hook another, this one fights hard and weeded me up, I couldn’t budge it.  When this happens don’t panic, put the rod on the rest, pull of some slack and make a brew.  After a few minutes I watched the line twitch on the surface, the carp had moved so I tightened down and with steady pressure out she came, this time lovely common of 24lb.
At 10:30 I had my final take before my noon departure, this time a chunky mirror of 17lb.

It is nice when a plan comes together, I could easily have not bothered what with Chilham being so weedy.  But with a couple of hours work iv created an area to fish which has caught me 4 cracking carp and with the remaining Tuna spod mix going in the swim before I left the area should stay free of weed giving me or my fellow anglers somewhere to fish next time.