Mar Peche, a lake with a reputation for big Carp but also with a reputation for not giving up its residents easily, with many an angler leaving at the end of their session empty handed.
This was a trip I had been looking forward to for quite a while, trying to glean whatever information there was out there on social media and YouTube, just to piece together snippets of what I was about to experience. Sometimes helpful and other times it can be a hindrance with anglers falling into the trap of pre-conceived ideas of what others have done.
Saturday 30th September.
Arriving just after lunchtime ready for the gates opening at 1pm, with baking temperatures and glorious sunshine, the next couple of days the forecast was for near 30 degrees with no wind, certainly not ideal carpy conditions and certainly not what you would expect at this time of year.
There were seven of us on this trip and we were greeted by the friendly and knowledgeable bailiffs, we opted not to do a lake walk and go straight for a peg draw.
The Nook.
This was to be my home for the week, the peg looked like it hadn’t been fished the previous week but the bailiff informed it had and the week previous, and it hadn’t produced either of those weeks, strangely I wasn’t fazed by this, I’m not sure why either? You would have thought here we go I’m on for a tough one here.
With a bit of advice from the bailiff as to likely areas I found some spots but opted to go slightly off the advice given.
Mar Peche is a heavily fished water, week in week out with a constant rotation of anglers, and if every angler is given the same advice as to spots and this swim hadn’t done a fish for a couple of weeks maybe a different approach was needed.
I had already made the decision before leaving the UK for a boilie only approach and not to go down and pre order the house Hemp/Tiger, mixed particle route.
For this trip and because of the potential Crayfish problem I opted not to use a fishmeal based bait, and put my faith in CO-DE related products hoping to deter any unwanted attention from the red clawed army, that were searching out shallower water for breeding time.
Rods out with darkness soon approaching, anticipation was high, but I was feeling unsettled with my line lay for these pressured fish.
My swim had a shallow ledge for about 20 yards and then dropping off to 17 feet, and the area I was fishing to rose up to 13 and 12 feet, no matter how high I had my tips I couldn’t get the line lay I wanted, and if I was fortunate to hook a carp I would run the risk of tangling another one of my lines and potentially losing the fish. So, the decision was to set up the pod and fish off the end of the jetty in the morning where the line would lay would fall in to deeper water off the rod tips.
Tuesday 3rd October.
I had set my alarm to be up an hour before sunrise every morning and I was sat up with a brew in hand every night to the early hours, listening to fish showing and trying to piece together their movements and patterns, they may be tricky customers but certainly aren’t shy of showing themselves.
A few liners over the previous nights kept me on my toes and seeing fish show in front of the Fallen Tree swim and to the right of Harrisons kept the confidence high of being in the right area, albeit on the opposite side of the lake, surely it was only a matter of time they would move with the angling pressure they were receiving in that area.
Three nights in and only one lost fish had been reported up to this point from the party of seven, but anticipation was high as a break in the weather was forecast, only for the day, but a strengthening wind and a period of rain we were all welcome of.
The area I was fishing to had low lying silkweed as I chose to keep clear of the clean polished spots. I had started the session off with a combination of hard hookers tipped with fake corn, snowman or wafters on all my rods but I made the decision to switch to stiff hinge rigs with the new XB 15mm Pineapple & Butyric pop up (extra buoyant), these would allow me to leave the rods out for 48 hours or more or until a take whichever would come first.
I was fishing small concentrated areas of bait with it being dropped from the bait boat so rigs were kept short.
Wednesday 4th October.
Mar Peche was starting to wake up, Derek landed a couple of fish in a short space of time from the other end of the lake in Goose point and my neighbouring swim Harrisons had done a fish, no doubt a combination of a change in conditions and the time bait had been in the water played a part in contributing to this.
One of the bailiffs said at the beginning of the week we wouldn’t start to catch until Monday, purely down to a new party of anglers and no doubt newly baited spots.
I wanted my areas to be safe areas when fish visited and give the fish confidence that the baited area had been there for a while, so every night I would put a bucket of boilie and chops to soak in lake water, softening them, washing them out but not totally washing all the attractors out, but also bringing the active CO-DE enzyme to the front of the bait.
Just before dusk and one of those couple of bleeps moments from the receiver gave a few more bleeps than normal and I was on my way tentatively but hastily down the jetty to the rods, where the sound of the fading receiver in the background was being taken over by the sound of a clicking spool.
Approaching the rods I could see the line tightening and the back lead lifting from the depths and I’m into what I came for, a Mar Peche carp!
Theres nothing more exciting even after all these years of your first fish from a new water especially knowing it could potentially be your only one of the session too.
The fish managed to pick up the back leads on two other rods, a bit of heart in mouth moment as the light was fading and luck was on my side as it freed itself from the other lines and slid into the waiting net.
A feeling of total elation, relief, excitement I just peered at the fish as I unclipped the rig and tried to slide it into the waiting retainer to be taken back to the bank for weighing and photographing.
A quick phone call and Rich and Derek, and they were on hand to do the honours.
42lbs of character with a few tales to tell was photographed and returned. I’m not sure how many times I looked to the sky and said thank you, but it was a few!
Darkness was setting in now and I still had three rods to replace, did I care? Not at all!
I think it’s 50 plus.
Over the next couple of hours a few brews were consumed as I sat there on my chair grinning like a Cheshire cat just listening to fish show, and looking up to the clear starry sky taking in what had just happened and thankful I wasn’t going home empty handed. Four nights in to get my first take, but I’d done it.
I took the back leads off when putting the rods back out and opted for slack lining instead, and just before midnight a more steady take was developing on the same rod as I had the first fish on.
Not quite believing what was happening I found myself on the end of the jetty in no time, headtorch on and rod arched over into a fish that had found a weed bed.
Steady pressure applied and the fish freed itself and slowly came towards me, and in a little over ten minutes with a few lunges and runs under the rod tips it slid over the net cord.
Peering into the net and unclipping the rig I could see this was a good Common with a big belly, but I couldn’t see the extent of its depth, I just thought that’s 50+.
Transferring the fish into the retainer I tried lifting it, all to no avail. A quick call and Rich and he was on hand to assist with everything.
On the mat it became apparent that this was better than I had initially thought, and when the needle flew past the 60lb mark on my scales it was time to get the 120lb Reubens out.
An agreed weight of 65.08 and I had just beaten my long standing PB of over thirty years, but that hadn’t sunk in yet, all I was thinking was this was my second Mar Peche fish in a couple of hours, talk about being on cloud 9!
Rod back out on the spot, kettle on and another bucket of bait on soak.
I’d just climbed into the bag and no more than an hour later and the rod positioned 10 yards away from where the other two takes had come from was away, with another slow, steady take.
Grabbing the headtorch from the bankstick at the front of the jetty I made my way down slightly dazed and confused to be honest, this was another Mar Peche fish on the end.
An exact replica of the fight from the 65 only an hour earlier, weeded, freed, and a good fight under the rod tip and a good Mirror slid over the net cord.
Same routine of unclipping the rig and breaking the net down and transferring the fish into the sling, no chance of me lifting this one out.
I popped round to Rich’s swim and said I had another lump, 50+ I’d say, to be on the safe side. Think we were both surprised that I had another so soon.
Carrying the fish down the jetty, we both commented that we thought we both had the heavy end, and on the mat, unzipping the sling we could see why, that’s bigger than the last one was he said.
On the scales after deducting the sling we settled on 71lb.
A real recognisable fish with a split tail with white tippings.
Two PB’s, a Common and a Mirror and a combined weight of 136lb 8 oz in just over an hour, unbelievable and I’m sure something I will never repeat or better again.
What an unbelievable feeling and experience, and no sleep was had at all that night, I just couldn’t settle, feeling pure elation and adrenaline kept me awake.
The kettle stayed on a constant boil for the next few hours, brew after brew was consumed whilst getting damp from the early morning mist rolling in.
In the morning it was confirmed that the mirror was indeed a known character, due to its easily recognisable tail and first time out at over 70lb, and nearly a year exactly to the day from its last capture.
And the 65 Common last came out in April at over 70lb too.
The final days.
All those takes had come to no more than a couple of kilos of soaked boilies, and sloppy carpet feed made from the water from the washed out baits.
Thursday night I topped up my areas with a bit more bait, slightly more than I had previously introduced as I was preparing to leave them out now for the final couple of days.
But at 02.30 a similar take to the others had me once again on the end of the jetty trying to free a fish from the weed.
How this fish had managed to run 10 yards on a tightened clutch, shed the rig and not even drop the lead with the tail rubber only pushed on one notch I’ll never know, but it was my fourth take but a lost fish.
The last couple of days the temperatures were slowly creeping up again but Mar Peche was starting to give up a few of its residents, mostly at our end, they weren’t moving with the pressure as was expected.
Dusk Friday night saw me once again doing battle at the end of the jetty. This fish stayed on the surface all the way in, wallowing and head shaking, just doing its best to throw the hook but this time luck was back on my side, and a beautiful Mirror of 59lb was having its photos taken.
And just before first light, a repositioned rod no more than 20 yards out over a palm full of bait gave me a 33lb mirror as a parting gift.
What a week this had been. I went to Mar Peche knowing its reputation with the hope of one fish for the album and anything else being a bonus.
When the stars align and your lucks in…..
