Carpfishing in Canada
TALES OF TRENCROM
(Splattenriden farm)
First catch out of Trencrom lower lake, around 19 lbs
Hi All, read on for tales from Trencrom, just when you think the carp fishing thing is getting easier ,you find out its not! & once again are totally baffled. About 8 yrs ago I was fishing one of my local lakes ,there was not much action ; so I reeled in & wandered off up the bank to chat with someone I could just barely see through the tree's. He was a new face on the water , but he was local to the area & we got talking ,like you do in carp fishing. He was telling me of a few other waters he had fished & also described a water I caught the name of - - - - Trencrom. The description he gave sounded to me just my cup of tea ! I just had to get a fish or two from this small qiuet farm pond . Twenty pound commons in broad daylight , this chap said ! Got to have me some of that , thought I.....
Well the next week saw me & my freind, who I'd also convinced should be fishing this pond , arriving down this mooncrater of a dirt track road, I swear we were bouncing off the inside of the roof of his van, the road was so bumpy ! Nigel was echo ing the words in my ears Oh yeah ,Steve we'll be dead cushy fishin this nice easy farm pond ,that is if we get there with all 4 wheels attached to the van !.Soon the pond came into view , actually there were two of them , Our first dilemma became apparent ; which one had the carp in ?The chap from the other lake had mentioned that one lake was not worth fishing in & geuss what , the carp were not showing fin nor bubble , looked totally dead ,both ponds. We wandered around for best part of an hour ,then decided to fish the upper lake . The two Ponds , fed from a stream were connected by a pump & drained back into the stream a little further downriver .The farmer using the water for filling his cattle drinks & other agricultural purposes. The farmer actually had a very shrewd daughter ,it was her who had caught on rather too quickly that these two rather scruffy looking fishermen would be liable to shell out all sorts of hard earned grocery money to fish these muddy puddle looking ponds allegedly containing 20lb commons ,easy to catch &all that . I was beginning to wonder at the wisdom of our (my) decision. Oh well nothing ventured - - - -,
Once we were set up though, the place certainly had an air of mysticysm attached to it . It sure was different from our usual type of venue , for a start we could virtually cast anywhere due to the rather small size of it ( less than 1/2 acre) secondly there were bloody great geese wobbling around in the feild behind & boy what a row these things can make !. Well the bivies were up & Nigel plopped in 50 or so boilies ,same as we had been using on the other lake ,where I met the guy who told us about the place. I had decided to use Luncheon meat on one rod ,Corn on the other. We brewed up coffee & wine, boil in the bags & chatted for an hour or two . Nigel always had a story to tell of his earlier 'biking days ' often making me feel as though I,d hardly participated in the finer things of life (exept carp fishing & meeting the dear lady wife ,of course ) eventually we kipped down & morning arrived with the blink of an eye , and we had caught precisely Zilch ! not a twitch & of course we were thinking , we're in the wrong lake ! then BeeDooosh out pops a good sized carp , funny how they do that just when you are thinking someone must have tranferred the fish elsewhere ! So they are in here ,we had instantly renewed our confidence,& for probably 10 -20 mins we could actually see several fish cruising about 2-3 ft below the surface , then just as suddenly as they appeared , they were gone ! we blanked but at least we knew they were there.We went home full of ideas to get one of these lunkers on the bank. Ok Nige, said I , we'll just have to try somethin else. Now Nige & I know a trick or two when it comes to getting the odd carp on the bank . But 4 weeks later we were begining to think we knew nothing ! It was getting embarrasing , other people were fishing the lake & were catching steady , not hammering it but 1-2 fish in a trip . What the hell is going on we thought , we had proven baits , the fish could not be rigshy ; there was never anyone fishing the place !. Next time we bounced down the dirt road ,I said to Nige , I'm going to try the other lake ,.it cant be any worse than this. Off I wandered with full kit & caboodle to the lower lake . I baited Sweetcorn on the margin rod , boilies ( birdfood ) on the other , across to the far bank beneath the trees, ----- now I should set the scene of this area , although they are connected the lower lake looks completely different from the upper . Which cannot be seen due to an steep bank between the ponds . The water; clear in the upper pond, is distinctly dark yet not muddy looking;, in the lower pond . There are also no weeds in the lower pond . The bank across from where I'd chosen to fish was thick with willows , and as I looked to the right the banks converged to form a small ,but exclusive bay area. This bay area drained through a 9'' pipe underground back into the river behind me. Looking to the left the banks continued widening out to a maximum of 40 yds wide untill reaching the intake end, where the pump syphoned water between the two ponds. This bank was straight , the embankment acting as a dam between the two ponds . I was taking it all in when all of a sudden was rudely interupted by an Optonic peeping at me , peep, peep- - - - - - -peep- - peep- - - - - - - - -peep-peep-peep ; whoooosh . I struck into thin air and this continued for 20-30 mins , I was cursing the baby carp on the corn , just could not hook into one . Too dark for the float , sod this I thought : it was on with a boilie, back to some peace & quiet . It was a warm drizzly september evening , I was qiute happy with my new swim, the foxes were barking ,the owls gently hooting , there were a few bats swishing around me picking off the odd fluttering moth & eventually I drifted into the land of slumber.
I was awakened rudely by the full howling scream of my RH Delkim ( far bank , boilies) ,I jumped up & for a few moments was struggling to get my bearings ,eventually I got a hold of the rod and swooped it far back . For a second or two I thought I had missed it , then suddenly I felt the fish pulling to the right . The fish had evidently ran up the pond & to the left creating slack line. The line tightened rapidly & then the clutch started to sqeaul , I let the fish go a bit as I did'nt fancy a lively fish right under the rod tip , then the line went slack ! but not quite , I knew this felt strange , anticipating that the carp had turned I reeled like a madman , when the line tightened again the carp had infact run past me & down into the bay area to my right !. By now I had almost woken up & felt partly in control of the situation . Up & down a couple more times & I had the landing net ready & waiting ,the fish went in first time , I struggled to get the lump up the sloping bank in the pitch black of night . But I just had to weigh this magnificent ,pristine common ,which looked huge under torchbeam . It looked all the world as if over the 20 mark , but just missed at 19 1/2 lbs , never mind still an superb fish .I put her in the sack & drifted off once again ! Before laying down I looked at the time ,12:30 am. I must have went so sleep immediatly , & one hour later was awakened once more in similar style, this fish was even more powerfull & faster although it weighed in 1 1/2 lbs lighter at 18 lbs exactly . I was over the moon , in the morning we got some exellent pictures we are sure these fish were uncaught up untill this time .They went back in; none the worse for wear ,what a magical moment it is to return ,the first caught fish from a new water. Well after that I fished the lower pond another 2-3 times with similar results , I think totalling 9 fish , the biggest at 19.5 lb. Then Nigel had a couple of sessions ,with similar results also catching the big fish & one other which we were able to identify ,. they were all commons (rare in this area ) .With a couple of repeat fish we decided to turn our attention to the upper pond once again . Our bait was going great in the lower pond , but not a sniff in the top pond . We thought about it ,we were doing friday night till sunday morning , if we drove down once midweek ,figured we should have a chance to put the carp on a new bait , the best we knew at the time was Tiger nuts , three lots of nuts went in the first week ,also we made a change to fishmeal baits (from the birdfood) . Another 2 weeks passed & still it was like a desert in there! The local guys were laughing , well we had to save face somehow , look nige I said these guys who are catching are not exactly the children of Einstein , what are they doing we are'nt. Well said Nige , they are probably piling in the Tutti -Frutti's ( Ready made - R---W---H ) well to be honest we had pride in making our own bait & I for one had actually never considered using someone elses bait , to me it just takes away something , dont qieut know what , but probably I just like to know exactly what is in the bait. The next week saw us with a huge bag of the orange mini - baits . The wife was approving , no mess in the Kitchen , no disgusting smells , no stained worktop , no steamed up windows. To be honest it felt a little like cheating ,but other's did it so why not us ,I thought. Well it was to be our last trip ,as we had season tickets for another water of which the opening date was getting ridiculously close.We had been fishing the ponds through most of the winter & spring was rolling on fast.
The next week the sun shined in all its glory , swallows & insects looking abundant in the illuminating sunshine ,there was finally some warmth in the air , the place was becoming picturesque as the leaves gradually infiltrated the trees. The place was almost taking on a new face as if enticing us to stay & spend more time here. Nige had bought down a big bottle of ' Nierstiener' one of our favourites. We sat in his bivvy going thro the weeks event's catching up on the gossip , 3/4 of the bottle had been demolished when suddenly I tuned in to a rather faint but continuous high pitch note , we both twigged at the same time . I catapulted out of the tent ripping one of the storm rods away with the rush of energy from within . My rods were towards the far end of the pond & it probably took 20 seconds to get there , the line was absolutely peeling off the spool , the rod too was bouncing in the rests . I tightened into the fish thinking ,if its not hooked now it never will be. While we were running to my rods, the carp was running to where we had come from ,& infact was out in front of Nigel when I connected to the fish ! On a fairly long line I decided to get serious with this fish as I did not fancy spending half the night untangling a mess . I bullied the fish on the CA 3301 putting the full power available against the fish , what a superb rod the Sportex is !. In no time the fish was in front of me , just then there was another Delkim screaming ,this time from Nigels end . To cut the story down a bit we ended up getting I think 8 fish between us that night , including the "redspot " fish named from a small spot near the tail ,the locals were calling this fish over the 20 mark but on our scales (both) it was just under , but with 4 fish a piece we were certainly not complaining ! We found out later that Tutti Fruitti were the only boiled baits the fish had seen & as this pond is heavily weeded I think without immediate visibility of the bait these carp only homed in on the smell . Any thing other than Tutti's were simply left alone :also this was the most abundant introduced bait , another factor to be worked with in this case . This remains to this day ( since we have never fished it since ) the only place where our homade bait did just not work !
'Red Spot' caught from upper Trencrom pond, Cornwall England. Only 'Tutti Frutti's' worked here. She went 19lbs4oz, caught Oct 89.
Hope you learnt as much as I did , tite lines, Carpsava.
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