A red letter session!
It’s a happy coincidence that my first written blog entry into this online babble is going to go down as one of the most successful sessions of my carp fishing career to date. It was whilst fishing a social with Lloyd last year on Willow Lake (Fenland Fisheries) that we were lucky enough to receive an invite from Gary (The Gaffer) Spencer to fish his lake out in the Fen’s known as Abbey Lake.
An offer we couldn't refuse
We waited desperately for lockdown to end before we took him up on his kind offer and we headed down to Abbey lake ready for a two-night spring carp fishing adventure. Gary normally books the lake out to 4 anglers at a time and the lake is in great demand - usually permanently booked up so we considered ourselves very lucky to get on.
Armed with The Spice Amino, we arrived in very wet and windy weather which isn't uncommon when fishing for carp in early spring, making filming very difficult. It was my intention to film this trip from the very beginning but I don’t think the camera came out for a good few hours. Both Lloyd and I set up rods and ran to our Bivvies to shelter from the howling wind and rain. However, luckily the nasty weather soon cleared and the carp gods began to shine down on us!
How did the session go?
It was just after 2pm that the fist Delkim sang to us and what a sweet sound it was. The break I always take from carp fishing over the Christmas period is great and allows me precious time with the family, but come the end of February beginning of March the rod finger is well and truly twitching.
It was our first Abbey Mirror. A stunner with a bright orange belly (still in its winter colour no doubt) weighing in at 26lb. Something told me this was going to be a session to remember.
We decided to share a swim allowing us to have more of a fishing social so it made sense to share the bites. Paper rock scissors made it my turn first but not long after the first bite the delkims were soon singing again and Lloyd was into a scrappy 22lb Mirror which refused to behave on the mat testing Lloyd’s post lockdown temper!
He managed to get it up for the camera in the end! However, the next fish to grace the landing net was mine and would prove to be the biggest fish of the session. A huge 32lb Mirror fell to one of the solid bags we had tossed towards the reef line and lifting that up for the camera was pure joy.
The rest of day passed pretty quickly with bite after bite keeping us busy till dinner time including a clonker of a fish at 29lb for Lloyd. All in all we had 8 fish on the first day albeit one of those being a Tench - all loving The Spice Amino.
What's for dinner?
We settled down for dinner which was chilli and rice. made lovingly by Lloyd’s Mrs and all that was required was to heat it up - spoiled men in their element! The night passed uneventfully allowing us both a good nights sleep.
The next day proved just as eventful as the first and it all seemed to kick off again just after 2pm in the afternoon. The fish were on the feed and the bites came thick and fast with a total of 8 fish!
Lloyd dropped 2 which could have made for more - but we're not complaining. 3 of the fish caught were 27lb! We did have a few commons but most were mirrors still displaying their wonderful winter carpy colours.
By dawn the next day we were exhausted and slightly hungover due to tucking into the celebratory rum reserves.
To Summarise
In all it was an incredible carp fishing session at Abbey lake and one that I will certainly not forget. As mentioned above Abbey can be a very popular carp fishing venue and is usually in high demand so if you do get a chance to book on - do! It's not just us who have been lucky enough to have a red letter session there.
How to Book Abbey Lake
If you'd like a similar experience to ours and would like to book onto Abbey Lake click on this link and fill out the form. A member of Premium Carp Fishing will then get back to you to discuss availability.
Please note: do not visit this venue without prior permission as it resides on private land not open to the general public. Prices may vary from what have been mentioned in the video above.
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The Cambridge Carper Blog
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