The past month or so has been quite a lean period for me with just a few decent sized carp to my name.  The reason behind my hard times has been a combination of bad timing what with turning up to find carp spawning and then fishing lakes with not a lot of carp in them which doesn’t help!

This weekend I have re visited a lake that I caught a lot of carp from several years ago in the hope of bagging one or two of the prettiest fish you are likely to find.  Stour lake has without doubt the best looking stock in the valley with loads of heavily plated, fully scaled and linear mirrors.

With a 48 hour session ahead I as usual put a few spombs out, this time a mix of Sonubaits  2mm and 4mm ‘S’ pellets with a few 8mm fin perfects and a handful of 10mm Strawberry Action boilies.

A rig I have been using recently is the KD rig.  After a bit of experimenting I have found that the best way to set it up is to use a longer than normal hair with a small bait, these 10mm Strawberry Action pop ups are ideal .  I like a supple braid and a curve shank style of hook.  A number of factors need to be taken into account to make the rig work correctly.  When using a knotless knot whip down the shank 6 times then lift the hair and whip a further two times before coming back up and putting the braid through the eye, this will exaggerate the angle of the hook dropping it onto the bottom lip.  This is not a rig for critically balancing as the hook needs to be heavy and lie flat on the lake bed, to do this make sure the shot beneath the bait is heavy enough to sink it without needing the weight of the hook.   To prevent a tangle due to the nature of the longer than average hair this rig is best used with a stick mix or my own preferred method of a solid pva bag filled with 2mm ‘S’ pellet.

This weekend I have managed four mid twenty pound mirrors, the best of which is a typical Stour lake carp of 28lb.  Every fish was absolutely nailed in the bottom lip, perfect.