24hr Rod Race -- Challenge 1
Anyone who has met my wife will know that I like a challenge and my first 24hr challenge was certainly going to be that! When I started this website one of the first things I did was speak to the man himself, Matt Hayes whom I found to be very encouraging and it was he who suggested that I should try some of the 24hr challenges.
So on the 16th of June of all days I took up the challenge of catching two 20lb carp, one off the top and one from the bottom. Now those of you who have followed me will know that my PB Carp is only 18lb 4oz so this could be a memorable challenge or a complete disaster..... maybe I should have started with something a bit more easier!! Just to make it more of a challenge I decided to fish a lake I had never fished before, Colnbrook Back Lake.
Previous to my challenge I spent a few visits walking around the lake, looking for signs of fish and speaking with those who were willing to chat, most of whom were but you always get a couple of people who like to keep things to themselves. The general comeback was that they only come out at night and you won't see much on the surface, not what I wanted to hear as my 24hrs were actually going to be 12 hours.
So after a full English I arrived at Colnbrook Lakes, walking past the front lake I could see a few carp cruising the surface however the back lake was a different story. I walked around the lake hoping for signs of fish but the lake was not throwing up any clues. I decided to fish a corner where I had seen the odd carp on previous visits and as the wind was blowing in that direction I thought it was as good as place as any.
Plenty of cover and overhanging trees! My kind of swim!
My tactics were to be Crab Pellet on ledger and sweetcorn on waggler in the margins with my stalking rod already made up (as it always is) should I see any activity on the surface. With the ledger I attatched a PVA bag with some chopped boillies, trout pellets, satay paste (more about that later) and some mixers. The idea of the mixers is that, one, they let me know exactly where and when the PVA has dissolved, two, it prebaits any carp near the surface should they be about as the wind blows them back towards my swim!
A few hours had passed and nothing had happened nor was there any signs. Another angler had taken a swim further along the bank and he too had seen no action. I threw a few pieces of bread near the margins hoping the wind would blow them close enough into the overhanging branches to bring a carp or two into view. Unlike the front lake, the back lake was square and featureless, despite being in the opposite corner three ducks were soon on their way and into my swim. Catching a carp off the surface was not going to be easy!
Although no more than 100 yards from the front lake the back lake couldn't be more different, I'm talking about the carp. In the front lake the carp happily cruise the surface and can be seen foraging the vegetation in the margins, the back lake however the carp seldom show themselves no matter if the sun is out on a warm summers day. Could it be that the back lake is more directly under the flight path at Heathrow? That could answer why the fish feed after the flights finish around midnight, who knows? What I did know was that I hadn't seen any signs of encouragement in front of me.
Six hours had passed and I was half way through the challenge, timewise at least. I brought my rods in and decided to walk around the lake again, as before there was nothing showing. I stopped off and spoke to the other angler who was still having no joy. I decided to take a look at the front lake, although not holding many 20's I had heard of a couple being caught and thought I had more chance there then staying on the back lake. It was back to my favourite corner and straight away I could see carp feeding in the margins as they always do.
The waggler was put away and the stalking rod was out, however it was the ledger that sounded the first bite of the day. Feeling the fish I knew it was less than 5lb, I hoped it would be a tench, bream or crucian, three species I was still yet to catch however a Common Carp of no more than 2-3lb graced the net!
Not quite a 20lb!
The sun had brought a lot of Carp to the surface, unfortuantely most of them were smaller carp and one after another I was catching Commons no bigger than 10lb. A swirl to the right of me just below an overhanging branch exposed a nice sized Mirror. I dropped a couple more pieces of bread and the mirror soon came up for more. Third time lucky as they say and I placed my bait in a similar spot to the previous freebie. Soon after the bait was taken and line was screaming from my reel. This felt a lot better than the previous Commons I had so far! A short but good fight ensued before the Mirror was safely in my landing net, my initial reaction was that it may be close to the 20lb mark. Although not the target weight it was still at new PB for me at 17lb 13oz!
A new PB of 17lb 13oz
I mentioned earlier about my satay paste, I have never been a fan of boillies so have made my own pastes instead. This time around I had the idea of making a Thai style paste made with Peanut Butter, Coconut Milk, Chilli Powder and Bread Crumb. Here's how it's made.....
1. Empty 1 jar of smooth peanut butter into a large bowl
2. Pour in 2/3 of the tinned coconut milk into the bowl and stir until the peanut butter becomes loose.
3. Add a heaped teaspoon of chilli powder and stir (At this point you could use as a marinade for chicken!)
4. Cut the crusts of a loaf of sliced white bread and discard, blend the remainder into crumb
5. Mix the bread with the paste until firm enough to make into a paste.
Another good thing is that the oily paste doesn't affect the PVA Bag either!
As I had used a few slices of bread already my paste wasn't as firm as I would have liked however I did find it useful when hiding the hook and the bread still floats! The carp were also less hesitant in taking the bread, a result of the paste? Who knows? 
The new deadly duo!
I caught 11 Carp that day, 10 off the surface so as far as the challenge goes it wasn't good but how can I be disappointed having caught a PB as well as finding out that my Satay Paste worked! I had to take a double look at my final carp as it was very chub like in shape, hardly any depth at all considering it's length.
Until next time, Tight Lines everyone!