The Syndicate

So this year myself and a couple of friends have been lucky enough to have been offered places on a syndicate after a 3 or 4 year wait. We all snapped up the opportunity back in May, but had to wait a little longer before fishing as the venue runs a close season through May and June. The new season officially kicked off at 7pm on the 29th June, and Lavis and I decided to go give it a try for a few hours.

Carp basking in the sun

We arrived a few hours early so we could have a walk round the complex first, and after a lap of lake 3 we settled on an area away from the other members that had a number of fish basking in the sun. We got our kit ready for kick off and sat in relative silence watching the fish as the minutes slowly ticked away. Predictably, a lot of the fish had drifted away by the time 7pm came, but they hadn't gone far and Lavis decided to have a crack at getting one off the top. I was planning on fishing zigs out to what appeared to be a patrol route, but noticed a fizz of bubbles in the margins as I was about to setup a marker float, and a quick peek over the undergrowth revealed a fish routing around in the weed. Despite my best efforts at stealth, the fish spooked a little and swam back into the shade and safety of the overhanging trees. I decided to pass on the zigs and instead gently lowered a wafter into the area I saw the fish, making sure it wasn't obscured by the weed and surrounded it with a handful of boilies.

It wasn't long before I could hear a commotion just down the bank as Lavis had managed to nail one off the top which was now doing it's best to dive into a marginal snag. Lavis was the victor of the ensuing battle and triumphantly placed his prize on the unhooking mat. Within seconds of doing so, my rod tip smashed round to a musical medley of wailing alarm and screaming clutch as a fish had fallen for my trap and was tearing off towards some overhanging trees.

The fish went off like a train and I had to bring it's run to an end before it reached some sunken tree branches by grabbing the spool of my reel which was still racing round as if it were still on the baitrunner! I managed to stop it a few feet short of the branches and it kited out towards the open water in front of me. It made a few more attempts at reaching the snags, but I put the brakes on before it got there each time and a few minutes later it was wallowing in front of me ready for the net. At first glance I thought it was one of the smaller ones, maybe 12 or 13lb and while overjoyed I'd managed to get one was a little disappointed as I'd expected it to be much bigger from the fight it had put up. After one last half hearted attempt for freedom, I had it in the net, and then with the net for scale it became clear it was in fact a fair bit bigger than it had looked in the open water. I let it rest up in the net for a few minutes while I took some photo's for Lavis and his fish of 18lb before getting a closer look at my prize.

It looked to be an old fish, and unfortunately had a nasty looking ulcer on it's belly. We did our best at treating it with a carp care kit and got a few photos before returning it to it's home after weighing it in at 22lb, and watched as it slowly glided off into the weedy depths of the lake.

My first syndicate fish, a gnarly old mirror of 22lb

We didn't see any more action as all the commotion had moved the other fish out of the area, but it really didn't matter. We'd both caught a stunning fish on our fist visit which is all we could have asked for. I'm looking forward to having another go soon, and hopefully I'll be just as lucky a second time!