Specimen carping on commercials

Pasture House Fisheries is on the banks of the River Humber in North Lincolnshire, in sight of the spectacular Humber Bridge. Having been told about the quality of the fishing Brian Skoyles and Graham Drewery decided to give it a try. It was also a chance to have a bit of fun with some scaled down carp tactics, which hopefully would give the fish a chance to really put up a good scrap.
Gear was a pair of Twilight Specialist rods teamed with Caldia X 4000 reels and 8 lb Sensor Clear line. Sometimes it can be hard to find the tactical balance on well stocked waters and most anglers tend to opt for one style or the other so you will often find one angler sat with a full carp set-up, pod, matching rods, buzzers etc, and in the next peg someone on the pole or feeder etc. My tactic was to feed Trigga Ice pellets and small Trigga Ice boilies, little and often, to provide the feeding incentive, then fish a simple running leger with either a pellet or small style banded onto hook. Hook-length was 6 lb Sensor Clear , the hook a size 10 Gamakatsu Barbless Specialist Widegape. Indication was as simple as it comes, I would just watch the line and the rod top. With plenty of anglers on the water I reasoned it would take some time for the fish to find my bait and get interested in it, so I was happy to give it time, but I needn’t have worried. The session went very much to plan. Fishing about 10 metres out, into the face of a nice gentle head wind, I started to feed a few pellets and the odd small boilie. After about 30 minutes I started to get signs of fish in the swim. Just odd lifts of the line at first, then a few more positive movements that knocked the tip round a bit. Continued light regular feeding, and the rod tip indications slowly increased until I’m grabbing the rod as the reel spool went into overdrive. Slowly tightening the clutch, the rod took on its full curve, as I began playing my first Pasture House Carp. This procedure was repeated several times and I ended the session with seven hard fighting carp to just about double figures, in a little over four hours. Graham in the next peg, had similar success and also banked some lovely fish.
On one of our trips the fishing was interrupted a bit by a sharp shower which happened to produce a stunning rainbow as Graham was playing one of his fish. I must admit I was a bit envious, it’s not the sort of picture you get everyday. Graham and I have been back twice more in the last couple of week and the fishing has been very consistent. The balanced tackle has coped very well with the carp hooked, and I’m sure with care it will cope should one of the much bigger carp come along. What was important was the feeding style, the little and often approach worked really well, and most fish followed a pattern. Cast out… no indication of fish activity, keep feeding… line twitches, keep feeding… rod knocks etc. keep feeding… reel screaming. Incidentally my idea of little was three or four pellets and one boilie, and often about every minute or so. Perhaps the style of fishing we were doing is not for the purist, whether it be the specialist angler or the serious match angler, but for a few hours fun, we can thoroughly recommend it.
I’m sure there will be a water similar to Pasture House Fisheries near you that might respond well to “light carpin”. You might not get to catch under your own personal rainbow, but you cant have everything.