My Tactics by Paul Cooper

De-Hydrated to Re-hydrated boilies.
I was armed with 10 kilo’s of 18 mil Quest Special Crab Plus boilies which were air dried to a medium hardness and also 8 kilo’s of well air dried 14 mm Quest Special Crab Plus boilies. The 14mils were dried to a biscuit state, totally de-hydrated for a specific purpose, to re- hydrate in either lake water or in the water that the hemp is boiled in.

The 8 kilo’s of boilies originally weighed 10 kilo’s, but with the liquid extracted through drying, the weight was reduced by 2 kilo’s. With this system I can transport my boilies without freezing, they are lighter and they will keep for months and not deteriorate or lose their quality.

Once re-soaked I can get the bait either back to the original state or as I wanted, get exceptionally soft bait that hums with the flavour of hemp oil. In this state the boilie will not take on any of the smells of the lake bottom and will prove an additional attractant to the crafty carp.

I placed 3 kilo’s of the de-hydrated boilies into a small bucket and drew the liquid off the boiled hemp and pour it over the boilies until they a were completely covered. I left them to soak for around 8 hours and they were ready for use.

Re-hydrated 14mils soaking in hemp water

De-hydrated baits to the left and the softer re-hydrated bait to the right

I chose a point off the island margin and baited with around 1-½ kilos of re-hydrated 14 mil Quest SCP boilies along with 3 kilos of hemp. 2 rods were placed on this baited area. An open water location was found with the marker rod and again was baited with a similar amount of re-hydrated boilies and hemp.
As I was not fishing any distance I decided to fish slack lines. For this I used my rattler indicators. These allow me to fish either slack or tight lines and can give the edge over the normal swinger type or chain type indicators

Two of my rigs were to made up of 20lb Seaguar stiff rigs to size 4 Ashima 310c hooks, attached with the knotless knot and long hair.

Slack lines on the Rattlers

18mil Quest SCP with plastic corn

With 18mil Quest SCP and plastic corn

The other 2 rigs made up of theAmnesia/Mantis combi rig again to size 4 Ashima 310c hooks. I baited each rod with a variation of 18mil and 14mil Quest SCP boilies, plastic corn and quest pop ups.

Making the combi rig

Just trim the ends and you have the Amnesia Mantis combi rig

Completed Amnesia Mantis combi rig

Despite all my efforts I blanked the first night. Sunday morning, and Jim and myself discuss the first night over a hearty breakfast at the farm. Jim has also blanked and the forecast for the Sunday night is not too good, heavy rain was due being brought in by South Westerly winds.

I baited up both of my selected area’s again with hemp and re-hydrated Quest SCP along with some 18mil’s in addition.

Sure enough we are hit by torrential rain, supported by gale force South Weatherly’s. Fortunately I was partially sheltered by the island and have the bivvy facing north east and Jim had moved onto the West side of the lake and is sheltered by the dam of Lake Two and the forest on the South side of the lake. Without this cover we could have been in some trouble. Confined to my bivvy for the next 12 hours due to the storm, I still remained carpless. The wind and rain continued and did not settle down until Tuesday morning.

The weather improved and the sun came out, it was now like late September, the weather was all over the place but I still had no feeding fish over my baits.

I saw some good fish to mid-thirties lumping out in mid water and decided to maintain the same baited rigs but to fish with just pva bags for the night. By early morning I felt that this lake had kicked me in the teeth, despite all my efforts, still not a run.

Following a talk to Jim who was in the same boat, we needed to make some changes.
After breakfast I moved onto the North bank of the lake, keeping the mark on the centre of the lake and decided that all 4 rods were going to be fished on this spot. 2 rods were fished over the bait and one either side just off the bait.

I decided to rest the swim and move onto Lake 2 for a few hours. A couple of runs later and I’d landed 2 low doubles off Lake 2, this was too easy. I moved back to the carp lake for the evening.

Dave had prepared 10 kilo of maize for Jim and myself, along with more hemp and Quest SCP re-hydrated boilies are added to the open watermark.

Apple-Cored-pop up and cubed boilie.
A few years ago, a good friend of mine, Pat Gillett introduced me to the apple-cored pop up boilie which helped us both to produce carp when they would not take round or smooth surfaced bait. This accompanied by a cubed boilie could produce a fish or 2 when the going gets tough.

The apple-cored pop up is cored out with your thumbnail until the correct balance of the baits is reached. I critically balanced all the baits and put them out for the night. 7 pm and one of the outside rods screamed off which results in the first fish off the Carp Lake, a strong fighting 18lb mirror. My confidence was high but that was the last of the action for the night.

Cubed Quest SCP

Apple cored pop up and cubed bottom bait

Just before breakfast on the Thursday and I bait heavily over my open watermark. Off to breakfast and on my return put 3 rods on the baited area and 1 rod in a margin to my left. This was in a bay that I have seen a number of fish lumping out. This was again baited with another apple-cored pop up and cubed bottom bait. Within 10 minutes this rod was off on a screamer. I hit the fish but as I walked the fish back towards my swim and to the waiting net it slipped the hook. A few choice words and kicking myself and I recast the rod to the same location.

Cubed Quest SCP with plastic corn

PVA bag

Within ½ an hour I was into another fish off that same rod. This was successfully landed, a 24lb 12oz mirror. Success at last, The Lake had eventually come to life.

Paul with a 24lb 12oz Mirror

Paul with a 24lb 12oz Mirror

Jim was all doom and gloom and he had come to the conclusion that there was no fish over his end of the lake. This was black Thursday. In Jim’s word’s “I can fish here all week and catch nothing, there’s no carp in my swim only small Zander. There’s been nothing at this end of the lake since the beginning of the week”
We were having this discussion when off goes one of his rods and he’s into a 22lb 12 oz mirror. It was like switching on his smile button, what a relief; I thought I would be cutting him down from a tree if this had carried on.

Now Jim had been putting a rod in the other lake each night to get himself a Catfish. He had picked up a couple of runs but had not connected.

The fog is just lifting

Jim had read somewhere that it was essential to use running leads to successfully hook catfish. I advised him that he needed at least a 3ounce semi fixed lead to create the initial hook hold. In less than 3 hours of taking this advice and putting out the semi-fixed rig in the cat lake he was into a 46lb 8oz cat, which he caught on 22mil Quest Special Crab boilies. The fog dropped and that was the end of the fishing for the night. The fog failed to lift and remained with us until Saturday morning, no more fish and we left the lake under a cloud (pun) of fog. What a week, we had experienced everything Mother Nature could throw at us and still managed a few fish.

To sum up… Windmill Lakes are ideally located in rural France. With the determination that the owners have I believe this venue will be one of the big fish water’s of the future. The weights and numbers of the fish that Jim and myself caught do not do justice to the lake. We both witnessed large carp crashing out throughout the week, but these carp are crafty and did not appear to be in a feeding mood, due to the time of year and the variable weather conditions .The Carp lake is definitely a water for the more experienced angler… when things get too hard you have always got the facility of the runs water of Lake 2.

Paul Cooper

paulcooperscfc@aol.com