| Over sea's carp angling. |
Kingsmead1 is RMC syndicate water located in Horton, just a couple of minutes drive from Heathrow airport. In the late 70's Kingsmead was one large lake until RMC redeveloped 4 smaller lakes. These where: Kingsmead Island lake, Kingsmead 1, Boat pool (Catfish Lake) and Horton Church lake.
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At the end of July 2003 I arranged to visit my friends in the UK. I live in Belgium, so after a couple of phone calls and a quick stop at the airport it was all sorted. I remember the words Chris (alias Star Man) said to me: We are one big family m8! You are more than welcome to come over. The only gear I had to take with me on this trip was my Delkims, tackle box and clothes.
My mates would provide the rest. So on 22nd July I flew with British airway's from Schipol to London Heathrow. With only a one hour flight, before I knew it I had arrived at my destination. Gaylord and Star man where waiting for me at the airport. Once we arrived at Horton I was really in the mood. After a couple of hours catching up with my friends in the lodge, it was time to head for the lake. The tent, bed chair and rods where already set up for me in the Bailiff swim. Nice!It's called the Bailiff swim because only the bailiffs are allowed to fish this peg. Chris pointed out some good gravel areas where a lot of fish are getting hooked.... After an hour's bottom research it was time to get my rigs on and over that area. This landed me 2 fish, an 18lb mirror and a common named "No Pelvis" at 25lb. I also lost one fish due to a sunken tree trunk.On Kingsmead the bailiffs do a lot of rig checks, unsafe rigs have to be changed immediately. Carp welfare is the most important rule in England fishing. People that don't know better get educated in safe rigs. Myself, I think this should be done on all waters, anywhere. You can't underestimate the pressure these kinds of waters receive. Through the course of the weekend there was an angler every 30 metres down the bank, all of them with 3 or 4 rods. The fish were very careful and had no problem avoiding hook baits.
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In the summer of 2004 I had planed another week's session, my goal to catch an English carp.
This time my girlfriend came along and made sure I had good pukka time. When I fish alone I don't pay much attention to good meals, the carp are my mane focus. On the 1st August (our 2nd year anniversary) I got a slow run on the rod I had cast out just a couple of hours earlier with a Zig Rig, size 8 hook and a 8mm Ocean Fresh pineapple pop up. This was my first take in 24 hours fishing and this fish gave my rod quite a bend to say the least. Dell Smith saw what was going on and came over for a helping hand to land this fish. We looked at each other and knew it was a good one.
After a hard scrap lasting 20 minutes the fish was coming up near the landing net, it was a catfish!!! Del Smith slid the net under, we had it, well half of it, its huge tail was flopping over the side of the net. The current lake record for Kingsmead 1 weighed 36lb. My fish rocked the scales past the 45lb barrier, the needle span round and clocked 47,8lb! A new lake record!!
What a surprise it was to every one on the lake A Belgium carp angler doing the business.
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After returning my awesome catch I needed a couple of minutes to get my head around it all. On 3rd August, we had a BBQ at the lodge, after that about 11pm. I cast my rods back out about 5 minute later my Delkim gave 1 bleep. That was enough for me, so I hit it. After a short scrap, a 27.8lb pike laid in my net looking up at me. This time an Ocean Fresh boilie fished Snowman style, my second record on Kingsmead 1. The first 4 day's of my session I baited up about 25 or 30 boilies per rod, but this didn't produce much action. I changed tactics and baited up with 3 kilo of broken Pineapple boilies on one rod. The next morning at 5am the rod with the broken boilies was off. It was "No Pelvis" again but this time clocking 27.5lb. Nice recapture. |
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Later that day the weather changed, a storm was on its way. Just before all hell broke loose I baited up one rod with 2 kilo of boilies, 30 minutes later in the middle of it all I got another take witch resulted in an 18lb mirror. |
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Then the weather turned to the worse. The temperature was 30 degrees Celsius and the carp went off the feed big time. The following morning at 6am the same rod tore off and I welcomed one of the mirror residents on the bank. |
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While I walked round the bank to borrow a set of weighing scales, my other rod was off. In my absence my girlfriend hit it, but due to a mussel on the line we lost that fish. The first fish, a nice mirror weighed 19lb, I was well chuffed with this carp. It's not only the weight that counts, the pure beauty of this one did it for me. On the last night I used all the remaining bait we had left over the same one rod. Feeling confident it proved to be a wise move. In the morning I took 2 more fish off that area, at 4am a 15lb common and at 6am a beautiful scaled dark mirror weighing 19lb. |
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Looking back on that session, it sure was great! In just one week only 8 carp were landed and I had 5 of them. Not bad at all. Keeping in touch with my English friends is at the top of my list. |
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| Cheers Nicky |
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