By December, I was ready for a few socials closer to home, and looked forward to getting back after the common in the spring.Ĭlubbing season was soon approaching, and early March found me loading the van and heading off back to the lake, hoping to get a head start on the other anglers. Unfortunately, my autumn didn’t really carry on with that early success. Catching the second biggest in the lake with a stock of only 8 carp, and on my second trip – I was well happy! On inspection, it wasn’t the common at all, but the second biggest fish in the lake and a forty pounder to boot! If Carlsberg made carping campaigns eh! The mirror was not only a biggun, but a very rare one that didn’t do many captures. After an absolutely savage fight commenced with my mate muttering “This could be the biggun you know.” I was proper made up to see a big carp finally in the folds of the net. We were just chatting away when one of the rods ripped off. In the early afternoon, a mate popped down for a couple of brews and a good catch up. When I got back a couple of days later, the wind was still pushing into the bay and after having a good look about and seeing nothing, I decided to flick a couple of hinges out onto the prebaited area for the day. I popped up a float and spread a couple of kilos of boilie around it and headed off for home.

Before leaving, I had a little lead about and found a nice silty area in the small bay. I did one night that first session and heard a couple of shows in the night down in a bay that was receiving a strong south westerly wind.

You really can’t beat that new water buzz, and all thoughts of the previous campaign that had come to an abrupt end were quickly forgotten. Within a couple of days, the gear was prepped to the max, the van was loaded, and I was heading south on the M1 for my first session. That left me with nothing planned for the rest of autumn. Sitting at home and feeling a bit gutted by the whole scenario, I soon remembered that big old common I’d been told about down in Northamptonshire. I’d been told to politely move on by two members of the Cambridgeshire police force from the water I was currently “guesting”. I logged it in my notes and planned to save it, should I ever find myself at a loose end.įast forward to late September 2017 and I’d found myself in that exact situation. “ I’d first heard about this particular big common through the carping grapevine a good few years ago. Liam Duncan tells us about the thrill of the chase in his pursuit of a rather large and special common…

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