I managed to get down to manton around mid morning ,driving stright round to the Point swim i sat in the hut for ten mins not taking my eyes off the water for a second and nothing happened. I had a feeling that the fish were around this area having the 21 common a few days before from the Highbank swim which shares the water infront of the point, i could easily get the baits on the same spots and also gave me different line lay .Withing the half hour a had two baits on the spots ,the left hand rod was 14ft a nice soft spot of slit,I fished a stiff hinged rig with a 18mm hand rolled C1 cork ball pop up 2 inch off the deck .The middle rod got fished in 12ft of water just at the end of a bar where it was nice and firm and the cast went with a right DONK , My standed blow back bottom bait was fished with a 14mm C1 topped off with alittle yellow foam. A Spread of around 2kg of C1 14mm and 18mm where sticked around the spots ,The third rod went out to the island spot ive had good success from ,That went out on a C1 bottom bait with a hand full of freebies and it was time to sit and wait ...........
The night passed quick without so much of a bleep so around 8am i banged the rods back out on the spots put the kettle on and then it started, heavy liners where occurring and the wind picked up just a tad it looked really good now for a bite and still really mild .I decided to pack afew bits up like the bivvy and as soon as i took the last peg out the ground the middle rod souned a bleep followed by the line tighting up as the delkim went in to melt down 'Fish On' ,As i picked the rod up the fish seemed to just plod around in the deep water then stright towards me ,as i got it under the rod tip it was pretty much under control steering the fish towards the net cored ,looking in the net i was greeted with a nice chunky mirror .On the scales she went 28.14 second fish on the C1 withing days. I got acouple snaps and abit of footage and slip her back.I got the rod bang on the spot again and the kettle went on.I sat for a hour or so watching the water for signs ,I started put the rest of the gear away and it was now mid afternoon and the sun was out i was just puuting the mat to dry when out of nowhere the left hand rod pulled tight with afew bleeps then the line started to peel off the spool, Holding the spool i picked up the rod and the fish felt alot heavier then the first and was starting to take line ,i managed to get control of the fish turning it towards me ,it was then under the tip getting a quick glance of a common it was a good bettle under the tip lasting a good 10 mins finaly slip it over the net cord.it was the cut tail common.
The fish was on the mat and then up the scales and went 30lb dead a new PB common i was over the moon ,Third fish on the C1 and and in the middle of winter.My confidance in the bait was very high to start with and now it was now putting fish on the bank . As you could imagine I had a smile like a cheshire cat and the Text's and phone calls went out ............My target on the lake was to catch a 30+ common out the lake and it was the last fish to catch ,I probably won't go back to Manton as ive dropped my ticket this season but i ended on i high note ,In total in the 2 years i fished the old lake i managed to snare 40+ carp afew of these were repeat catches also having the all the Ateam out with Arine topping the list at 38.4lb ......
