No matter how good an angler you are or how poor, if you have no confidence or have lost that confidence in your bait you are bound to fail.

On a recent carp fishing trip to a new Angling Lines venue called Domaine De Boux, Jim Kelly and I were both armed with our confidence booster, Quality Baits HG42. With each of us having 20 kilo’s each and no other bait it would be a complete success or a complete failure.

18mils ready made frozen boilies were our choice and on the 22^nd October we arrived at the lake.

Our first job was to select 2 good swims on the 10 acre lake, in close proximity so that we could erect our kitchen( a wide oval umbrella with sides). We decided to make our home for the week on the dam. This would give us a wide variety of water to go at from margin fishing to some of the deeper water of the lake.

I have fished this lake on 2 previous occasions so my knowledge of the water was a lot greater than that of Jim. I selected the right hand side of the dam which gave me access to the North eastern bank, a no fishing area which was reed lined and had shallow margins.

I used my marker float to lead the bottom and to test the depths in front of me and settled on an area 100 yards out in 11 foot of open water to begin my campaign.

1st carp of the session 31lb 1oz

I introduced around 2 kilo’s of 18 mil HG42 boilies some whole some crushed by using the rowing boat provided on the lake. 3 rods were cast on or near the baited area and it was not long before I landed my first carp a 30lb 1oz specimen. More bait on my baited area as the light faded for the evening. I would be using my throwing stick to top up the swim following the capture of a fish.

By 10pm on Monday night I had caught 7 carp off my baited area, all on HG42 bottom baits which included a 33lb 1oz mirror with the rest being in the low twenties. I did seem to be into some of the smaller fish on the lake.

At half past midnight I had another run off my baited area and seemed to have hooked the bottom of the lake. After about 20 minutes I landed my first fifty of the session a 50lb 4oz specimen.

50lb 4oz

This seemed to kill the swim, as this was the last fish off this baited area for the week. The fish appeared to be wising up to baited areas, a change of tactics was required.

With my throwing stick I spread 3 kilo of 18mil hg42 boilies over a large are in the bay to my right and cast single hook baits in the middle of them. The action started around 1am on the Wednesday and carried on until 11pm on the Thursday. I landed 14 carp in total which included 3 upper twenties, 7 thirties and 2 mirrors of 49lb 14 and 49lb 3oz.

49lb 14oz

49lb 3oz

By this time I had moved 2 rods out of the Bay, cast 100 yds into open water, with pva bag crushed boiles and a single HG42 bottom bait. This produced my final 3 fish of the week, a low twenty and 2 fish on at the same time a 51lb 11oz mirror and a 30lb common.

51lb 11oz

I finished the week with 27 carp, all caught on HG42 bottom baits, that’s what confidence does for you.

Paul Cooper

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To read Jims article which has been published on Angling Lines web site visit( Angling Lines article)