Linear Hauling

By Tom Maker

Tom Maker runs through another superb session on Linear Fisheries, this time on the fabulous Oxlease Lake where he landed no fewer than 36 carp in 48 hours.

I arrived early in the morning with a friend to find a busy Lake, so I had a wander around and settled for a couple of swims on the grassy bank which faces the island. Having fished the Lake on and off for the previous two weeks, I knew the fish were spending a lot of their time at that end of Oxlease.

I grabbed my spod rod and just clipped on a lead before casting it as close to the island as I could. I then felt around for the bottom of the shelf, which was where I wanted to be fishing. Once I had found the drop-off, I clipped all the rods up to this area and fired them out to the spot.

There are loads of fish in Oxlease and at the height of spring I knew that they would be up for a bit of grub. I assembled a very simple yet extremely effective mix which started off with some hemp. To this I add some Bloodworm Pellets, followed by a good helping of 12mm Krill boilies. This is finished off with a new liquid that I’ve had great success on called Aqua Amino. It is a really fishy smelling liquid and is extremely water soluble, which gives the mix a really big cloud once it enters the water.

I fished all the rods on Krill wafters, occasionally tipping them off with a single grain of plastic corn. Before each cast I gave the hookbait a quick spray for added attraction, in the hope that it would get a quicker bite.

The morning was pretty slow but I kept introducing around six Spombs every 45 minutes or so, just to keep that smell and cloud in the swim. It wasn’t too long before I had my first bite, which was a nice mid-double. After that all hell broke lose and I couldn’t seem to keep a rod in the water. I spent a lot of that afternoon catching and, by the evening, I had caught 12 fish already. I grabbed some food with my friend and, because of how shattered I was, decided not to fish all of the night, hoping to have a clear head for the next day.

I woke up fresh as a daisy, cast the rods back out and put some more bait out. By then I had gone through nearly two buckets and I felt as though I didn’t have enough. The morning was slow, but as we went into afternoon the action began to hot up again. It was crazy; one after the other, double takes, the lot. It was great fun and I even managed to catch a really chunky thirty too. By the end of the day I had landed 35 carp, so once again decided to get some sleep that night and hopefully be ready to catch some more the following day.

I think the fish had moved off, though, as I only had one more, a cracking 23-pounder. It was a superb session and proof that, if you can get it right on these waters, you can have a session of a lifetime.