Since I started fishing on the water quite early in the spring, there was a lot of it on the bottom and I had to mark a harder spot where there was considerably less. After several hours of searching, I found various benches where the depth was around two meters, which didn't play into my cards because the water was still quite cold here and there were cold fronts here and there.
So I had no choice but to catch between them, where the depth was around five meters with a slight hump. The plan was clear. Catching on the back side of this ridge, although there was plenty of grass on this bump as well. Unfortunately, another place was not that interesting, so I jumped into it head first.
For that type of fishing and in such conditions, I chose floating bait, namely pop-ups with a diameter of 14mm with the flavours of Pineapple and Squid. Since the bottom was full of silt, I hoped and believed that these baits would help me achieve what I wanted on this water. Heavy boilies would sink in like a rock, but pop-up baits will work nicely on the bottom and carp will have better access to them. Everything I wrote about bait was exactly the same as in the spring, one pop-up. Free feeding consisted of particle and boilie Plum/Squid/Sea/B17, such a mix of all tastes.
To always be sure that my rig is sitting well, I put a small PVA on each of them before casting with our Extreme Enzymatic/Krill/Spice pellets. These pellets have worked well for me in the winter months, so why not now? I also adapted the rig for this hunt. I used my favourite and now very famous Ronnie-rig. For a floating boilie, that's something genius. As a base, I used Shock & Shield 0.50mm so that it could not get tangled when I threw it hard and it held its shape nicely. I used CS size 6 as hooks, but after a few unsuccessful tackles, I decided to go harder just to be sure. Still, that's right. After changing the hook, I managed to kill all the fish I hooked. It seemed a bit strange to me, a size 4 hook and a small 14mm ball, but that was probably just my feeling. In the beginning, I liked to use the boilie drill, it was just faster to screw and cast, but over time it turned out that the micro-swivel works much better and is more natural.
I did most of the fishing with a 15cm rig and in-line lead, but that wasn't it either. Over time I found that if I put the lead on a cut hanger so that it would fall off when I cast, I increased my percentage of catching the fish a little more. It didn't matter from the spring, but as the water was warm and the fish were pre-spawning, the grass was in full force and I was very happy to accept this change. The fish immediately came out of the grass and I was relieved that I didn't have to fight it through all the clearings in the water. Assembly, feeding and tactics were clear, so there was nothing else left. I really liked the fishing, it was something completely different from what I catch on the rivers. Longer casting, and accurate feeding for rigs and even fish pleased me a lot. It was very pleasing. Once again, what I studied was confirmed. Accurate feeding, well-chosen tactics and, above all, a carefully chosen place in the water, that is always the basis. Now for the hunt itself, in March I gave it enough for almost a whole month and there were fruits!
Several fish over the 15kg limit, led by a massive coot. Although the shots were few in number, when it came out, that was it. After that, I gave it a break and didn't return until mid-June, when I thought the fish would be after spawning and I would be fishing for hungry spawned carp, but everything was completely the opposite. Although I was catching hungry carp, I was completely full to bursting. That was a great ride too. In a few hours of fishing, I was able to take up to ten shots from 10-15k fish! But that wasn't all, as the icing on the cake I managed two giant scaly roes over the twenty-kilogram mark.
I won't lie to you, I was shocked too, but deservedly so. My reward for doing well. In conclusion, I would like to remind you that all this is just my own knowledge. Some catch somehow, other things work for some, but this is what worked and works for me and I'm happy to share it with you, maybe you will do as well as I did. Let me drive it for you and keep my fingers crossed.
For Mivardi team Ondřej Pokorný
