River Weaver Carping

Following on from the end of last weeks diary entry, I was unable to make a decision on which direction my carp fishing would take for the next month or so. Sometimes things happen in life and the fishing has to take a back seat. This week, one of my work mates left for pastures new so Friday night meant a farewell night out with lots of drink!. Depending on what happened I may have squeezed in a short carp session on Saturday but when I crawled into bed at 5am on Saturday morning I knew there would be no carp fishing session, or any other fishing session this weekend!. With this in mind, and in keeping with the odd river carping session I’ve had on the river dee recently, I thought I’d take a little look back at the time I spent fishing the river weaver for carp a few years back. I first fished the river weaver back in July 1998, I’d chosen to fish the winsford stretch of the river at an area that is now known as the sunken boat, this area of the river weaver was just outside winsford town centre. I well remember my first night on the river, it was a Friday night, I’d been down to the river the night before and put in 5 kilos of hemp/groats and 400 boilies around the sunken boat and down the near margin. When I settled down for that first night I didn’t quite know what to expect, I love that ‘not knowing’ feeling in my fishing, the saying ‘who dares wins’ springs to mind, walking onto a water you have no prior knowledge of and not knowing if your onto a winner or completely wasting your time!. It’s so much more rewarding than sitting on a lake fishing for a named carp that has been caught many times before. That Friday night I topped up my swim with a little more hemp and a light scattering of boilies, at the time I was using nutrabaits pineapple and banana readymades and these proved to be a real winner on the river weaver. I actually only waited 40 minutes for my first run from a river carp, a blistering take from the rod fished tight to the upstream end of the boat, I remember that particular carp being very stubborn, it seemed to take an age before I finally slipped the Landing Net under it. Much to my delight my first river weaver carp actually turned out to be a twenty, 21lb 4oz and a common to boot. That was quite a start to my first river carping campaign, a twenty within the first hour was more than I could have hoped for. I also had another carp that first night, a high single of 9lb+. I was hooked after that and what turned out as a break from my fishing at capesthorne hall eventually turned into my next north west carp venue. My first weaver carp, 21lb 4oz I fished the winsford stretch of the river weaver for a few months and caught very well, funnily enough that twenty I had first night actually turned out to be the only twenty I caught from that particular section of river. I believe I had my baiting tactics spot on for the river, I eventually settled on fishing upstream of the boat, which was a good feature. Heavy baiting with hemp, groats and boilies proved to be perfect baiting tactics on the river, the hemp and groats had massive attraction and were superb at holding carp that would travel the river during the night looking for food. The nutrabaits pineapple and banana boilies worked a treat fished over the hemp/groats and carp could literally home in on my heavily baited spot as the attraction leaking off the bait was carried downstream. Unknown to me at the time, night fishing wasn’t allowed on the winsford stretch of the river weaver and a chance meeting with another angler put me right regarding the fishing in that particular area. I had no intention of continuing to fish this section of river knowing I wasn’t supposed to be night fishing so I called it a day after a couple of months and left the river alone. At the time I was still fishing the stoke on trent anglers water capesthorne hall and I continued on there for another couple of years before accepting my time on there had run it’s course. I wanted legal night fishing on the river weaver and when the time came I joined northwich angling association and moved my weaver campaign further down river and below hulse’s island. I’ve decided to split this river weaver piece into two parts, moving downstream to fish northwich waters turned out to be a good move and it began a superb summers fishing in which I didn’t see a single blank session, I night fished the northwich sections of the river from June until the very end of October, I never missed a Friday night and I never failed to catch at least one carp on each trip, multiple carp captures where the norm with the odd twenty cropping up too. There’s also the winter carp fishing on the river, my winter carping on the weaver turned out to be a real eye opener and I found the carp easy to catch especially during periods of high pressure and sharp frosts which you would normally associate with poor fishing conditions. I’ll talk more of my river weaver carping next time as the northwich sections of the river and the baiting tactics I used on there deserve a page all of their own. Tight Lines Mark.