21/08/2026
Lovely little write up from Dave Williams. Check it out below ⬇️
Hearing good things about a venue not too far away from me Called Old Hough I decided to venture out to the venue, with plenty of lakes on the pristine venue I had chatted to a few of the local match lads who pointed me in the right direction of fishing Big Max a beautiful looking lake with a central island lovely reed fringed margins and floating pontoons and with a great mix of Carp (upto 20lb) and some of the biggest F1s I have seen perfect for pole work but not this session I had been told that Pellet waggler and Bomb and Pellet was the plan of attack with weight to over 200lb winning matches I was looking forward to leaving the pole at home and hitting the bank with a couple of rods in my holdall.
Arriving at my peg which was peg 20 I had an island chuck at about 30m with bomb and Pellet and then a 17m Pellet waggler line, and for the session bait wise I had a bag of Bait-Tech 6mm Carp and Coarse Pellets for the waggler line and plenty of bags of 8mm Bait-Tech carp and coarse pellets for the bomb line. Starting off on the bomb line I cast just short of the island and began firing in the 8mm pellets over the top, I also fed the pellet wag line at the same time keeping my eyes peeled for signs from feeding fish, the first hour passed without a decent bite off the bomb and pellet so swapped over to the pellet waggler line where I used a 4g Dt floats Pellet Wag and had a few good indications straight away on the 6mm pellet again it just didn't feel right, so swapped to 8 mm pellet and had a few more chucks then I hit into my first carp nothing big around 3lb and had a couple more up until lunch time for a total of 30lb.
Having a short break I was ready to go again this time I put aside the bomb and pellet line and concentrate on the pellet waggler, noticing swirls now after firing in over the top I shallowed down to 4" with a 8mm pellet on the hook and the bites where instant, pinging in 10 pellets every cast it was a bite a chuck I couldn't believe the change in the swim, hooking Carp on each out in, then I latched into some of the F1 residents in the lake and it was bonkers, if I put 10 pellets in it was Carp if I introduced more pellets it was F1s, checking my clicker at the end of the session I had clicked 110lb, but the last 30 minutes I had a couple more chucks on the bomb line and managed a nice Mirror of about 10lb dropped my line back in the water while I tipped the carp back and my rod hopped over with another 10lb Carp from under my feet with the pellet still on the hook.
A lovely days fishing in the end at a stunning venue Old Hough and it was made better by using the rods and tactics that have taken a back seat over the last couple of years a few bags of pellets a bit of tackle, 2 rods and away you go, fantastic baits for the perfect day on the rods.
Dave.
