It took teamwork and brought a ton of tench, but Terry Dempsey’s campaign finally paid off when he banked not one, but two stunning carp

By Terry Dempsey

It took teamwork and brought a ton of tench, but Terry Dempsey’s campaign finally paid off when he banked not one, but two stunning carp

PHOTOGRAPHY BY Terry Dempsey and friends

The evening was hot and muggy. Sweat poured from me as I finally finished off another weed clearance—water gardening was becoming an art. The giant mosquitoes seemed to become more frenzied when covered in sweat and pondweed, and smothered in bites, I battled on.

The weed had grown to the surface over most of the lake. Floating rafts of the green stuff were strewn everywhere, probably the result of a group of big carp ripping at the roots. The rafts shimmered in the evening sunshine. Damselflies and other insects hovered above their makeshift islands which rocked in the southerly breeze. Looking at the mound of weed I had gathered, it was little wonder my body ached. Each time a raft caught me up, I rowed out and piled it into the boat until it nearly sank. It was either that, or chuck them in the edge.

At first light I was awake, resetting my rods. During the night all three had blasted off. The tench had moved in over the bar I was fishing, and by four in the morning, every rod was resting against the bushes. In carp-fishing terms, the session had been a total nightmare. On the first morning I saw carp show past the bar, but soon after, they had disappeared. Once the rampaging tench moved in each night, I got wiped out. If a rod did manage to last through the darkness, it was usually wiped out by floating weed. I had been baiting heavily on top of the bar in seven feet of water. The bright gravel was just visible from the boat, and each rig was lowered, and placed amongst a mix of Fully Loaded boilies, 2mm pellet and spicy hemp. The hookbaits were small barrel wafters on fluorocarbon hooklinks. On other lakes, the method had accounted for a good many carp, but here it attracted hordes of big tench.

In total, the pit was around 50-acres. It boasted a stock of around 50 carp, many of which were fish of a lifetime— all film stars, as one friend described it. With any lake holding amazing carp that I had fished in the past, there was always a snag. Usually, the reason why the fish are so big and immaculate, is that they have the upper hand, and this water was no different. The lake was rich beyond belief and weedy as hell! Along with the tench, it was a ball-breaker, as even if I did escape their wrath, another disaster loomed in the distance.

My young son, Daniel, had accompanied me on a few trips to the big pit. He had done his fair share of blanks with me, and to keep him interested, I struck a deal. He’s a decent little angler and he knows how to play a carp, but there was no way he was putting a rod out here! I let him have the tench, whilst I had the carp, and it was not long before he racked up some real big ones on the rods.