A morning brace of 45lbs and 32lbsWith clients fishing Hotel bay and twin waddies I opted for the next bay along so I could keep visual contact with everyone and help out Peter Kent, fishing alone, if he hooked a biggie.
This mighty 45lbs common had never been caught beforeWhat with all the running around that seems to be consuming most of my days it was only really after dark that I got to fish the swim, but I was baiting morning and evening with around 20kg. The second morning saw me lose a biggie when the hook slipped after a long and strong battle, to say I was a little pissed off would be an understatement particularly as the Spanish guys on twin waddies had been banging them out since Saturday and Peter had managed a new PB common at 32lbs, I was the last one to catch.
steady girl..... 
Water dance with a 44 lbs commonThe Spanish guys, Oliver and Javier from Barcelona fishing the twin waddies swim had 12 fish out since Saturday with the biggest going 42lbs a beautiful fully scaled mirror of 38lbs and 2 fine commons of 35lbs and 37lbs, not to mention the further 8 fish all above 25lbs. Most of their fish seemed to be coming from around 12-14 metres (40-50ft) in the mouth of the dried river bed. I decided that I would find similar depth water infront of my swim.
Another big common graces the net of The Spanish crew Oliver and Javier
Oliver with a 25lbs common part of 12 fish catch in 3 days on twin waddies
Oliver's biggest at 42lbs but the Spanish guys are here for 2 weeks...watch this spaceI planned to fish 2 long range rods baited with a popup snowman of Opal 18mm and 12mm pukka pineapple. I was fishing a rig that Paul Russell from Essex Angling holidays had shown me. Basically the shot is placed on the hair just under the bait and the hook is tied with a knotless complicated knot. This is basically your standard knotless knot with the hair passed over the first 5 turns of the knotless not and a further 5 turns laid down then finished in the standard way. It allows the hair to pop straight off the middle of the hook shank and I like the hooking capabilities of this rig.I was fishing with a size 6 Atomic Claw and stealth skin link, a 5 oz Atomic Morocco carp lead and 45lbs quicksilver snag leader finished off the set up.
I boated my 2 long range rods out till I hit the 45 foot mark dropped 5 kg of maiz off the back and followed it with the rig. My third road was fished at around 35 yards to a small mark I had found surrounded by Canadian pond weed, it was in only 4 metres of water but looked fishy enough.
The carp in Bin el Ouidane don't really feed at night, which is a relief in some ways as I was absolutely knackered, Im still getting used to this life as a guide and the high altitude of the lake makes everything physical seem so much harder than normal. So with the rods out I made up my bed and pretty soon I was out, confident, very confident of a run at first light.
6AM like an alarm clock, off went my inside long range rod, the same position as yesterday when I had lost the biggie. I jumped in the boat straight away to avoid snagging the lead and was soon in deep water and out of danger. The fish made some impressive runs stripping 30-40 yards of line at a time and putting up a dogged resistance all the way through. After about 20 minutes I managed to slip the net under an absolutely mint common carp. I unclipped the landing net from its pole and wedged it off the back of the boat and made the slow pull back to shore, confident that I had a new PB common ( my previous best common was 30.8lbs from the Ebro) The scales confirmed it, 45lbs and also my biggest fish to date from Bin el Ouidane.
A fine 32lbs Bin el Ouidane common to make the perfect braceFish were moving on the 200 metre line and I soon had the rod out again on the spot, a fish crashed twice right over my bait and I was sure it would go off again, sure enough about 1 hour after the 45lbs I had a screamer and a beautiful 32lbs common made the perfect morning brace.
If only all days could start like this - Inshalla.
white water snails - the food of big carp?
