Return To The Quarry

DARRELL PECK takes us back to one of his favourite haunts, but how does the big-carp whizz get on?

- Darrell Peck

We all have that one venue that we hold close to our heart and for me it’s The Quarry Fishery in Essex. It’s a lake that I almost grew up on, the venue that I really cut my teeth on, taking things to a higher level and saying goodbye to days of messing around on the local park lakes. The Quarry was a man’s water and I spent hundreds of nights there as a teenager. For this reason, since it’s been day ticket I’ve ventured back down for a go and this session was one of those trips.

I was to be joined by Trakker’s Gaz Hood and his awesome dog, Elvis, so you can imagine the delight on my face when I turned up to find the lake quiet and plenty of swims available. As you can probably imagine, I know the lake very well, so swim choice wasn’t too difficult, particularly after seeing a couple of shows.

I opted for a swim known as The Dugout. It’s a popular peg, and for good reason. It controls a fair amount of water and is a proper passing area, accessible from many angles, and absolutely full of features. During summer the carp are very active and areas like this are always good places to start, even more so on a venue that holds a large number of carp, as The Quarry does. You can almost guarantee that fish will pass you at some point, if not all the time.

The Quarry can become very weedy at certain times of the year and, being July, it had really taken a hold. This calls for extensive marker work; if you want to find clean, presentable areas then you’re going to have to work at it. I always start with a bare lead attached directly to a braided main line and it’s a simple case of casting about until you land somewhere clean, preferably with a satisfying donk!