Soham Bypass Lake, Soham, Cambs

Soham Bypass is where it all started for me when I was a teenager. Having grown up in the village over the road from the lake, I was always down there! After 2 years of fishing the place and getting to grips with everything, I must have had majority of them. Now, I’ve been fishing for sometime and travelled about and caught some mega carp from other locations, but I never realised just how special these fish actually are. A true history water.

What tactics to employ?

I tend to fish open water right in the silkweed. First reason, the lake’s fished a fair bit and everybody does the same thing such as fishing to the island in the centre of the lake or gravels bars. Second reason, the fish seem to love the bloodworm in here like they do in any lake. I like to fish little pop-up rigs with long booms over a spread of 16mm and 18mm Core Baits boillie (3-4kg in total).

I have found that they love boilies covered in rock salt and lots of it, this seems to be a mega edge on this lake

Rigs wise I tend to stick to Ronnie Rigs on a long boom, using IQ from Korda and then the rest of the components are used from Rigworx Carp Tackle. Hooks are size 4 curve shanks.

Top tips

1. Find the fish
2. Don’t be shy on the bait
3. Don’t be afraid to move

A lot of things have changed over the years while I have been away, but around the island always used to be good for a bite! There’s a fallen down tree at one end of the lake called The Snags Swim that always used to do bite too!