I always seem to be starting each blog entry by saying that it has been a little while since I went fishing and this one is no exception. Hot weather, sailing, being away, visiting my old mum etc. etc. have all got in the way of going fishing so when I suddenly had a free day I took the opportunity. I was going to fish a lake close to home as they have got roadworks everywhere and getting through the town to other waters is a nightmare. It may be OK going but coming back at the end of the day in the rush hour would mean queueing up for ages and I wasn’t going to do it. I hoped to fish the new lake but as it was going to be another hot day and it would mean facing the sun all day I had the alternative of going to a more sheltered lake next to it. When I arrived there was no one fishing my first choice and as I drove past I realized why. The water level was about ten feet lower than usual and the banks were steep like the side of a gravel pit, there was no way you could get safely down to the water to net a fish so I did what everyone else had done and left it. It has been very dry this summer with the recent thunderstorms missing us and as this lake is used for irrigating the fields the farmer had been using as much as he could on his crops.
Driving on I was soon at the alternative lake. This one is fed by a small stream and the water levels were normal. I walked round to where I usually fish which is sheltered from the sun only to find that someone was in my favourite swim. He said that he had a twenty pound carp but nothing else. I went back to the car to get my gear and took it back to another swim which had a few more snags in it but was also sheltered from the sun. Setting up took a few minutes, I put out a carp rod with a method feeder and pineapple boilie and also got my float rod out to try and catch some silvers. Ground bait mixed up and in the water and I was fishing. I hadn’t long to wait before the float went sideways with a typical rudd bite and I had my first fish, a little roach! This continued for a while alternating between roach and rudd and a single perch. I was using some maggots which had been in the fridge for a long time and decided to change to sweetcorn to try and get something bigger without any luck. The float remained still and I had time to look around and look what other anglers were catching. Not much was the answer, the water was still and oily and the heat was building and the larger fish seemed to be asleep. Then I had a visitor, a young robin came and perched on my rod near the butt and eyed my maggots. I daren’t move to get my phone and take a picture for fear of frightening him but after a few moments he flew into a nearby bush so I took some maggots and threw them on the ground for him, which he appreciated!
Then the guy in my first choice of swim came by on his way home, he had caught nothing further and was calling it a day. I decided to move into that swim and spent several minutes moving my stuff 20 yards along the bank. I quickly settled into the routine again and was pulling small roach and rudd out on the float rod. Wanting to catch something a bit bigger I decided to change rods and put out a feeder to try and get something on the bottom. It was lunchtime and time for a bite to eat and a drink and even this didn’t get me a bite. It is usually at the most awkward times that the float dips or the buzzer sounds but not this time. In fact the buzzer had been exceptionally quiet with just one beep for a line bite so I decided to change bait and put a white pop up boilie on. I found my baiting needles and chose the thickest one which is a plain needle to make a hole in the boilie then suddenly my hand slipped and the other baiting needle was sticking out of the end of my middle finger on my right hand. This needle has a kind of hook on it to pull though the line when threading your bait and it had taken quite a grip on my finger and wouldn’t come out when I pulled it. I tried twisting and wriggling it with no result. I wondered what to do as here I was a fair way from civilization with all my fishing gear spread around and a baiting needle sticking out of my finger and decided that I would just have to grit my teeth and pull until it came out. So that it what I did and it came free, pulling a bit of my flesh with it. It wasn’t bleeding too badly so I rummaged around in my rucksack and found some antiseptic cream and a plaster and patched myself up. It didn’t feel too bad so I decided to carry on fishing and was rewarded by the sight of my tip going round and landed a skimmer bream. I cast out again but the fishing was slow which gave me time to look around. I thought that I saw fish just under the surface some way out in the middle of the lake so got out my catapult and fired some dog biscuits out to encourage them and sat back to see what happened. Not a lot for quite a while but I did catch another skimmer then noticed that carp were rising for the biscuits and other food that they found on the surface. I decided to feed them a bit more for encouragement with the idea of trying with my stalker rod if they got enthusiastic. I sat down after catapulting some more food out and my chair slowly subsided beneath me and I was sitting on the ground! Closer examination showed that the metal brackets at the back had broken and were beyond repair. It was a cheap secondhand chairthat I had already bodged up once but it is now time for a new chair. So, carrying on fishing standing up I could see that the carp were still feeding on the surface so it was a short walk back to the car to get my stalker rod. The great thing about this rod is that at 8ft long I can get it in the car already set up and usually bring it just in case.
I have had some luck with bread as a hookbait and had a few crusts left over from lunch so I carefully threaded one on, taking care not to stick myself with the needle and cast out. Nothing happened and my bread eventually drifted away from where the fish were so I pulled it in. I find that with bread you only get one cast as it usually comes off during retrieval so decided to have a go with the dog biscuits. They are a bit big for a fish to swallow until they soften up and tend to break if you stick a needle in but I managed to get half a biscuit on and cast out. I shot some biscuits out around it as I have noticed that carp are more likely to take your bait if there is other food around it. It gets them going or lulls them into a false sense of security or something. I waited for a few minutes and could see the fish coming up to the surface and then one took my bait and I was in. The fish swam towards the bank and I had to do some fast winding but played him for several minutes without getting a sight of him but it was definitely a carp as it was shaking its head the way they do, not enormous, perhaps high single figures. I was making headway keeping the fish out of the snags and drawing it towards me when suddenly the line went slack and the fish was gone. What a frustrating moment that is, you go from excitement to anticlimax in a split second. It was more frustrating as my tactics had worked and also I had lost some fish like this the last time I was fishing. Maybe I am doing something wrong.
I thought that I would give it another go but my heart wasn’t in it and the fish weren’t co- operating either and as I was getting fed up with standing up and it was nearly time to pack up I called it a day. My mood was not helped by walking past several fish basking on the surface as I took my gear back to the car. It was almost like they were mocking me! I left with mixed feelings, I hadn’t blanked, caught four different species, tempted a carp with my tactics, broke my chair and stabbed my finger, quite an eventful session really! Writing this a few days later I am pleased to say that my finger seems to be healing well but I still haven’t been able to get to my local tackle shop to buy a new chair as I can’t face the traffic. It would be easier to drive to a national chain in the neighbouring town but I really would like to support my local shop. Perhaps next week when the roadworks have finished I will get there!
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