It’s been a while. I always seem to start my blog with those words recently, but there have been good reasons. I may have mentioned that my first hobby is sailing and this year I bought a new boat, sold it and bought another one! Getting to know and sort out two new boats in a season has taken up a lot of time and kept me away from fishing. Then, of course, there were the heatwaves. Although I like it warm, I can’t stand it when it gets too hot, and I was certainly not going fishing when the temperature was in the thirties! So, it was a calm day, with no point in going sailing just to drift around, and after doing my chores I set off a bit late in the morning. As it was sunny and warm, I thought I would go to a lake where I could sit in the shade under the trees and where I had never blanked, catching plenty of roach and rudd on my float rod.
When I arrived, there were three other cars in the car park, so it wasn’t too crowded. I loaded my gear onto the barrow and set off for the swim, only to find that there was a couple already fishing there. We had a chat for a while and I decided to fish in the swim next door but one, still in the shade and with an island about twenty yards out. It was a bit steep and rough, with a flat area at the bottom and a three-foot drop to the water, which was very low. I soon set up my gear and cast my feeder rod out while I set up the float rod. The feeder rod had a method feeder and the remains of a Robin Red pellet on it, but my groundbait was still frozen, so I just chucked it out as it was. I got the float rod out, using white bread as hook bait. I then sorted my gear out, spread the groundbait out to thaw and relaxed. It was very still and quiet, not a ripple on the surface, and I started to see carp cruising just below it.
I pinged out some floating pellets and some sinking ones just around my feeder and sat back to see what would happen. Well, the float didn’t dip, but the carp moved in in strength. At one point I could count seven of them. I really wished that I had brought my stalking rod to fish on the surface. I will try it again another day.Then my feeder rod twitched and started to pull into the lake. I quickly grabbed it and could tell that I was into a decent fish. He ran off with the line and I adjusted the tension to give him some resistance, but not too much, as it was only 6lb line and I had to be gentle. I had to let him run when he wanted to and expected the line to break at any moment.It took a while to bring him in, but eventually I got him in the net, along with the float line, which he had picked up on the way.
It was then that I realised I had a problem. The net was on a lightweight pole and there was no way that I was going to be able to lift it up the bank. The only thing to do was to get down to water level and lift it from there. This was easier said than done, especially with my ageing bones, but I managed to scramble down and land on the little beach without getting my feet wet. From there I could easily lift the fish further up the bank and onto the landing mat. Then came the next problem: getting up the bank again! I managed by grabbing hold of some roots and was able to unhook the fish, take a photo, weigh him and put him back. He came in at about twelve pounds and was a fine specimen, a fish to be proud of.
The next twenty minutes were spent untangling the lines from the trees, bushes and each other, and in the end I had to cut them. I decided that, as I had caught one carp, I would put the carp rod out and put on a fruit-flavoured boilie with a mesh bag full of a variety of pellets that I had in my bag. I put the float rod away and re-threaded the feeder rod, put on an 8mm Robin Red pellet and cast that out away from the carp line. I soon had a bite on it and reeled in a skimmer, only small but another good-looking fish.
Then the alarm went and I was into a smaller carp. It didn’t take long to bring him in as he was smaller and I had stronger gear. Then it was a repeat of jumping up and down the bank to bring him out. As he hadn’t had a long fight, he was still lively and, as soon as I put the net down on the mat, he started flapping about. He flapped himself off the net and down the slope into the water again. I hoped that he had unhooked himself, but when I reeled in the line he was still attached and I had to bring him in again. This time I got him in the net and, as I lifted him towards the bank, the net separated from the pole! I managed to grab the net and bring him up the bank and, this time, he stayed still long enough for me to remove the hook, take a photo and return him, with my apologies for his treatment. He didn’t seem to mind too much, as he swam away quite happily.
I decided that I really ought to use my carp net and got it out, only to then realise that I hadn’t brought the pole! I examined the broken net and pole and was able to stick it back together for the time being. Back to fishing and another carp. This one shot off and, for some reason, the clutch was loose. He shot off into the weeds and snapped the line. A new hooklength and I was back fishing, but this time it was the feeder rod that twitched, with a nice little roach on it.
Things quietened down for a bit, for which I was grateful after all the shenanigans, and I managed to have a late lunch and a drink from my flask. I caught another skimmer and another roach on the feeder rod, but couldn’t see any more carp cruising, so I decided to put out some more floating pellets, which brought them back. I pinged some more pellets around my hook and was soon rewarded by another take. It was a nice mirror carp and I was soon bringing it in safely. I carefully unhooked it and let it go. This one weighed in at ten pounds, another nice fish.
And that was it. It was still quiet and calm and getting towards packing-up time. I was hoping for another fish, but it was not to be. I did see one, though. It came nosing into the bank right under my rod, totally ignoring my bait! So, the end of a good session after not fishing for a while, and some things learnt. The main one is that I should think more carefully about where I fish. I don’t like steep banks, as I am not as agile as I used to be, and this swim turned out to be more difficult than I expected. I think I will wait until the water level has risen before I fish here again.
The other lessons were to check the integrity of your gear from time to time and make sure that you bring everything that you need. I think that I had been a bit blasé about bringing my carp gear, as I had never caught a carp here before and rather thought that I would be catching silvers.
Leave a Comment