I was awake early and decided that I would go back to my “go to” lake and try and catch some of the carp off the surface. I arrived to an almost empty car park and walked up to the same swim I had the other day to find that the only fisherman on the water was there! We had a chat and then I had a walk round to the overgrown side of the lake where I could see a few carp cruising a fair way out but none close in. Conditions were the same as the other day but the fish were doing something different!
I decided to fish round there and chose a swim which had a bit of shade for me and looked good for fish and went to get my gear. Of course, I had to make two trips as I hadn’t brought my newly acquired second hand carp barrow as I thought that I would be fishing near the car!
Before fishing I threw some bread out and immediately ducks appeared from nowhere and ate it! I should have stopped there but carried on disentangling my carp rods from each other. I have a nice ebay bargain rod case but it seems however carefully I put the rods away the lines get tangled together when I come to take them out. I thought that keeping the rods set up would be quicker than starting from scratch every time but now I’m not so sure! Anyway I persevered and fifteen minutes later cast my bread on the water and soon it had been noticed. Unfortunately it had been noticed by a duck who made a bee line for it! Not wanting to hook a duck I pulled the line in and belatedly realised that fishing on the surface was a non starter today so got out another carp rod. This one was set up with an adjustable zig rig only it wasn’t adjustable any more as it was all tangled. I made a start at untangling it, time passed, the sun got higher and eventually I got the scissors out and rigged with a method feeder which took a bit longer than it should as I put the feeder on back to front and had to undo everything and start again.
I cast out and after being at the swim for about an hour I was eventually fishing! Time for the float rod to give me something to do while waiting for the buzzer to sound but you’ve guessed it, it was all tangled to the point that it was quicker to cut the line and re-rig the rod. I had also been feeding the swim with particles and groundbait and saw one or two carp cruising through so was feeling quite optimistic. Float cast out and time to sit down and have a cuppa but in my hurry to get out this morning had decided that I would make do with water, which wasn’t quite the same! Sitting there quietly I could hear the sound of flames crackling, someone was having a bonfire in the farmyard next door but as the smoke was blowing away from me I wasn’t unduly bothered. More of a nuisance was all of the fluff from the willow trees which was floating on the water and sticking to the line and building up to the point where I had to pick it all off so that the line could flow smoothly through the rings. Fishing once again the float suddenly shot sideways and I was into a fish and not just any old fish either as it was taking line. I was hoping that it wasn’t another eel when I got a glimpse of a golden colour and could see that I had hooked a carp! I played the fish gingerly towards the net and nearly got him in but he cracked off and was gone leaving me bitterly disappointed but not surprised as I was fishing with a light line and single maggot on a size 16 hook and expecting roach and rudd not a high single figure carp!
So, time to re-rig again but instead of doing it straight away I thought that I would have a try with the feeder rod. Not much happened for a while but when I brought the feeder in there was a roach on the hook, once again I had not noticed. A few more casts with the feeder produced nothing but then I saw that the wind had cleared the surface of the lake from all the willow fluff so it was back to the float rod and I had a couple of smallish fish as well as a couple of small branches. It seems like the less fished swims contain more branches to trap the unwary.
Then the wind changed and brought the surface debris back and even worse the smoke from the bonfire was blowing directly at me. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it was just wood smoke but there were all kinds of things burning including plastic so after a while I decided not to breathe any more toxic fumes and packed up and went home. As soon as I got indoors the Mrs said that I stank so it was into the shower for me and my clothes went into the washing machine.
So, I didn’t have a great time and I wasn’t happy but some things are clear. I set off with a plan which is good as it is a way to progress and improve my fishing rather than just rocking up on the bank as I used to do but I wasn’t adaptable. When the swim I wanted wasn’t available and the fish I was looking for weren’t there I just carried on with the plan instead of re-thinking it which led to a frustrating day. You do live and learn with this fishing lark!
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