The Third Age Angler Posts

Not managed to go fishing this week so just some general thoughts. Our club’s Facebook page has had quite a discussion about discarded tackle, in particular rigs which have been cast across to an island and caught in the bushes and been left dangling with the bait in easy reach for ducks. They have had to launch boats several times to either rescue a hooked duck or remove the rigs. Basically what they are saying is that you should learn to cast the proper distance and use a line clip. Reading about the locations where this happened I am pleased that none of them are mine but it did make me feel guilty as I have lost a few method feeders recently! One of the bailiffs posted a YouTube link on how to use the clip which was very informative and so I am determined to do better in future and become a better angler!

The other regular posts which come up are, leaving litter on the bank and not locking the gates behind you when you leave. I am sure that our club is not the only one that has these issues although I have to say that for me personally I can’t understand why anyone would do either of these things but then I guess that is the way I was brought up! Taking care of the environment is such a natural thing to do that it shouldn’t need explaining and as for gates you should always leave them as you find them, which in the club’s case is locked. Several reasons for this including security and keeping strangers off club waters. As far as the landowners are concerned they don’t want to wake up one morning and find a load of caravans parked next to their lake!

Now to photos. I want to record the fish that I catch and the places that I have fished and for this my smart phone is ideal. In fact my photos on my computer have become a diary of my life and a way of checking where and when things have happened. Such a change from when I had to scrape together the money to buy a film and have it developed and I was very careful with what I actually photographed, now I literally have tens of thousands of pictures. Anyway, I digress, as I said the phone is fine for most things but it doesn’t have a telephoto lens, sure you can use the digital zoom but the quality of the picture soon deteriorates. I like taking pictures and use them on my Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts and as I have said I get to see nature and would like to have some decent pictures which the phone can’t manage. I have got a very good bridge camera but the idea of taking it to the bank where it can get wet and muddy doesn’t appeal so I have been wondering what to do. Then I remembered that tucked away in a drawer somewhere I have a small compact camera so I found it and had a look. Now I bought this camera some years ago just before phones with cameras came out and made them redundant so I haven’t used it much. To my delight I found that it has an optical zoom and I tried it out from the bedroom window but as I live on an estate I can’t see far so haven’t really much idea whether it will be any good. The only thing to do is to take it with me and see how it performs, I will let you know!

Lastly, I have been thinking about this business of putting a carp rod out while I am float or quiver tip fishing. I thought that I would have a go at catching carp after seeing other anglers catching them and so bought a rod and was lucky enough to catch almost immediately last summer. My catch rate diminished during the autumn and so I gave up on carp and concentrated on river fishing but have gone back to still waters in the close season and have had my carp rod out again but with no luck. Our club waters are not highly stocked with carp and you won’t be pulling one out every five minutes so patience is needed and that is something that I don’t have when fishing, I like to be doing something even if I am not catching anything. What I am worried about is by having two different styles of rods out am I not concentrating on either one properly? Was my success last summer just a fluke? If I put two carp rods out what will I do then? I suppose that I could take a book to pass the time but I could sit at home and read. So the question is, what do carp anglers do to pass the time? I am still mulling this over and would appreciate any comments below. 

Well, that’s it for this week, quite a long blog for not going fishing! I hope that I will be back on the bank for next week!

As my target this season is to fish all the club’s waters I went to another new one this week. There are two lakes next to each other and the one that I hadn’t fished was a long thin shallow lake fed by a stream. It was a beautiful day and I got up early for me as I had to go and visit my mum in the afternoon as we are now allowed to meet outdoors so I couldn’t stay late. As I was walking to my swim I passed a young man with a bivvy up and his carp gear out, I stopped for a chat, as you do and his buzzer sounded and he was on to a fish. He was happy for me to stay while he brought in the fish and was pleased with a high single figure carp. I took a photo for him and went off to my swim thinking that was a great start to the day!

I set up the carp rod and as I had no method feeders left I decided to try using PVA bags which I had got with a job lot of tackle off eBay and which I had never used. I found it quite straightforward, probably due to watching all those YouTube videos and cast across to near the opposite bank. Then it was time to set up my float rod and feed the swim a bit before sitting down with a cuppa. Nothing much happened, I re-cast the carp rod, checked the maggots, had a chat with the ever present ducks and enjoyed sitting in the sun. Then I got a bite, a small roach which led me to expect that I would start catching some more but it was not to be.

As there was nothing from the carp rod I decided to pre-bait an area next to my swim under a tree and try there in a little while. Still nothing else on the float rod so I tried different depths, different baits, bread then sweetcorn but still nothing. I had been noticing some small fish jumping and the V shape on the surface of the water where they were swimming just below and a little while later the float dipped and I was into a small perch. Not the smallest I have ever caught but certainly a contender! I moved my carp rod to the baited area but no luck. I am always surprised how fast the time goes on the bank even if I am not catching much. I think this is because I enjoy being out in the country looking at the birds and other wildlife and because I am always thinking what else I can try to catch more fish. 

Soon it was time to pack up and stop to chat to the anglers I passed who told me that they were having even less luck than me. I saw on the club’s Facebook site later that evening that the young man caught another carp after I had left so he had something out of the day. Thinking about my session I was pleased that I didn’t blank but not pleased that having caught one roach I didn’t catch more. Perhaps it is still a bit cold or maybe the sunshine put them off, that would be a shame as I like fishing on warm sunny days! Also I haven’t caught a carp this year despite having my rods out several times. I am beginning to wonder whether having a float rod and a carp rod out at the same time is such a good idea, perhaps I should concentrate on one or the other, I would certainly have less gear to carry!

I was a bit peeved that I had not caught anything last time out so a few days later I went back to the same venue. This time I chose to fish in the furthest lake and had a chance to try out my new rucksack, which was great. It was fairly comfortable and sat securely and was not too heavy and left my arms free for rods, chair and unhooking mat.

There weren’t too many swims to choose from as the lake is quite small, longish and narrow in shape so I sat myself down in the sun and away from overhanging trees so that I wouldn’t cast into them! I set my carp rod up more quickly this time, having had a practice last time and decided to go for the method feeder with a popup boilie. Once that was done it was time to get the float rod out and do a bit of active fishing! It was not too deep, say about 5-6ft so manageable with my 10ft rod. First cast and almost immediately I had a fish, a roach, small but not a tiny one and definitely worth catching, no blank for me today!

The next fish took a little while but after that they kept coming at regular intervals and I ended up with eleven for the session. In between catching I kept filling up the method feeder and casting around trying to find the fish. Then I saw a decent carp cruising along by the opposite bank so I quickly retrieved my gear and cast towards the fish. The lake was just too wide for me to cast underarm so it was an overarm effort straight into the trees on the opposite bank! By the time I had retrieved the line, minus the feeder, the carp was nowhere to be seen so I tackled up again steadily and tried to cast as far as I could towards where it had been.

The day wore on, even though I was a long walk from the car park one or two anglers came to see me and have a chat. A little bit of me was pleased that they were blanking on the lake I had fished earlier in the week and I was catching! The forecast wind didn’t pick up and it was a delightful day, the sun was warm and the birds were singing. I saw a buzzard gliding over the lakes and tried to take a picture with my camera phone but it didn’t come out very well, I resolved to take my proper camera in future. This lake was free of swans, thank goodness but had its fair share of ducks, they would swim by every so often and looked interested when I threw some groundbait in but wouldn’t come too near me. The afternoon passed with me catching a roach just often enough to keep me interested and I was thinking that it would soon be time for me to pack up. One last underhand cast with the method feeder and crack! It was gone! Two lost today and no more in my box! As it was getting towards home time I put the rod away and concentrated on the float for a few minutes. I got a bite, struck and missed it, the line wrapped itself in an almighty tangle around the tip of the rod and that was that. One look showed me that it was going to take ages to unravel by which time it would be time to leave so I decided to do it at home.

Thinking about the day I realised that I often went home with one rod or another in a tangle and that is what makes me stop for the day. None of this “One last cast,” business more, “One last tangle” for me! I have to say that it is easier to sort it out on the bench in my shed rather than on the bank. To be honest it usually consists of cutting the line, saving the hook length if possible and rethreading the rod ready for next time. The line still seems OK on the reel but one day I will have to buy some more as I will have used it all up!

The river season is over until June, the days are getting longer and lighter, the club’s Facebook page is showing carp that have been caught so it is time to go back to the still waters and see what I can catch. 

The Facebook page had a thread about your targets for the year, the replies were all about increasing your personal best or catching more fish. I put that I wanted to fish all the club’s waters and then catch a fish in each one. I was told that was a good idea for a new member and so with that in mind I set out for somewhere I hadn’t fished before. It is a series of three lakes on a connecting stream and I had a good walk round before I picked somewhere to fish. I chose a nice sheltered spot with a reed bed a little way in front, eventually remembered how to set up my carp outfit and also put a float rod out and waited expectantly. After a while I moved the carp rod and fished in a different place as I remembered the saying that you have to find the fish in the winter. Then I changed the depth on the float rod, put in some more maggots and groundbait. Time passed without a bite.

I decided to have a go with the feeder rod. I have almost got to the point where it doesn’t get tangled any more and I feel pleased with myself about that. Still nothing, not a bite, not a twitch. I decided it was time for my fail safe remedy to get a bite and as it was now lunchtime  I got my flask and sandwiches out, still nothing. It was nice sitting in the sun and I was getting warm so off came some layers, soon I would be fishing in a T shirt! The swans came to see me, as they usually do, a buzzard glided overhead in the distance, some ducks quacked friskily and a swan chased a Canada goose right across the lake but I still didn’t catch anything. Mindful of the saying about if you do the same thing and expect different results I tried out different rigs and tweaked my setup with no result. To be honest I was getting bored. I went for a walk to look at moving to a different swim but there wasn’t much time left so I stayed. I had a chat with a couple of other anglers who were also blanking. I don’t know if that made me feel better or worse. Better in that I was not the only one, worse that nobody was catching any fish.

Eventually it was time to pack up. On the drive home I reflected on my day, I think it was the first proper blank I have had since I started fishing again and I didn’t like it. Previously I have caught at least a minnow or baby perch or even missed a bite but today it was nothing. So, was I wasting my time? I have read on forums about the benefit to your mental health that fishing has, how it is good to get out of the house, get away from the missus, have some “me” time and all of this may be true but I go fishing to catch fish, and I didn’t. I can do all of the above by walking three minutes from my house and be out in the country, I don’t need to go fishing for that. I go fishing for that moment where the float dips, the quiver tip twitches or the alarm buzzes. That moment when you pick up the rod and feel something alive on the end of the line. What is it? How big is it? Will I land it or will it come off? All this is still new to me and still exciting. That’s what I go fishing for.

So, was it a waste of a day? No, I did spend a day outdoors doing what I enjoy. I learned that you can’t always be successful. In everyday life we are usually in control, the car starts when you turn the key, the TV comes on when you press the remote, the shopping is delivered to your front door. Angling reminds us that nature is greater than we are and we don’t control it. You can do all the right things but still not get the result that you want. Blanking is a lesson learned and anyway there is always next time!

Although the title is winter break I have actually been fishing a bit recently in the river but haven’t caught anything remarkable, just a few roach and plenty of minnows. The river is closed now so it will be off to the club’s still waters when the weather brightens up a bit. Interestingly enough the club’s Facebook page is showing carp being caught now so I might well get my carp rods out, which brings me neatly to the subject of this week’s blog – luggage.

When I first started fishing again I used an old ex-army knapsack and my Shakespeare tackle box. When I walked down to the canal I put everything on an old sack barrow and was quite comfortable pulling it. When I moved on to my first lake the swims were near to the car park and I managed to get my gear to the bank without too much trouble. Then I saw people catching carp and thought that I would have a go by having a carp rod out and float fishing at the same time. This worked well until I went to a new lake where all the swims near the car park were taken and I had to walk a hundred yards to a vacant swim, twice as I couldn’t carry everything at once. I wasn’t happy with having to do this both as a waste of time and effort and because it meant leaving some of my gear unattended on the bank. I was also visiting other club lakes to look round and several of them had long walks from the car park so if I was going to fish them I needed to be able to carry my gear.

At this time I still wasn’t sure if I was going to keep up with fishing and so didn’t want to spend too much money. I briefly considered a carp barrow and dismissed the idea. I looked at rucksacks from angling suppliers and they were not cheap and often not in stock. In the end I bought a NGT bag from eBay for £27.50. It was enormous so I could get everything in it and it seemed extremely well made and I was very happy with it until I started to use it. The problem was that I needed three hands, one for my rods, one for my chair and one for my bag. I thought I could get over this by using the shoulder strap and still have two hands free but it didn’t quite work out like that. The first problem was in lifting the bag up, it was really heavy! The next issue was that with the bag over my shoulder it was rather uncomfortable, swinging about and digging into my side, this was bearable for a few minutes but not on a longer walk but I soldiered on with it until my winter break when I had time to think about it.

I looked on YouTube, blogs and forums for ideas and found some good advice. The most important one being that you don’t have to take all your stuff with you each time you go fishing! Simple, I know but if you just take what you need then there is less to carry. This then led on to thinking that if you had less to carry you could have a smaller bag or rucksack. I practised this during my winter trips to the river by taking my rods already made up and an ordinary backpack and found that I really did have all that I needed. Soon I made up my mind, I needed a rucksack, not too small so that I could get everything in it, not too big so that I could lift it up and carry it! I searched the Internet and ended up buying another NGT product as I was impressed with the quality of their bag and it arrived yesterday, £34.50 including postage and at first sight it looks ideal. Of course as soon as it arrived I had to have a play with it, some things fitted in the pockets where I wanted them to go while other things didn’t. A bit of rearrangement and I think that I have a place for everything. Once again I am happy but only time will tell if I have made the right choice this time for my angling journey. Anyone want to buy a large holdall!

When I first thought about going fishing again I was pleasantly surprised with the gear that I still had and used it for a few weeks. Thanks to YouTube videos, angling forums and tackle websites I soon realised that I needed more tackle! Some of it I genuinely did need, like rods, reels and a landing net for carp fishing and other stuff was to replace old gear or because I was persuaded that I needed it!

Anyway, where to buy? I am lucky enough to live in a town which still has an independent tackle shop but the problem was that half the time it was closed because of lockdown and anyway I wasn’t going into shops as we were shielding because of my wife’s health, which left the Internet, namely Amazon, eBay and specialist shops. The trouble with the tackle shops is that lots things were out of stock. Thousands of new or returning anglers, the effect of Covid, a shortage of shipping containers, BREXIT etc. etc. meant that I would look for something, find it and then see that it wasn’t available. This led me to eBay where there is always a lot of fishing tackle for sale but as always you have to trust the seller’s description. This is usually accurate with new stuff but for auctions it can vary. Take floats for instance, I bought several job lots of floats for reasonable prices, much less than if I had bought them individually in the shop. The trouble is that I will never use most of them, just like the person who sold them to me I expect! When I have weeded out the bent, broken and useless ones I would have saved money by just buying a few new ones that I needed! I bought several other job lots of tackle which always included things I didn’t want so I will be selling them on eBay once the new season starts!

While I was getting ready to write this week’s Blog I had a look at my purchase history on eBay and gave myself a shock! I hadn’t realised just how much tackle I had bought! Fortunately, neither does the Missus! 

I won’t go into detail about everything I bought on eBay and will just pick out a few things. When I was looking at carp reels I found a Yumoshi reel direct from China at a price of £11.91. I thought I would take a chance at that price and was amazed by the quality when it arrived. Of course by then I had another reel delivered and was using that so it is still in the box!

I have bought quivertips, leads, feeders and rod bags, all used and perfectly good. I was particularly pleased with my three rod bag for £20 which looked unused and had even been sprayed with Febreze or something before it was dispatched, it smelled lovely!

My best deal though was a couple of Sonik DominatorX 12 ft carp rods. Posting rods can be tricky and expensive so they often go for reasonable money. I spotted the DominatorXs for sale in my town and put in a cheeky bid and was surprised to find that I had won! I got in touch with the seller who was happy for me to come and collect them as it saved him packing and posting them. When I got there I was led out to his garage where he kept all his gear neatly in top quality luggage, I passed over the cash, he passed over the rods and I was away. When I got home I looked at the rods and they were immaculate! I paid £37.89 for the pair, they are selling for £79.99 each! What a bargain!

Anyway, I can ramble on for ages about what I bought but that would get boring so I will leave it there. Suffice it to say that sometimes you get a bargain on eBay and sometimes you get stung so be careful!

I don’t know whether it is my age or it happens to everyone but I have lost a bit of gear since I started fishing again. There are the obvious things like hooking a branch when you might lose your hook length or if you are unlucky, the float as well. Another thing that comes into this category are swim feeders and method feeders, either because I have cast into bushes again or snagged up under the water. Of course I try everything to free them, jerking the rod, going left and right, high and low and sometimes it works but if not it just ends up with a hard pull and being lucky or not!

Then there are the things that you don’t expect to lose. The first was my disgorger, metal and has been with me for ever and when I went to use it, it wasn’t there. Luckily I also have a pair of small forceps and so was able to get hooks out during that session. The next thing was my phone, which I have related in an earlier blog and which I got back after a few minutes searching thanks to another angler phoning my number so I could hear it. Then there was a bank stick, I must have just left it sticking in the bank when I came home but the thing that puzzled and annoyed me most was my carp landing mat.

My club has a rule about having a landing mat of a certain size and I was able to get one off Amazon but it wasn’t cheap. It was a soft one, quite fluffy and probably filled with polystyrene balls or something to puff it out. Anyway, I had only used it a couple of times when I went to my usual lake. Now this lake is next to a farm yard, quite private and no-one about and I settled down in my usual swim. It was actually a windy day and I was getting cold and blown about and as I wasn’t having much luck I decided to move to the other side of the lake to try and find some shelter and some fish. I took a couple of trips round the lake and settled down for the rest of the session. When it was time to go home I packed up my gear and noticed that the mat was missing. I thought that it was strange but perhaps I had left it behind at the old swim so took my gear back to the car and had a look, nothing! So, back to the second swim and a good look around and it wasn’t there. I was on my own by now so there was no-one to ask so I walked round the lake but didn’t find it.

Now as far as I can work it out there were two possibilities, either I had left it behind at my old swim and someone had taken it or that I had moved it to my new swim and it had gone from there. I thought that I had put it up the bank behind me with my bag and other gear and it was next to a large field which had recently been farrowed and was quite smooth. While I was sheltered by bushes the field was exposed to the wind and blowing straight across and I think that it picked up my mat and blew it away. I thought about walking across the field to look but as I said it was big, actually it was enormous just like the American prairies and I didn’t fancy the walk of at least half a mile to the other side looking for something which might not even be there so I went home instead. Needless to say I have been more careful with its replacement and always peg it down or put something heavy on it if there is the slightest breeze!

No photos this week as I found it hard to take pictures of things that I haven’t got!

Although I didn’t know it the trip to the river in last week’s blog was the last one for a couple of months. Here in South East England it rained, and when I say it rained I mean it poured! Rivers were flooded, ponds and lakes overflowed and the ground became saturated. Think First World War trenches and you will get the picture! Then it snowed!

So it was a while before I ventured out on the bank again which gave me time to reflect on my third age angling career so far. I suppose I had been lucky, I managed to catch fish every time even if they were tiny and I had caught some nice carp, tench and a decent perch. I had certainly done well enough to encourage me to keep going and to try to get better and improve my knowlege and equipment. One way to do this was to change my reels. For float and light ledgering I had been using a couple of old ones. Probably cheap when I got them I can’t remember when I bought them or even how I acquired them but they must have been thirty years old if they were a day. I had some gift tokens from a large internet angling supplier (no sponsorship here but they ship directly to you!) for Christmas and decided to go for new reels. What to choose? I read the reviews, got more confused and eventually decided to do what I usually do when buying stuff and go for the budget end of reputable manufacturers rather than flashy stuff from firms that I have never heard from and chose a couple of Shimano reels, the FG2500 at £29.99 and the FX3000 at £19.99. I thought the FX2500 would go with the float rod and the 3000 with the ledger rod.

I have only used them a couple of times but what a difference they make! My 10ft Maver rod, which I had been a bit disappointed with is transformed! I can now trot a float down the river with the best of them! With the bail arm open the line just flows off the reel and follows the float downstream just like you see on the YouTube videos and something the old reels wouldn’t do. When I went to the lake I found that I could cast much further too. These reels have totally changed my angling experience and yes, I do appreciate that they are at the cheap end of the spectrum and if I had spent more they would be even better but hey, one step at a time! The only thing I can’t comment on yet is what they are like when you have hooked a decent fish as I haven’t managed that yet! With luck I soon will!

I think the most important thing however has not been the gear but the actual getting out of the house and getting out into the countryside for a while. My wife is vulnerable to the Covid 19 virus and so we have been shielding for almost a year now. Fishing has given me an interest that I can pursue without getting too close to other people and certainly helped my mental health. Even when not catching there is plenty to see, swans, yes always swans! Herons, cormorants, ducks and on a lucky day a kingfisher. Smaller birds come and visit and I have seen different kinds of tits in the trees and bushes and there is always the robin looking enviously at the bait box! There are also different sounds, I have heard children playing during their school lunchtime even though the school is about a mile away, bird song, some of which I can identify, the whooping of the swan’s wings as they fly overhead and the tractor ploughing the fields. Then there is the constant background noise of traffic, it seems that wherever I am on the club’s waters it is difficult to get away from the hum of the motor car. Still, mustn’t grumble, that’s how I got to the bank!

These are some of my thoughts on how my first year has gone so far. I will try to put some  more in order for next week but as the sun has come out at last I might just go fishing instead!

When I was growing up I always fished in rivers and I suppose that I still think that this is proper angling, going after wild fish that don’t live in a managed environment. I had tried the local river in the summer but access was difficult and I had been waiting for the nettles to die down along the banks. In the meantime I found a swim only a short walk from the road and with no nettles or grass as it was sheltered under trees. These made it a bit difficult to fish so shorter rods and underarm casting were needed but as it was only a small river or large stream this wasn’t a problem.

On my first visit I didn’t know what to expect, the water level was fairly low and the water itself quite clear so I could see the bottom in places. I did my usual thing of putting out a feeder rod and actively fishing the float rod but wasn’t getting any bites with the feeder so concentrated on the float. I had a good day trotting the float and catching every few minutes. There was a variety of fish there including a gudgeon and some roach and chublets, not forgetting minnows! These became a bit of a nuisance and I changed hook to a larger size to try and avoid them but no luck, they continued to swallow the bait and hook kamikaze style and could be difficult to unhook. Nevertheless I had a good day and decided to go return another day.

A couple of weeks later I tried again, it was now late November and the river was a bit higher but I could still see the bottom in places. I had another good day mostly catching roach and there didn’t seem to be as many minnows. Then the float dipped decisively and I was into a bigger fish, not enormous but bigger than anything I had caught that day. As it came to the surface I saw that it was a perch and was thrilled to get it into the landing net! The only perch that I had caught so far were tiddlers and this was a proper fish, it weighed in at 1lb 7 oz and was a personal best. Some quick photos and an admiring look and I lowered it back in the river and after a few moments it was away.

Things went quiet for a bit and after a while I decided to pack up. I had landed 24 fish in that session and some of them were more than tiddlers! I went back a couple of weeks later but by then it had been raining a lot and the river was in flood. I couldn’t find and cast to any back eddies or sheltered spots and only caught one fish with my first cast on the feeder rod. I thought that I was in for a great session after that fish but it was downhill all the way!

After that I kept my eye on the river levels on the Internet, I knew what was too high and as it continued to rain I didn’t get back there for a few months. In fact I had a bit of a break after Christmas as it was either pouring, snowing or frosty but it did give me chance to reflect a bit and sort out my gear, more of which in my next post.

I continued my tour of the club’s waters by visiting one of the more distant lakes, although it wasn’t very far away. I had been for a look round and found that the car park was about 200 yards from  the lake and I would have to carry my gear up a muddy track. After seeing guys with barrows I thought about getting one but thought it was a lot of money for a hobby that I was still not really sure about. I decided to adapt a sack barrow which I had in my shed by making a box to put the rods in and attaching it to the back of the barrow. It worked after a fashion and I slowly made my way to the lake and found one other guy fishing there. We had a chat and he wasn’t having much luck so I moved to the other end of the lake near an island and put out my carp rod and float rod and sat back.

I soon started catching fish, the usual small roach and then a carp jumped. Over the next hour several carp jumped and so I changed where I was casting and then tried surface fishing with bread. The trouble was that the lake was home to ducks, hundreds of them and on seeing my bread there was frantic competition for it! Not wanting to hook a duck I gave that up and tried a Zig rig fishing high up in the water. The carp continued to jump and I continued to catch small silverfish and then it started to rain. Having learnt my lesson I had brought my umbrella and so I put it up. It was fairly old and was just a basic umbrella but it kept the rain off me and much of my gear so I was happy.

The day carried on much the same, the carp kept jumping, I didn’t catch one and continued to catch the odd small roach and perch. It stopped raining just before home time and I struggled back to the car, falling over twice in the process. I had enjoyed the day but was a bit miffed that I could see fish but not catch them and also decided that I must do something about all my gear if I was going to fish here again. Taking carp rods and tackle and Silverfish rods and tackle only worked if I could park near the swim. To make matters worse a guy posted on the club’s Facebook page the next day about what a great session he had at the same lake, catching eight carp!