Taken by Surprise!
After weeks and weeks of not catches on many of the sessions I have done, I finally made my way to another lake about 2 minutes from my doorstep; a mate had persuaded me to join him down the lake on his return from the World Catfish Classic in Spain last week.
On the first of the 2 evening sessions I decided to adopt a float fishing tactic as the tench are notorious in this lake, they won’t turn down a maggot or two at the right time! Skimmer after skimmer I was watching Rich surface fish for the carp which was amazing seeing the odd lump scooping the biscuits off the surface.
A few hours past and a few missed bites for him then suddenly he is into a fish, being as lovely dark chestnut 18lb Mirror followed by a 10lb common then the pick of the bunch and smashing his old 19lb 9oz pb, a 25lb Common. When it was in the net he said to me “that’s the smallest of the lot!” I then quickly reacted and said “no way! You have a 20 in there mate!”
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| The Nicest Glug I Have Ever Smelled! |
Struggling to lift the fish out of the water because of the weight of the carp, rich came to my rescue and hoisted the carp straight onto the mate that I had very kindly lent to him to use on the session, the fish gave him a bit of stick on the bank as it didn’t really fight, the scales spun round and settled on 25lb. Loads of trophy shots of the fish were taken and the fish was then returned to its watery home. When I have been down to the lake with Rich he had come close to tear the amount of times he hadn’t had anything but mozzy bites and no fish to account for. This day session made it extra special to see him bag 3 fish and the 25lb common topping it off really put the cherry on top so’s to speak!
After seeing Rich bag the big common I didn’t have time to get surface bait out myself and I headed off home confirming with Rich that I’d be down with him the following evening. After waking up feeling like death that morning I chilled out and did bits and pieces around the house and then phoned the big man to see if he was there and he was what a result!
After loading the car I got up to the lake and got to the swim which I would be fishing, I managed to get my rig amongst the fish but they were more finicky than they were the previous evening, after 2 hours gone by I was mucking round just under arming dog biscuits and getting them around 20 yards off the bank, the most gob smacking sight I saw was when the carp were taking them close in, I wound the rod back in and took a few casts and left the rig in that very position.
After playing round with short and long hooklink they found something wrong with the short ones so I put a 13ft hooklink on with a size 10 Nash Fang Uni hook with the imitation dog biscuit hooked straight on from there. I was just packing away my pouch and all my other bits and bobs when I heard a huge “CRASH!” on the surface where my rig was… I was in! The fish took a while to come in ripping line from the spool and charging over 10yards and getting 5 yards before it done me again. The fish tore through the marginal cabbages which worried me as I didn’t fancy losing the fish, and then it came up, hit the surface and Rich swooped the net underneath it.
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| 23lb 10oz of Stunning Mirror |
Just as I looked at him the previous evening, he looked at me and said “What was your old pb?” I then replied “22lb 13”. We knew that this was over the 22lb mark and it spun the scales to 23lb 10oz, my first carp from this lake and I was really proud to have it off the surface and I was buzzing so much I could barely keep back the flurries of laughter and screaming in sheer excitement, the fish had a few trophy shots taken and I got in the margins with her and put her back by hand, over joyed I let out one more battle cry “YYEESSSS!” With my end of the session finished I phoned my dad to let him know the news and I set home in the car on a high, a long overdue fish and it was caught with style, here starts off this year’s run of 20lb carp!
Until Next Time – Keep Catching!
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