Using One's loaf !

After a mid week evening session on shrugs which resulted in a small common and a 'gud un' lost i was quietly confident that i could winkle at least a fish out yesterday. Only arriving at 11am meant that my best chances were already dead, this is a early morning venue. I was pleasantly surprised to find the pool free of anglers on arrival as confidence oozed through my veins i set up in a peg amongst some lily pads to find straight away that half of the stock of carp were sat in them in front of me. The fish in here are very fond of bread however the ban imposed on floating baits early last year meant that catching them was impossible. Or was it ? After several texts begging my aunt to run me some bread up i was ready to try my luck. I moulded rig putty around the hook to weight it then added a good piece of bread this produced the desired effect of a piece of bread which i could free line that would flutter down through the water in front of the carp.

My first cast was unbelievably poor due to the excitement and ended up in the tree above me !
second time round though it was perfect, i watch the bait land 3feet in front of a fish which obliged by picking the bait up after about five seconds. I was in ! A short scrap pursued as the fish wasn't at all keen on being dragged from its watery home and in the net i could see that yet again it was one of the lakes small fish, a fully scaled mirror of about 5lb. Not huge but not a bad start.

a good start .

while waiting to see another target fish move back into the pads (they had spooked) my rod on an alarm screamed off . The fish boiled at the surface and set off, on striking i swore, i thought i was stuck solid, dumped again by one of the decent fish. With my 3lb blank arched over i managed to get the fish moving and once out of the roots that battle really began. Every time i thought i had the upper hand my clutch screamed again, this fish hadn't been caught in a while, it wasn't having any of it. this carried on for a good ten minutes before i finally managed to slip my net under her. This fish was awesome all 14lb 12oz of it, my first double of the year and probably one of the best fights ill get all year.

This fish possessed a tail like a paddle. no wonder it fought so well.

not long after fish were present in the pads again and another piece of bread was being flicked into them, again another almost instant response resulted in another small mirror which ended an afternoon off nicely, i wouldn't complain if i was to catch 3 fish every time i went.

my apologies for the poor photograpghy but its quite difficult using the self timer in the rain :(

As i write this I'm preparing for an evening session On banister farm with my dad after tea where hopefully carp will be taking off the surface :) i shall update in the morning with a net full of fish i hope .

tight lines

nige