Finally !

My self and Carl both booked a week off work this week. We managed to get to our local club water on Sunday evening and fished through until Thursday morning. Of course as usual we were targeting the beautiful conditioned carp that reside in the lake. I hoped to get among the fish and set myself a target of four, if i achieved that i would be very happy i thought to my self as i erected my m3 bivvy, Carl said he would be happy just to get one as this lake can be quite tricky. as this is only a two rod water i decided to fish one on a baited area which i gave a good thrashing with a spod and the other as a roving rod which i could cast at fish and explore the water in front of me with. Both were dispatched with my latest bait creation which smells vile, so bad i was condemned to the shed whilst making it and my mum still moaned she could smell it in the house! its sea monster and anchovy with a high amount of n-buteric acid (which smells like puke.) 1ml of this stuff is more than enough for a pound of base mix and a few other of my favorite bits and pieces were added. the finished product was a nice dark 15mm boilie with a soft texture so it released its smell faster.I was confident at that point let alone at the water side. The rods had been out about half an hour when my left hand delkim burst into life - Fish on! The fight was weird, at first i thought it was a pike,it was just thrashing around with no real power then a few short bursts just under the surface. This is not typical of the fish in here because they have a really good depth of water even in the margins as Carl found out when he fell in up to his neck! Anyway the culprit was a 10lb koi! i was then informed that it was one of only two koi in the lake so i was quite chuffed. A new bait on, the hook was still nice and sharp so it was cast to the same area again with a small bag of pellets and a few crummed boilies, i injected my bags with 5ml of a mix of different oils and additives to really give it a pulling factor. it had been out about an hour when the same rod (the roving rod) rattled off again, this was more like it the fish came straight into my margins as they do here then battled to the end under the rod as i drew it over the draw cord of the net i caught a glimpse of a nice brassy flank in the dark. it turned out to be a very welcome common of 13lb 4oz.

At this point i was flying, the snowman rigs presented blow-back style with the new baits were really passing the test, back it went on the spot but no more action came through out the night which i was a little disappointed about however when i reeled in for inspection in the morning i found i was attached to a bream that had just sat there all night without giving any indication! That was it up went the sensitivity on the alarms. At about 10 am on Monday morning i had a slow steady take on the bait rod, i was on it in a flash as the fish kited in towards my bank, it came under the rod with ease. I told Carl it was only a small fish but hey it was a carp i cant complain. then it absolutely let rip and charged up the margin to the left under three different bushes and a tree on its way! the only thing i could do was drop the rod in the deep margin and hold on praying it would stay deep, i was completely flat roded at one point i was just waiting for something to go but it didn't. Instead it headed back out into open water where i managed to tire it. As i was crouched down i didn't really see the fish as i drew it over the draw cord, i asked Carl if it was a double and he said most probably. When i lifted the net and fish out of the water i shouted omg its flaming huge mate! it has to be a new pb! She went 21lb 8oz on the scales i weighed her twice just to make sure and i was right! Six years of hard work and a lot of nights on the bank and i finally had my first 20.Just look at the grin on that face! to say i was happy was an understatement, just a shame the pictures don't do her justice she was really wide! That one fish would of made my trip but then at 12 pm i got another of around 6lb. whilst i was dealing with it on the bank i looked down the bank to show Carl only to see that he was into his first fish! i quickly slipped her back reeled i the other rod and wandered down the bank to give him a lift with the net.i put the net under a really big mirror which when last caught last year was in the 20s so we couldn't believe it when it only went 15lb on the scales but even so it was a brilliant fish well done mate, you deserved it. Just look at the size of that tail!

The bait was really working now so i gave both of his rods and mine a good scattering then i went for a wander with a floater rod and managed to bag another three small commons between 6 and 8lb as well as three decent bream around the 4lb mark and a cracking hybrid.

so at the end of Monday i had seven carp to my name i was well happy! Monday night passed by without so much as a line bite i managed another carp on Tuesday morning then another at about 9pm whilst Carl managed a few too in the day which was nice, we were both having a cracking session. i sat up all night on Tuesday feeding a field mouse trout pellets at my bivvy door i hadn't seen it the night before although there had been a rather noisy tawny owl sat in the tree above me so it was a sensible little mouse. I must of drifted off around 3:30am and was quite bemused as to what was making the whistling that woke me up. I actually thought it was my own nose whistling as i breathed so turned over on my bed and sunk my head into my pillow. The noise however did not stop and eventually i sat up only to find a little robin sat at my door whistling at me for food! i have never seen anything like it in all my life, he was no more the three feet away and didn't even flinch as i sat up the leaned over to open my bait bucket to shower him with pellets. That was it i had made a friend for life, drifted in out of my peg for the rest of the session picking up bits and pieces of food.

dawn is always my favorite time on the bank and this session was no different with a mug of coffee in hand i just enjoy sitting back and listening to the dawn chorus as the world around me wakes up. its also a brilliant time to see the carp and where they are feeding let alone catching them , often in the margins. the smells in the air at this time of day are coated in dew which only enhances them, the smell of the surrounding woodland and the water itself is a real treat for me as i live in an urban area on a busy main road.

Wednesday was a nightmare for me i didn't get anything at all apart from a few snotty bream where as Carl was amongst them again with a couple more cracking low doubles like this mint common.

By the time dusk had set in on Wednesday night we both feared that that would be it for the fish as they hadn't been feeding at night. at 11:20 Carl was in again with another decent double and after slipping it back he reeled in and came and i put the kettle on. as we sat chatting my alarm screamed off again and i caught the last fish of the trip in the form of this mirror.

What a belting trip we had, 17 carp between us. i had ten and Carl seven. that's more than we could of ever hoped for and has really given me confidence in my bait.

as we were packing up on Thursday morning i had a chat with two old men that were setting up for the night. when i say old they were both in their mid 70s and still get out at least 1 night a week and had just come back from a week in France. what an inspiration!

until next time, tight lines

nige