After a scorching weekend session at the pit, and with a Carp under my belt i couldn't wait to get back down there and get the rods back on my spots. The weather had changed in the day and after the week of hot weather we had some light rain, with a strong westerly picking up blowing straight into the reeds swim, with some added cloud cover it was all looking very carpy!
I'd been baiting two areas - one at around 70-80yrds towards open water that cannot really be fished from any other swim, it was also towards the bank that is closed for fishing during the traditional closed season. The other was close to the margin of the island opposide me at about 70yrds.
During my lunch break walks around the lake I'd always found the fish holding up in the unfishable areas, sunning themselves on top of the shallow bars behind the island. In my mind they would have to pass one of my baited area first to get from their daytime holding areas to the social bank (where most people were fishing and putting in bait consistently) for their night time feed.
As the evening settled in i called my Dad to catch up and tell him about the fishing I've been doing recently, and to enquire about my uncles membership on a local syndicate. I only recently started speaking to him again recently, but its always great to have fishing to talk about - he was the reason i started fishing and he really is a wealth of information. Sadly he fishes a lot less these days, prefering to smack small white balls around a perfectly kept field - but I'm sure we will find time for some barbel fishing together before the summer is over!
The reason i mentioned the conversation with my father is it was rudely interupted by a screaming take from my island margin rod, the delkims made a sound my dad recognised (they used to be his!) and we ended the call adbruptly! After a quick fight i had a short plump common on the unhooking mat it weighed in at 15lb 6oz and i was happy that I'd caught so early in the evening, meaning i could sleep soundly on a work night, safe in the knowledge i wasn't on a blank!
After calling my dad back to give him the weight of the fish and say goodbye, soon after putting the phone down my right had rod was away with another screaming take, this fish was fighting well, but stayed out of the weed, just as i was edging it to the net it threw the hook - i was gutted and it was time to try and get some sleep before work.
I drifted into a happy sleep around 21:30hrs. I would say i was rudely awakened at 22:00hrs, but the sound of a screamer on a Delkin is one of the best ways to wake up - i dont care what time of night it happens, its a sound i'm always happy to hear! This time I'd found one of the lakes smaller residents at 9lb 5oz, but the important point was it was from the heavily hemp baited area in the open water area of the lake. After some quick self take pictures I again drifted back into a happy sleep.
23:00hrs and im running for the rods again, this time the fish felt a little bigger and it kited to the left into a weedbed. With constand pressure the lump started to slowly but surely edge towards my platform, allowing me to net a massive green ball with a tail sticking out! This fish pushed the scales to 15lb 12oz, but i think it had has its weetabix because it had definately given me the best scrap so far.
Whilst i was preparing to do the self take photos, with the fish on the matt my middle rod scremed off - they really don't mess around with subtle runs here! The fish found the weed, and whilst applying pressure the hooklink parted just above the swivel knot - I'd been experimenting with Flourocarbon Chod rigs without a curve, but i dont think the material is really cut out for the weed in this pit.
With the fish lost i quickly took the pictures and returned the fish to his weedy home. As i stood up to watch the carp slip away from the light of my head torch the right hand rod on the baited area was off again - however I wasn't connected to the fish for long as it surfaced and shook the hook free. That sort of behaviour is somehting i would expect from pike, I'd never seen a carp lose a hook in that way.
All in all it was a cracking session, 3 landed and 3 lost and all before midnight so i got a decent nights sleep before work!
Nice blog mate...Keep it up.
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