Back with a bang.

Entry posted by tomhaggett April 29, 2013

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24th-25th April - Berkshire Lake

As I've mentioned previously I'd become disillusioned with the carp scene towards the back end of last year and thus hadn't been since early December.

I hadn't really missed it much at all, but I did notice the carp at work becoming far more active every day. Add to that a few catch reports that my mates had kept me updated on and I thought I'd get out for a night after work.

I was understandably "rusty", and after putting 2 rigs up trees, getting my tip tangled in the tree above (got used to 7ft lure rods) and loosing a load of X-line after a massive tangle I was starting to get a little **** off.

After a while it all sorted itself out and I had the rods in position, nice and close to the main island and up the shelf in the shallow water that the fish seemed to be doing their feeding in. I'd thought about my carping a bit during the break I had from it and decided to go back to ultra simple rigs and forget all the fandangled tripe that is forced down everyone's throats in the media these days. It certainly didn't do me any harm.

I woke up to a jittery take at 2am, and swiftly landed a Tench of 5-6lb. I graciously unhooked him in the edge and set about getting the rod re-clipped up which I somehow managed to get bang on first cast, feeling a nice crisp drop in a few feet of water.

A few hours later, at 6am, I woke up and scanned the lake with bleary eyes. No more than 5 seconds later the recast rod trundled off, and forced me from the warm sleeping bag that had encompassed me.. That one turned out to be a fish called Big C at exactly 25lb, one of the very few old originals, 30-40 years old I'm told.

After slipping that one back I had another nightmare getting the rod back into position, twice hitting the island after counting the turns around banksticks wrong and getting the angle slightly wrong the second time. A good hour and a half it took me :doh: . The effort was rewarded though, with 2 more fish to that rod between 8am and 11am. Both commons, one very long and one very stout. 26lb 8oz and 25.11 respectively.

I fell asleep following that, for 3 hours with the sun beating down on my face. I'd planned to leave at midday so when I realised the time I thought I'd best get the gear packed up to make my way home.

At the last minute I decided to pop into the other target water for a chat with the lads, hopefully to find out how it had been fishing. The waters featured in my blog before.. the one that always kicks my ass. I notched up 20+ consecutive blank nights on there last year so I guess it's become my bogey venue.

Upon talking to a few guys it's been far less productive than the previous lake but a few fish had been coming out. I thought I'd have a quick walk around, more to try and find some perch that I thought may have started their spawning.

I'd got half way around when I spotted a carp right in the extremities of a bay that the wind had started trickling into. He was slowly drifting about mid water, probably 4ft off bottom and after looking a bit closer another one ghosted into view. Without decent polaroid's I wouldn't have seen a thing, hence why they're without doubt one of the most important items of tackle that I own. Anyway, these fish looked fairly active and as they were sitting mid water rather than sunbathing I thought they might drop down and have a little feed. I nipped back to the car, got a rod, net, mat and a handful of bait and snuck back down there, trying not to draw attention to myself. Upon returning there was still a couple mooching about so I dropped a rig in a couple of feet from the bank, crumbled a few baits and chops over the top and sat well back from the bank. Half an hour later it steamed off and after a seriously fraught battle that lasted a good 15 minutes I finally had one in the net. You can see why he scrapped so well, look at the length of it. 23lb 4oz.

Needless to say I'm chuffed with a result like that. No other fish where caught from either lake while I was there either which made it even more pleasing. Another trip is planned for the coming Wednesday night. The only problem is deciding which lake to fish...