July 2008
16-07-2008. This is the day that I restart my fishing. It is a bit of a surprise when I get to the lake as there is a lot of work going on and it does not help me at all when I try to find a swim. I have to take the cargo trolley over and through great muddy tracks left by the diggers.
I find a swim and get set up. I immediately find that my fingers are not as nimble as they were, and I waste a lot of time tying hooks etc. With both rods out I have time to look around, and I can see that everything has grown up over the past eighteen months I have been absent, and it looks really good.
I have just one bite during the session which resulted in a pristine 17 pound common, who put up a great fight and took line on many occasions, but I netted him at the first attempt. Once on the unhooking mat I had my first major challenge and that was getting down on my knees to unhook him. In the end I finished up sitting on the damp grass as kneeling was too painful, but everything went ok and he was soon back in the water.
A fine fish and very welcome on my first trip for so long.
29-07-2008. The weather is good when I start out from home, but once set up and fishing it starts to drizzle on and off throught the day. Do you put the bivie up or don't you. Well after a couple of hours I decide I had better as it is now starting to rain.
I start of float fishing using bread or maggots. I have two bites, but unfortunatly they are both from large carp and my thirteen foot rod with five pound line stands no chance as they are very quick to take you into the nearest lily patch. This is a situation that I dislike intensly. I am fishing for tench using five pound line, a float and laying on the bottom, but this is ussless against large carp. You now have the descision to make, carry on as you are and hope that a tench will arrive, or change tactics to allow for the carp. After two breaks and getting a bit wet I change over to two rods with twelve pound line ledgering for carp.
No more bites are forthcoming, which seems to prove the point that lighter tackle will always get you more bites. I have decided to finish and have just broken down the first rod when I get an enormous bite on the remaining rod and pull into a spirited fish. I immedialy know that this is another largish carp, and after a good fight I land hime first time, but manage to break my landing net where the arms join the spreader ( another job to do when I get home).
On the landing mat he looks to be axactly the same as the fish I caught last week, and weighs in at sixteen pounds.He is soon back in the water and on his way.
