Doing it in style

[fullcreel]

JP and decided that a pleasant afternoons easy fishing would be in order. We had both had a difficult week, and with the heavy rains we had on thurs the rivers we thought would be a bit of a challenge, so we elected to go to Higher Farm, which is an easy place to fish, very short walk from car park and only a few minutes from one of our favourite boozers.
We agreed on th etop lake as we drove to the fishery, I felt it was a good time to try out the Avon Queen, a lovely split cane avon with a spliced tip section. I also had cleaned up a lovely Mitchell 304, whichneeded to be field tested.
JP showed up with a rod he refered to as the 'Missing Link', part cane, thats the but and middle section, but has a solid glass top section, which seemed to work remarkably, although it did not have the style of the Avon Queen...
Here is the 'Queen and some of my old floats, I used the goose quill insert 4th in from the right in the lefthand section of the float box.

I set things up quite finely as the area had suffered a night of -3 before and there was a real nip in the air, therefore I was very happy when on my first cast after plumbing the depth, the tip slipped away into the water and after a short scrap, a lovely common carp about 5lb was in my landing net. At last something decent sized for the species hunt.

Bites were hard, JP opted for a classic lift method with a finer crow quill, and he was fortunate to have some classic bits, although quite afew were virtually unhittable, we supspected thay may have been crucians, as there are soem in the alke and we had hoped to get some for the species hunt.
JP had a nice mirror, which gave the missing link some exercise.

You may notice in the background an angler who had been on the lake since 7 in the morning, sadly the poor fellow had not a fish to report. Heres JP's Mirror, I also had a small mirror, back to musual trick of tiddlers in the species hunt.

My one

We were also very lucky to catch some fine perch, 3 over a pound, the largest about 1 1/2. along with about 20 small carp, between 8oz and 1lb.
As darkness fell the bites slowed down and the tempreture dropped very fast so we packed up whilst we still had some life in our fingers and made our way to the pub.

[Simon N]

Some Great Looking Carp Guys, Nice To See Some Of The Older Gear Still Being Put To Good Use.

[BaggieRich]

Gentleman's fishing! Nice one.

[fishypaul]

a couple of nice fish there guys,considering the conditions you did very well

[Jolly Piscator]

yes, yes , T'was a most pleasant and civilized afternoons angling !
Great to finally christen the 'missing link' ( which I think showed it's self to have plenty of class ) matched up with an early 70's Mitchell 324.
The lake was flat calm making staring at a old quill float a pleasure and watching it rise up in the water and lay flat a real joy.
we both landed plenty of fish & both got some more points for the species hunt . I think fish of the day had to be Matt's big perch . shame we didn't get a good photo of that one.
Would have been nice without the showers and cold air but the curry & ale in the pub tasted all the better for a good afternoon spent 'doing it in style' on the bank.

[headless]

Well done Mr Yates, sorry, JP, I bet the Carp gave a good acount on the old tackle

Darrell

[Fishing Forum Admin]

nice looking carp well done

[fullcreel]

Without a doubt, the feeling as a cane rod hoops over is way better than carbon. Normally I prefer to use carbon in the cold, tho, as clumsyness could cause some serious and irrepairable damge to some fine workmanship.

[pingu]

cracking report
looked like fun

dave

[Vagabond]

Lovely photos, and as you say, "in style"

Loved the pic of the 5 lb carp caught with the Mitchell C.A.P. I thought I was the only person left who uses one.