It's Worth Sticking With It!

[peakoverload]

Yesterday I made a return to my local club lake. The last time I fished it I had a bit of a disaster getting snagged up with a fish on the line and then the fish just not really feeding. I thought that after the recent heavy rain followed by the recent sunshine the fish would be back to feeding like normal.

On arrival at 8.30am I was surprised to find several other anglers already there, considering that there are only 15 swims this was considered busy. I was even more surprised to find the much sort after Swim 1 completely free. Swim 1 is so sort after because it is almost always jam packed full of Carp and normally you can see them cruising about, leaping and feeding off the surface.

My intention was to fish two rods, one on a simple semi fixed ledger on a baitrunner and the other on a float. I quickly set up the ledger and cast it out to the edge of some brambles that completely surround the lake and next to which the Carp are always found. It is normal to expect a run on a ledger within the first 15 minutes and so I set up my float rod as quickly as I could knowing that at the first sign of a run I'd have to drop everything and strike before the Carp got into the brambles just a foot or two from where my hook now was.

I was a little concerned therefore that after setting up my float rod not only had I not had a run but I had not even seen any sign of any fish at all. I recast the ledger to a different spot right at the beginning of an 'alleyway' between the island and the bank which is a favorite place for the Carp to hang out when they are shy because it can only just be reached by my swim. I then baited up a spot a few feet in front of me with some pellets and cast out the float. Within a few minutes I was getting twitchy bites but I wasn't sure if they were from timid Carp or one of the million or so small fry that also inhabit the lake. Eventually after half an hour I get a proper bite and I strike into my first Carp of the day.

Apologies for the quality of these photos but I only had my iPhone with me.

Another 30 minutes past and again the float disappears confidently and I strike into a second and seemingly identical Carp


It was now only 9.30am and 2 Carp had come to the bank so maybe today would be better than I first feared I thought. However at that point every fish in the entire lake just seemed to disappear. After over an hour without a single bite and went for a walk around the lake and found that everyone was experiencing the same thing, it was like every single fish, even the fry had suddenly vanished.

At 11.30 what felt now like the only fish left in the lake found my hook and after a scrappy fight where it tried to take me into several snags my third Carp made it into my net


After that though the lake became completely lifeless, even the family of Morehens on the lake seemed to be swimming around wondering where all the fish had gone. It wasn't until 3pm that things started to pick up. I had continually fed an area of my swim 8ft out with hemp and pellets all day long and now it appeared as though the dinner bell had finally been rung because the baited up area now resembled a jacuzzi with the amount of feeding bubbles that were coming up, the whole area had become a mass feeding frenzy. I kept the loose feed going and cast into it and for the next 2 hours my float was been tail swiped, I had line bites, the float would quickly pop up and down but almost nothing would actually take my bait. Eventually I managed to capture a quite nice Roach (might be a Rudd but the mouth looks more Roach like) followed an hour later by another Carp



It then started to get really crazy and a bit expensive in tackle!
I noticed that whilst there was a mass of feeding bubbles directly in front of me, by the brambles on the right bank were a few Carp that didn't seem to want to venture too far from the safety of the network of underwater roots and branches that was the final resting place of dozens of other anglers rigs. I'd tried fishing up close to the brambles numerous times before and it was also at best 50/50 if you could stop a Carp from getting into them and have lost so many feeders I've lost count. Dare I try it now on the float?

As these Carp were up in the water I changed over to a loaded pellet waggler and cast out with a perfect but lucky cast landing just 1ft from the brambles. Within seconds a big bow wave came up from under the float lifting it and the surrounding water up and just as the wave reached it's peak, the float disappeared. I struck and the Carp made a lunge for the brambles and my rod bent double. Applying as much pressure as I dared I managed to quickly gain control and brought the Carp to the net


In my eagerness to cast back out I forgot about the over hanging tree and cast straight into it loosing my float. I set back up as quickly as I could and cast back out. Again a bow wave followed by the float going under but this time I couldn't stop it getting into the brambles and then the 7lb hooklink broke. As quickly as I could I retied a new hooklink and cast back out. Again within seconds there was the bow wave, there goes the float and I'm into yet another fish. I apply as much side strain as I can to stop the Carp from getting under a sunken tree when the hook pulls. Unfortunately I was applying so much side strain that when the hook pulled the float flew back so fast that it hit a tree and snapped in half!

Yet again I set-up with another loaded pellet waggler after providing some more loose offerings. This time there is no bow wave before hand. The float simply goes under as if it were a Roach bite but when I strike the water explodes and what feels like a Formula 1 car races off. Fortunately for me it doesnt head for the brambles in front of me but unfortunately for me heads for the brambles under my feet. I know that if I don't stop before it gets there I'll have no chance of getting it out. I reel as fast as I can and try to steer the Carp into clear water but it's having none of it and the clutch slips giving it the vital few inches it needs to reach the brambles. Just as it does so it rolls on the surface and I can see it's a Common of about 5lb but it's all over, I'm snagged up and again the hooklink gives out.

After much swearing I cast out with a new float and hooklink and am straight away into another fish. Smaller than the one I'd just lost it still puts up a spirited fight on it's way to the net. I'm not entirely sure what species this Carp is though. Unfortunately the photo is blurred because my iPhone was now covered in all sorts of much and it's distorted the colour slightly too. It looked like either a mirror or leather Carp but was much much paler than it appears in the photo with a slight pinkish hue. I know this lake stocks Common, Wild and Ghost but I'm not sure about Leather or Mirror, I've not caugt either from this lake before. Could it be a Ghost Carp? I though Ghost Carp where a sub species of the Common Carp though? This Carp also had strange marking around it's head with black blotches over it and around it's eyes.


Eager to get back out I threw out more loose offerings and the float landed in the perfect position but before I had even had a chance to close the bail arm a Carp had picked up the hook and was pulling line off the reel. As I was so close to the brambles it was already too late by the time I struck and a few seconds later the Carp cleverly transferred the hook from it's lip onto some bramble roots and in trying to free it the line snapped and yet another float was lost!

I now only had one loaded float left in my float box and so on that went this time I decided that I would change my hooklink from 7lb (my mainline was 8lb) to 10lb just to see if that would have better resistance to the brambles. Out I cast and yet again instantly the float disappears and I strike into another Carp. The 10lb hooklink seems to be working as I quickly am able to steer it into the net.


By now the light is really starting to fade and I know I have to be off the lake by dusk so I only have a few minutes left and cast back out as quickly as I could. Instantly another strong bite but when I strike the Carp has already made it to the brambles and the hookink, all 10lb of it, snaps.

I should have packed up at this stage but who could not resist another cast when the fish are feeding like crazy? So on goes another hooklink, out goes the float and down it goes and yet another Carp takes a liking for my hookbait. Yet again I strike into yet another Carp but then it's a repeat performance of an earlier lost fish. I'm desperately applying side strain and the hook pulls, the float whips back across the lake and embeds itself deep into the over hanging brambles. Yet another float lost and as I now don't have any loaded floats, it's well and truly dusk and my wrist is sprained from all the fighting I decided to call it a day but what a day!

None of these Carp are big, the biggest was no more than 4lb but what they lacked in size they made up for in spirit. It's just so exciting having to cast so close to snags that every Carp in the lake knows like the back of their fins and knowing that you can't give them an inch. It's like trying to stop a Formula One car from leaving the starting grid! Although I'm tired today I already can't wait to go back.

[dave fish]

great report enjoyed reading it well done on the carp but comiserations on all the lost gear,tight lines

[BoldBear]

Great report and Pictures. I enjoyed reading it too.
Sorry about all of your lost floats but it was well worth it for such sport wasn’t it.

[troutchops]

What a fantastic report, I couldn't help but laugh over the amount of gear you lost though as like many others I have experienced it myself on many occasions.

[pingu]

cracking session there well done

dave

[dukela]

well done!