As a little intro to this blog I wanted to say this is just a short one, mainly because I've not been out much latey & also its quite similar to previous blogs. Anyway let get on with the business in hand......
As the river season is well & truly gone, for the next few months at least & the weather picking up again, it's time to indulge in one of my favourite methods.
Digging out my barbel gear, small but strong hooks & my bucket of dog biscuits meant it's surface fishing time.
As I've said before, does it get more exciting than seeing a lump, just under the surface gobbling up mixers confidently in the margins & then make a b line for your hookbait, blissfully unaware that he's being watched. More often than not he'll move on to your hookbait & just stall, millimetres away for what seems like an age as your nerves jangle & the adrenaline starts to pump through your veins........
As you concentrate intensely & will the beast to take it, with rod in hand ready to strike like a coiled spring.
(Your mind is just waiting for the impending classic slurping noise & then all hell breaks loose, as the carp steams off looking for the closest cover, well that's the plan anyways)
Then he inexplicably turns away for no good reason & disappears back in to the murky depths never to be seen again, as you sit back, head in hands.
Arhhhhhhhhhh
It's almost as infuriating as mullet fishing but not quite.
But my word it's great when u get it spot on & that's basically why we go fishing,
"the anticipation & the thrill of the chase"
Before you say anything I know, I stole the above line from the great carp man Mark Pitchers, but I really feel it's sums up how we all feel about fishing & that's what brings us back to the waters edge week after week after week.
I must also add that I also enjoy the unknown, fishing a wild lake or river where the fish don't have names, probably never been caught.
Not knowing just how big they might have grown & any second you could be attached to a fish of a lifetime.
With that thought in my mind I've found an old gravel pit that as far as I know doesn't get fished much, if at all, with some very nice tench & carp to well over 20lb+
I hope to be giving that a good bash over the coming summer months.
Ok so back to the story, I'm terrible at getting distracted.......
Just a quick few hours after work I hoped would be enough to entice a handful of carp to get feeding on the surface & in turn hopefully get a few on the bank to have their picture taken.
My chosen lake is a small & quiet day ticket place close to home, it's got plenty of fish to just over 20lb but the average is 6 to 11lb.
With some nice marginal bushes & trees for cover I made a b-line for the scum covered slacks in the corner of the lake, with the wind pushing quite hard into this bay I felt sure I'll find a few carp lurking in this area.
Three large handfuls of mixers were scattered about in this bay as I set up my rod. Free lining is always my preferred method if I'm fishing close in & I can get away with it. I had controller floats in my bag if the fish became spooky & fed more confidently out in the middle but I hoped I wouldn't need them.
After an hour of feeding & some gentle coaxing closer I felt ready for my first cast, with the wind in my face even just an underarm flick was going to be tricky. So I was proved right as my artificial mixer & hook flew straight into a tree !!!
As you can guess that was game over for a bit as my line snapped but I hastily got an other hook from my bag, luckily I hadn't spooked the fish & they were still feeding positively.
As I hastily tied on my esp size 10, the carp where luckly still feeding well with a few nice sized black shapes crusing just beneath the surface.
At this point I have a confession to make, I had my gopro ready mounted to my head but, as I can be at times extremely scaterbrained, unfortunately I had 45 mins of footage from earlier of me feeding carp, attaching myself to the aforementioned tree & my hook tying skills.
I assure it wasn't riveting stuff & to top it off the battery had died. I did have another battery ready charged but I just couldn't risk these fish moving of the feed with only a few hours of fishing time left.
I became focused on the fishing in hand, but I must be more disciplined in the future & I promise I'll have something worth watching sometime soon.
The next 10 minutes were unusually perfect, right out of the "surface fishing bible"
Three carp were feeding less than a foot from the bank & right under my feet, one of the three was a nice sized common.
So I slowly shuffled back up the bank on my back as quietly as possible, no doubt I looked like a right burk trying to itch my back at the time, but did I care ??
Just as I got in position I turned to see the better common sucking in a couple of biscuits & I speedily dropped my hookbait a foot in from of his nose....... He heard the plop & homed in on my bait, came right out of the water like a whale coming up for air to quickly grab the mixer before one of his fellow pals could get there.
Game on !!
He bolted off to the left where it shallowed off & headed for the reeds. As I felt the line ping off the vegetation & unseen lily pad roots many times as I prayed for a touch of luck.
After a minute of churning up the bottom & uprooting plenty more reeds & basically wrecking the swim, I gleefully scooped him up in the landing net, which was just about big enough for this long, lean & powerful carp.
Feeling a touch smug at how "text book" that went & although not a monster I gathered my nerves, unhooked the fish & rested it in the margins while I set my mini tripod up for a quick selfie.
I got myself organised & proceeded to get some half decent pics on my iphone using a brilliant little app called "auto camera" & a joby gorilla pod.
A scraper double but I was happy as Larry
As this swim was completely destroyed with all the commotion I moved round to another bay & proceeded to catch a couple more fish in a far less text book way with countless missed opportunities but I got there in the end.
I added three more carp to my tally, all of which were smaller than the first but scraped very well for their size.
With the gates shutting shortly I knew after I released fish four it was time to make a move & after an enjoyable four hours fishing but I will be back for the bigger ones, until the next time.....
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