An Uncommon Common

I don’t normally publicise my UK carp catches, but Graham haspromised to open his (in)famous wallet and buy me a pint, so heregoes.

The Lake – A Right Ball-Buster

The lake in question is about 40 acres in size, there are nounderwater features or islands, the whole lake bed is covered insilkweed and the rest of the lake is blighted with floating weed.There is no night fishing, you are only allowed to fish from about300 yards of the bank, and the carp stock is virtually unknown, butthought to be about a dozen fish or so.

There are probably more than 300 ducks on the lake, so any bait isimmediately descended on and the last carp to be caught from therewas in September 1999!

Couple all that with the fact that it is a long way from where Ilive and you may start to question my sanity.

Sounds like a right ball-buster doesn’t it?

So Why Do I Fish It?

You may ask why I fish a lake that has practically no carp in itand where one hasn’t been caught for two years.

It’s simple really, because it’s not an easy venue and because ofthe restrictions, most of the time it is completely devoid ofanglers.

Also, when you do get it right, it really is a triumph.

Contrary to what some people say, I do actually work, and Saturdaynight was the start of four 12-hour nightshifts for me. So I decidedto pre-bait the lake on the way to work for the four nights and thento fish it when I left work on the Wednesday morning.

Because of the distance involved this means leaving home at about5.30 each evening, so I could get to the lake, bait up and then getto work by 8pm.

The pre-bait was my usual Vitalin mix

Pour a large amount of Haiths Red Band into a bowl, mix in agenerous amount of trout pellets and then cover them with copiousamounts of boiling water. The trout pellets dissolve and you are leftwith pellet and aniseed smelling particles. I then mix the Vitalininto this and form cricket ball sized groundbait balls, I then putall these into a bowl and freeze them.

I freeze them for two reasons; one, I find that Vitalin goescrumbly several hours after it is made and the freezing stops this.Two, the duck population are unable to make any headway on the frozenballs when I chuck them in. They soon thaw out in the water leavingthe bait on the lakebed for the fish. Also, the silver fishpopulation soon clear away Vitalin if the carp don’t find it.

Two Spots Were Baited

I baited two spots about 30 yards apart with 12 balls of bait ineach spot on Saturday, Sunday and Monday night. Tuesday night I putonly five balls in each spot. I also put a pouch of tigers and aboutsix boilies over each spot every night. I baited with the tigers andboilies because if the silver fish finished all the groundbait, therewould still be some food about for the carp.

I arrived about 9 o’clock on Wednesday morning and the weather wasstill, but damp.

As usual there were ducks everywhere and no anglers. I cast to mypre-baited spots and sat back in a sleep-depraved haze.

As usual, nothing happens all day and at about 4pm I’m thinking ofpacking up. I start to tidy away my gear and I grab my catapult toput a pouch of tigers over each spot before I leave.

Then The Action Starts……….

As I start to load the pouch my left hand rod knocks and the alarmemits a couple of bleeps.

I drop the ‘pult and stand over the rod, thinking, hoping, prayingthat this may be my day.

For several minutes nothing happens and just as I begin to relaxagain, my other rod squawks into life and the indicator drops to thedeck. I stare in disbelief at the line going slack at the rodtip.

Something clicks in my befuddled mind, “IT’S A DROPBACK! HITIT! HIT IT!”

Reactions take over and I cup the spool and sweep the rod over myright shoulder, 40 yards out in the lake, the fish rises instantly tothe surface and kicks up a swath of spray as it tries to tail-walk.

My initial thoughts are saying it’s a pike (I’d taken my glassesoff as I was tired and I couldn’t really see any detail) so I bendinto the fish and start to bully it in.

I know it’s a decent fish because the ‘Springate’ has got a goodbend in it and the fish keeps taking line, my thinking is that if Ican get it in quickly it might not bite through my hook length and Ican claim a good pike.

The fish is kiting to the left and goes over my left hand rod, soI step over the other rod and continue to draw the fish closer to thebank. About 8 or 10 feet from the bank it breaks surface and my jawdrops, my legs turn to jelly and I start mumbling, “it’s a bigcommon, it’s a big common.”

I drop the landing net in the edge and attempt to draw the fishover it after a few heart rending surges, the carp finally comes overthe net cord but I’m unable to lift the net because it has filledwith floating weed and the fish powers off again. I finally clear thenet and the fish sinks into the folds.

It’s a good clean hook hold, well back in the mouth. I apply someKlinic and drop her into a sack and stake her out in the deepmargins. I don’t normally sack fish, but this was a special one and Ineeded some photos. A quick phone call later and my mate, who alsofishes the lake, is speeding his way towards me.

Wet the sling and zero the scales, up she goes and the needlesettles at 30lb and 8 ounces.

A quick photo shoot and back she goes, looking awesome and huge inthe water.

I saw my personal mountain and decided to climb it, now I feel Ihave reached the summit.

Can things possibly get any better?