I have fished quite a few overnighters over the last few years but just recently I have completed my first proper session, an almost 4 day call to the bankside which culminated in a grand total of 13 bites and 12 fish. In my book I would call that grueling in the extreme, I had one solitary bite during daylight hours, the rest of the time was spent tying rigs, reading Lord of the Rings, drinking lemon tea or cooking meals for myself; hard, mind destroying tedium, the type of fishing that can make you ask the questions “what is this all about and why am I here?” It is also exactly the type of angling you need from time to time to cement the sport firmly in the psyche, to ensure you stop thinking like a ‘Joe Ordinary’ angler and evolve into a lean mean fishing predator that blends in with nature and can spot a catching opportunity a mile off. Day One So there I was on the bankside, the wife driving away into the distance leaving me on my own for three days of fishing, with the hopes of catching a 20lb carp or a double figure barbel, but with clandestine ambitions to get both. The weather is breezy and cold, the river is low and clear, not the type of conditions I would have chosen but we have to make do with what we have, beggars cannot be choosers. Maybe next week the warm rains of spring will fall and the river will rise and the clarity will be gone as the temperature of the river rises and rouses the semi-dormant fish to break fast and feed with a vengeance – not that it will have any bearing on my catch rates as the close season will be upon us and the only people on the banks will be walkers, cyclists, ornithologists and immigrants!
The rods I have chosen to fish with for the session are reflective of the main quarry of this session; twenty pound river carp, therefore the 1  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which supports our community.
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