OK Decision Made, I’m Going Fishing at the Weekend

That’s it, decision made.

“I’m fishing at the weekend.”
“Take one of the kids with you.”
“Nope, they only get in the way”
“Why is it always me left with the kids?”

So to shut her up, I took the middle one.

Jake knew the decision was 3am on the Saturday morning. But when I woke him up and told him we were going fishing, I don’t think he knew what was happening, being more interested in sleeping. Finally after getting him up and ready, we got underway, heading to Mill farm fisheries, about an hours drive from us, stopping on the way to pick up my brother.

First fish of the day for young Jake

As the day warmed up the fish were on the top but not really interested in feeding, and Jake started to get bored, until he had a run and after lifting into the fish and handing him the rod, he landed a nice little carp of about 4lbs, his first big fish. Another followed this, which at the last moment slipped the hook at the net. Then only 30 minutes later, after a little scrap, he landed another slightly bigger fish.

Second fish, this one slightly bigger

To say this recent action made up for the small quiet patch we had earlier, is an understatement, and the excitement kept him awake till about 3pm, when after a few hours of landing a few smaller fish, he crashed out.

As the sun started to disappear behind the nearby hills the fish started to feed and every few minutes we could hear alarms going off, and after both my brother and myself landing 2 fish each we woke Jake, just as his rod screamed off. He wasn’t happy about being woken up, but landed the fish and then refused to have his photo taken (little sod, not the biggest fish of the day but a nice looking one).

His rod was rebaited with corn and cast out to an area we had been baiting all day and after about 10 minutes he had a massive bite that pulled the rod tip around 90degrees. I grabbed the rod as he was a little slow and set the hook. Then kneeling down beside held him and the rod as line screamed off the reel.

To understand the next bit you need to know a bit about Jake. He is 7 years old but small for his age, and when holding the rod he tends to stick the butt on the floor between his legs. After about 15 minutes the fish was tiring and came to the surface, at this point I moved my hand off the rod, but held it about 3inches in front just in case.

11 1/2lb common for Jake, fish of the day!

One look at us and the fish was off again, yanking the rod tip down and the butt up, at that point I couldn’t tell if his noises were excitement from seeing the fish, or pain. Another 10 minutes and finally the fish was in the net.

I don’t think I need to say what he felt as the picture says it all. A lovely 111/2 lb common, not massive maybe, but he was chuffed. He then went on to follow it up with a 4lb Tench from the same spot.

4lb Tench to follow