My main aim for September had been to have another concerted effort to catch a monster bream from the massive Cambridgeshire pit that has been the venue for the vast majority of my big bream related angling over the last few years.
Previously I’d fished it hard during both the spring and autumn periods regardless of the weather conditions. This single-minded approach can sometimes yield rewards on the difficult, low-stocked venues but it can also lead to some incredibly slow fishing that can feel more like a series of complicated camping trips rather than fishing sessions, especially once the blanks start to add up. This autumn my bream sessions on the big pit were to be a little more measured and I was only going to fish the place when the conditions looked favourable.
Twice during the month I arrived at the big pit for a bream session in reasonable conditions, only to end up fishing for a single night before the wind switched and the conditions changed. Sticking to my plan I therefore packed up and headed off to the Bluebell Lakes Complex to fish for the carp; making the most of my available fishing time, rather than sticking it out for the bream on the big pit when conditions looked pretty much hopeless. I did manage one slightly longer session for the bream, but the results were the same and yet another ‘blank’ was chalked up on the scoreboard…
The recommendation of many carpers, and my own results over the years, suggest that September is one of the best months to fish for carp. Fortunately this year proved to follow the pattern and provided me with a few nice fish that got the indicators moving and the alarms sounding now and then.
I’d focussed my carp fishing efforts over the summer months on Swan Lake on the Bluebell Complex, so that was where I headed for during September when it wasn’t worth trying for the bream. Not surprisingly I was hoping for one of the lake’s larger residents, but while I continued to land a few fish, the proper ‘chunks’ continued to elude me.
My best session during this period saw three fish coming to the landing net, the largest a mirror of 26lb. The prettiest fish by far would have been a nicely scaled mirror of 22lb plus, but the fish’s looks were marred by the obvious signs that the fish had been tethered up for a period of time.
As I’ve mentioned in a couple of my previous monthly updates, Swan Lake has been heavily weeded this year, which seems to have caught out a number of people that have fished the venue. As the complex is open to day tickets, there are people of very mixed experience and capability fishing the various lakes, but despite being out of their depth with the weed on Swan, some people have stubbornly fished the pit, no doubt overcome by the temptation of the huge fish that the lake contains.
Unfortunately this has led to a disproportionate amount of unsafe angling, a number of line breakages and associated tackle and fish loses, with the evidence highlighted by the damage to the previously tethered carp that I caught.
As you can see from the accompanying photos, the corner of the carp’s mouth was badly torn, where the hook from the gear that had tethered it up had clearly been in place for some time before the fish had managed to tear itself free. This area had subsequently become infected, so the whole corner area looked a real mess. It was also obvious that line had been wrapped around the right-hand pectoral fin area and had rubbed the flesh from behind the fin itself and on the flank area where the fin joins the body. With more damage and raw flesh visible on the belly and even some around the dorsal, it was obvious that the fish had been wrapped in line and tethered up for a worrying period and had been lucky to escape with its life.
Once it was on the mat I thoroughly treated its injuries with the appropriate carp care products and released it, hopefully to continue with the healing process.
Obviously the odd main line breakage and tackle/fish loss is impossible to eliminate entirely and it happens to all of us occasionally. However, extra care needs to be taken in weedy conditions so as not to put the fish under unnecessary risk.
Simple common sense should be the first consideration, and fortunately most of the guys that I’ve spoken to that have come onto Swan Lake and have been worried about the extent of the weed growth have either decided to swap to a less weedy venue on the complex or have taken some advice on how to cope with the weed.
However, not everyone has been quite so sensible and some dubious practices have taken place. I’m really not one for confrontation but when I’ve witnessed some of the more dangerous practices and have been in a position to offer some well-meaning advice, I’ve taken it upon myself to do so. Unfortunately during the session where I caught the previously tethered mirror I had to take it a stage further and took it upon myself to simply tell a couple of guys to stop what they were doing.
The two lads arrived to find the lake busy, with not many good swims available that were relatively clear in terms of visible weed growth. They obviously wanted to fish in adjacent swims and started to cast a marker rod about in the two empty swims to my right. These two swims hadn’t been fished for some time, the reason being the vast amounts of weed that were present, with a huge weed bed, starting about 20m from the bank and going out to between 45m and 70m, stretching right across the swims and continuing off to the right, all the way to the non-fishing bank. Most of the weed bed was growing right up to the surface, with virtually no clearer areas in between and plenty of weed on the bottom between the bank and the main weed bed. The only sensible/safe option in these swims would be to try and find some clearer areas either before, or at the front edge, of the main weed bed and fish at short range.
It seemed to me that fishing into the weed bed, or attempting to fish over it, even using lead release systems, would pretty much guarantee that if a carp was hooked, it would end up stuck solid somewhere in the weed.
After a few minutes of dragging massive clumps of weed in with their marker rod and chucking out over the top of the big weed bed in order to find some clear patches, one of the lads came over to express his dismay at the amount of weed present and seemed to be looking for some advice regarding what they should do.
I sympathized, but recommended that if they wanted to fish together in adjacent swims, then they might be better off looking at one of the quieter pits on the complex, or at least looking at some of the other areas around the lake that weren’t impacted by the weed to such an extent.
The lad making the initial enquiry seemed to think that this was reasonable advice but his mate, who had now joined us and was listening in to the conversation, just snorted as if I’d suggested something ludicrous and stomped off back to their marker rod gear.
After they’d had a few minutes discussion amongst themselves, the lad who had snorted at my suggestion picked up the marker rod and started casting it out again, this time going even further out and fanning his casts further round to both the right and left, so that some were even landing way out in front of me, rather than in the swims they were standing in. I tried my best to ignore this bad-mannered behaviour, but with the memory of the previously tethered fish still fresh in my mind it proved difficult.
Eventually, as the ill-mannered lad’s casting became ever more extreme and he started being shouted at by some of the guys in the swims opposite, into whose swims he was now casting into, I finally lost my patience and told him to stop what he was doing and clear off. Fortunately they finally took notice and moved off to the other end of the lake where there were several empty swims and less weed.
Fortunately the times when I’ve had to resort to a verbal ‘having a go’ are few and far between, but worryingly I’m told that unsafe angling practices and plain bad manners are becoming an increasingly common occurrence on some waters. Obviously fishery managers and bailiffs need to do their part in terms of suggested codes of conduct and a reasonable enforcement of the same where possible, but perhaps a more effective solution would be if anglers in general became more intolerant of the worst behaviour and became more willing to highlight issues when they occurred?
Perhaps the angling media could also play its part and do more to promote good practice and to criticize the more obvious wrongdoing? We seem to have come a long way in terms of rig awareness and safety, perhaps it’s now time to provide more focus on the general aspects of anglers’ conduct and behaviour?
I’m hoping that I can simply concentrate on my fishing and have less concerns about my fellow anglers next month. Whatever happens I’ll give you an update shortly.
Until then… happy fishing!
