Decided last night on a session today at the usual commercial, on a swim where Tim and I used to fish and discuss all things for all men. Still, he's enjoying Welsh tench nowadays so just me - and The Smiths, after a serious downloading sesh yesterday also.
I know this swim, which is the start of a spoon shaped bowl at the end of a long lake, will produce to small cubes of meat as indeed all the lakes at this fishery do but, though I had plenty of them with me, I opted for prawn as my main line of attack. This because I've never taken this stance before and I'm also still in awe of gtaran's big perch and Peter's competition and its entries.
So, the usual Drennan Acolyte Carp pole and a ready tied rig I found whilst clearing my box out. A Middy carp rig with a .4g float, 9lb main down to a 12 on 7.8lb trace. It looked quite a wide gape hook and at home with prawns.
After potting in some chilli hemp, some vanilla flavoured corn, a few 8mm spam cubes and a handful of red maggots, I sent the prawn out. Would have liked some Aldi bacon cubes too, definitely should get some for next trip out.
In the far side branches, a tiny wren began singing. It was beautiful, I could listen all day. Having sung its best, its search for a mate obviously took it elsewhere. I hoped it would come back but hoped even more it was successful in its quest.
The next interesting diversion was a tourist-angler who stopped for a chat and to ask any advice. I mentioned the small cubes of Spam, handed some over and duly noted what looked like a healthy bend in his rod. I hope it helped.
After half an hour and just two very gentle jags of the float, it finally went under with a definite, and unmissable, stab. The elastic shot out and the fish powered off, feeling good and strong. After a good scrap which needed some careful handling on the top three, I netted a mirror around the 7lbs mark. A nice start, pleasing. It had churned up the far bank swim beautifully, turning it into liquid chocolate, milk at a guess.
I poured out a coffee and went back out to the same spot, same bait - different prawn, mind - the previous example being squashed to a paste.
In the next 45 minutes, two more mirrors, a 2 and a 3, took and were landed without too much fuss but, as bites were not exactly hectic, I also set up a light top three with maggot on an 18 just to see what might be close in. I held it in place with a bank stick and a couple of small roach soon put in a show.
A small skimmer around 4oz also took the maggot and I did think about fishing it alone but, no, I came to use prawns so back out with a solid frame of mind.
Another straight under dive and, again, a definite carp. It powered off and, though I tell myself I don't always like carp fishing, I was enjoying it today, immensely.
This one really did put up a terrific fight and, I'd guess, took 10-15 minutes to subdue. It turned out to be a real old scarred warrior just on double figures.
The visiting angler from earlier come to say goodbye and thank you and arrived just in time to witness its netting. The meat had done its usual for him and, again, in the same old way, I mentioned he could get a meat cube and riddle from the site shop. If he did, it would be about the fifth or sixth I've "sold" there.
It's funny how often angling makes eejits out of us, innit?? Back out and the next carp was half a pound, if that. It didn't look big enough to attack a prawn but obviously had done.
More coffee, an RAF C130 Hercules straining at low level and a bag of reed warblers came to pass.
Two more quick carp, one around 1lb 8oz and the other circa 4lbs, no perch yet but I was living in hope. I've had small perch out of this lake and, have to confess, was tempted to wander over to the shop and ask which lake held the biggest perch (that and whether they'd sold a meat cutter that morning) but I resisted the urge.
Back out and the float nudged an inch, then several, then dropped in an instant. A lovely bite and I'm so glad I didn't miss it, I really wanted to know the cause. The fish made off but didn't feel like it had the solid power of a carp, it's a perch, it must be, be still my beating heart but, no, a bronze bin lid flapped to the surface and was slowly and carefully slid into the waiting net. Around 3lbs, my biggest bream for a few seasons.
The carp seemed to have arrived in pairs today but this time it was three in quick succession, a mid 2, a mid 3 and the last around 5lbs.
I then decided that the absolutely gorgeous vanilla smell of the corn deserved a run out so put a grain on which looked a tad undergunned so doubled it which looked a lot better and back out.
Two more small carp quickly fell to that, both around the 3lbs mark and I scaled down to one grain which brought a roach, an absolutely mint conditioned silver ingot, around 12oz.
Such a lovely fish was a great place to call a halt and, even though no perch today, I'd really enjoyed this session and it felt like it would make going back to work easier.
On arriving home, it was grocery shopping and the first item hunted down was the bacon lardons.
The pole and kit cleaned and put away, I felt I'd earned the steak pie and chips and mushy peas I opted for. She even brought me a big mug of tea. I was worried, this didn't look good. She'd found and bought another duvet and pillow case set she liked, personally I thought it was hideous but kept quiet. I mean, if I'm asleep I'm not really going to be looking at it, am I?
She'd also found an angler's diary which was basically a lined pad but which would help me carry on recording the fish on sessions like today's so I couldn't complain. She's usually a good old girl and doesn't give me much cause for complaint. A better taste in duvets would be nice but you can't have perfection, can you??
Adieu, until we meat (sic) again.....
