Firstly, my apologies to the Concept Carping Camo Cousin (see link below to ‘What A Way To Start’) for what he thought was a one sided attack on him for forgetting this, that and the other, when in truth I have less to remember than him and failed to bring the milk and butter on our last outing, so percentage wise I suppose I forgot more.
Secondly, many thanks to Graham for adding picture of bivvy couch potato, contrary to those who know me and my size this is not me I hasten to add.
Anyway, on with the story. A worse weekend could not have been picked weather-wise with the first frosts of the backend of the year forecast. We got off to a flyer as well on the outward journey, having to return to the Camo Cousin’s house only once as he had forgot to set the video for the football and rugby.
No problems with Bedford this time and Manor Farm nr. Sandy was reached in good time, fees were paid and on the advice of Tracey we headed for the car bank, our intended swim on the opposite bank being taken (luckily the angler in it did not catch all weekend so we did feel bad about that).
On choosing our shared swim we set about putting up the bivvy. This job is getting easier with practise and we we’re soon setting up the rods. We knew we had to contend with weed on this bank, but the Camo Cousin’s attempts at finding clear patches with his feature finder and marker were pointless, as by the time the feature finder had been dragged in to a clear spot it was holding that much weed you wouldn’t have known if you hit a clear spot. So the chuck it and chance it approach was settled for on the first night.
I decided for two fairly marginal spots, one straight out and the other to my right. Darkness fell and like two naughty kids we were in our respective beds by 7pm. At 11.55pm I was woken by a somewhat half-hearted set of beeps on my indicators and on reaching the pod the line on the right hand rod had been pulled off the indicator and the swinger was moving somewhat lethargically.
Lifting into what I hoped would be something special I was let down as the fish was already wallowing on the surface; a bream on a Frank Warwick Dynamite Baits Pineapple Pop-up. Ah well, it was a start. The ‘bream’, on nearing the net and waking up, turned out to be a mirror carp and put up a little scrap before being netted. It weighed somewhere in the region of 6-8lbs and was quickly unhooked and returned. And so did I, feeling a little cold and returning to the warmth of my bed.
There were no more disturbances through the night and at 8.00am I was awake. We removed ourselves from our pits to find a white frost-covered bivvy, a temperature of minus 2 being recorded the previous night.
The angler on the point was already busy spodding out his bait, while the Camo Cousin set about his too – with one slight difference: the angler on the point was hooking into fish as fast as he was spodding.
Apparently, before we had arrived on Friday he had already had two 20’s, and his total for the weekend was 33 carp from 10-25lbs, the old fruit-flavoured boilie popped up and sweetcorn a plenty (he took 48 cans of the stuff) doing the damage.
Not wanting to spod I set up a groundbait mix of sweetcorn, maple peas and Vitalin; 18 balls of the stuff to be exact. Whether the carp would have liked this concoction I don’t know as before I had a chance to cast out two bloody swans decided to stick their butts in the air at me and polish off the free dinner I had put out. Anglers moan about cormorants, flipping swans are worse, that’s the second time this season they have scoffed my bait.
The day passed for us without any indication of fish and again by 7pm me and the Camo Cousin were tucked up in our respective beds. To pass away the time like little kids we played a version of I-spy called ‘I hear with my little ear and who am I’. It was fun.
No frost that night, but it was damp and we awoke to a dull and overcast day, the previous day being sunny yet cold. As the day before the young lad on the point was busy spodding and catching. We thought it was going to be chuck it and chance it day again, but something was different.
The change in light values and the clarity of the water showed up all the clear spots within our range and almost every other clear patch on the lake bed. I had decided to stick with my chuck it and chance it, trying to get as close but without interfering with the line of the lad on the point.
The Camo Cousin scalded some pellets and made up a groundbait mix which he deposited in the nearest clear patch and during the final couple of hours of our visit he had a few indications of fish in his swim. Not surprising really, as we were counting them in and out of his swim and at one point he had about 18 fish in there, but none were interested in the hookbait.
As we packed up I saw two fish in the clear patch, one being a definite 20.
With rain forecast we wanted to get everything away before it started, but we failed. I hate packing up and in the rain it’s worse.
It was a fruitless but enjoyable weekend and there were no disasters. We picked a few tips up along the way, one of them being that observation is a must for future outings.
If November is a mild one then we will be back again, if not, roll on 2003.
A few shots were taken to go with this feature, but I lost the film.
