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Sitting around the lake at Snetterton on the FISHINGmagic Charity Carp Match bash, Lee (my son), Cecil and Thrush decided to go back and fish the rest of the week on the North Met which is a local Lee Valley Park water.
So after a slow pack up they travelled the 101 miles to the lake and after a walk round they picked swims, Thrush and Cecil picking two new swims that have been built on an island with a wooden walkway for access and Lee went into a swim with a island and channel in front of him.
Nothing happened until 4.30pm on the Thursday when Lee lost a fish on his right hand rod. After a bit of swearing he rebaited and recast the 30yds to the corner of the island. The North Met is a very hard water so losing a fish could be the only action for weeks. But that was not to be, at 2am on the Friday his right hand rod screamed off again and after a fight that lasted a good 20 minutes he landed the fish and gave out a shout of delight. Thrush heard it and so he went running to Lee’s swim.
They weighed the fish at 40lb 8oz, some pictures were taken in the dark but they sacked the fish just in case they could get some better pictures in daylight. I got the 5am phone call and rushed down to the lake (1/2 mile from my house). On the way I get a phone call, “Don’t go straight on at the lake, turn left and Nathan (another one of Lee’s mates) is at the lake and playing a fish”. On turning left I arrived just in time for the weighing of Nathan’s fish, 38lb 4oz, so I took a load of photos and saw the fish safely back.
Then Lee’s 40lb 8oz was photographed and put back and I went off to work. It was all quiet until 1am on Saturday when Lee’s middle rod screamed off and after another real hard fight Lee had another big mirror on the bank. This one was known as ‘Two Tone’ and by now Fat Alex had arrived to help (turned up in the next swim on Friday afternoon). They weighed Two Tone at 35lb 8oz. On Saturday Lee was celebrating with a couple of beers and said to Cecil “have a couple of hours in my swim, I’m not fishing until tonight.” In jumped Cecil, quicker than Wol can drink wine, and within 10 minutes had a screaming run. He hit it, played it for about 15 minutes, netted it and then watched the big mirror dump the scales round to 36lb 8oz.
Lee started fishing again at 5pm, just as I got on the lake to do a night, and he let me into his swim, so I had my two rods to the left and he had his to the island. Just as I finished setting up, Cecil came round the corner with a 19lb common in his net that he had just stalked out of another swim, so more photos and another one safely back. At 1am Sunday morning Lee’s alarm woke me up and I had to scream at Lee to wake him. Not long afterwards another big fish was on the unhooking mat having it’s picture taken. This fish is known as Grissle and weighed in at 31lb. Early Sunday morning I was woken by a run on my left hand rod and landed a nice tench but not what I was after so a little bit upset I let it go and told it to go get me one of his big carp mates but it was not meant to be.
Lee and me packed up and went home Sunday lunch time, he was like a pig in sh*t, phoning everyone he knew. End of the story? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! My eldest boy, Ian, decided to do Sunday night in the swim Lee had left and after losing five fish let his mate have a go. He landed one of 37lb 10oz and Ian had a 31lb linear, 21lb 4oz common and 20lb 2oz mirror through the night. Just shows what happens when a lake turns on for a couple of days. |
