Coarse
Having had to do a few odd jobs around Château D'Otis in the morning, it was gone lunchtime when I finally managed to sneak off to the local club lake for a few hours fishing.
Arriving just after lunch I found just two of the 20 or so pegs in use, unfortunately both of the two pegs I'd fancied. The glorious weather of late had taken its toll and a good 6 inches of water had been removed from the lake since the previous week, which meant several of the pegs were a lot more fishable than before. (It's worth pointing out that the lake is used for irrigation purposes by the local farmer, so changed of this type are not uncommon and have little effect on the fishing).
A quick chat with the two anglers revealed a rather dire state of affairs - no fish so far. Both admitted to having hooked and lost a couple each, but no carp on the bank sounded somewhat ominous. The guy on the one fairly open peg was just about to pack up, so I decided I would move in as he left.
As I walked past I could here some squeaking noises from the long grass to the back of the peg… so off I went to investigate. Expecting to see very little, or at most a field mouse I pleasantly surprised to see a baby stoat (about the size of a sausage) galloping away into the undergrowth, closely followed to two more babies, temporarily oblivious to my presence, tumbling out of the long grass engaged in their own play, no more than 2 feet from my trainers, before they too disappeared from sight. Whether I caught or not, that would be something to remember about the trip. No photos of mine I'm afraid - but here's a picture for those of you who've never seen a stoat.
Anyway, back to the car, grab the gear and the setting up process began. The lake is a bit of a snag fest at times - I'd chosen one of the wider pegs
(probably 8 metres wide) - but like most of the pegs there are large submerged trees on both the left and right of the peg, extending some 10 metres or so out
into the lake. Hence the carp have plenty of natural cover and are more than aware of the location of the snags. Strong tackle is a necessity to say the
least.
Opening approach was to cup in a good pot full of 4mm coarse pellets dead ahead at 11 metres and the same at 11 metres at an angle to the left about a metre from where the lower branches of the tree entered the water. Whilst they settled I started to set up a pole rig from scratch - experience has taught me at this venue that by the time I've got my rig ready the fish may have found the bait and settled down.
For the pendants amongst you, the rig was a 1.5g Drennan Carp 7 float on 0.20mm Smart Genesis line (approx 10lb b.s.) shotted with 3 BBs and 1 No.6 straight through to a size 8 Drennan barbless carp feeder hook. This was matched with no 22 solid elastic on the pole, set fairly slack. (Please note, this is not tackle for lah-lahs J ). The float is set so that the entire bristle is showing - this is important to be able to tell a liner from a real bite, given the depth and rareness of bites, its important not to spook fish at this lake from striking at liners.
A quick plumb around found about 14 foot of water on the open water line and just a few inches left of the line by the tree. This makes the rig about the length of the top 4 pole sections.
I had brought three main baits with me, 11mm expanders, some halibut pellet paste and some luncheon meat. Usual tactics is to rotate through the baits on the day and see what happens, then to persevere with whichever is most successful. Hope was that the bream would move in the feed and maybe the odd carp might show as well.
The response from the two swims was far from immediate. There were no signs of fizzing in the swims and no action at all. After about 30 mins there were a few bubbles by the tree on the left, so I repositioned the rig to this swim and had a couple of quick knocks. These were almost certainly liners, an inevitable consequence of using a large bait, but at least it suggested the odd fish was about.
I re-baited with a fresh expander pellet and shipped out to the tree swim and then finally the pole float bobbed for a moment and then buried in a single movement. I struck in a fairly robust manner, and 8 foot of bright yellow elastic emerged from the pole tip. One of the lake's resident carp had taken the bait. The fish charged off towards the centre of the lake (away from the tree) and about 20 foot of elastic came out of the pole tip. I pulled round to the right and the fish held as the elastic started to kick in. The fish slowed and then is started to arc round to the left towards the tree. I applied as much force as I dare, as the fish turned under the branches of the tree. I change the angle of the pole and the fish headed back out into the open water, where again it charged off with more elastic in tow.
I held on for what was not very long and started then to ease the pole backwards. The fish was clearly tiring from its earlier elastic stretching exploits and as I got to the top 4 sections of the pole I could sense I was starting to tire and a combination of gentle pressure brought the fish within netting range. And then, within barely 4 minutes of hitting the bite, a very pleasant common lay in the landing net. A quick transfer to the unhooking mat and a weigh confirmed a common carp of 15lb 10oz. Not a bad start.
A moment to catch my breath and then it was back to it. Swapping between swims and rotating baits produced the odd liner until about an hour later a bite on the luncheon meat on the open water swim produced a limited fight from a bream of 5lb 8oz.
Back to fishing and it all went quiet for a while, there were odd fish cruising by from time to time, including several of the lake resident ghosties, and there was evidence of the odd fish higher in the water from the strange sideways drags on the float, but no real indications that up in the water might be worth a go.
Then from no-where a bite on meat as the bait dropped through the water resulted in a brief loss of fish as the hook was shed, suggested a shallower approach might pay dividends. I set up a shallow rig (about 6 feet deep with the weight round the float) and was about to give it a go when one last put in on the deep rig saw the float shoot sideways under the tree at high speed. I applied extreme side pressure and buried the top of the pole deep under the water to try to keep the fish down. And, thankfully the tactic paid off and the fish gradually arced out to the middle of the lake where I could resume a more normal fight.
The fish would not settle down as it churned away in the upper layers of the water, but by gentle application of force, and repeated power applied to the right as it attempted to burrow into the roots on the left I finally managed to ease the carp into the landing net. The result? A modest mirror carp that went 10lb on the scales, but compared to the common, a much harder fight.
A switched to the shallow rig, similar to the main one, but a smaller float and tighter elastic, impaled a piece of meat on the hook and dropped it in the swim by the tree. The float was still lying horizontally on the water when it zipped off towards the tree and another carp was on. Despite the strong elastic and the huge sidestrain applied via the pole (which was distinctly banana shaped at the time) the carp made it under the snags. I kept the pressure on, but all went solid. Sometimes you can feel grating on the line, sometimes you can feel a dull thump to indicate your quarry is still on, but this was solid.
I pushed the pole back towards the tree and let all the tension off. Nothing happened. I tried a few different angles. Nothing happened. I think this was one to chalk up to experience. I started to ship the pole back and ponder the inevitable consequences of having to pull for a break on sturdy tackle. I was just a hands length away from reaching the top 3 so I could start to set up for a proper pull without risking the pole when it pulled clear of the snag. Well that was a relief, and what's more the fish was still on! I hastily applied pressure and the fish lolloped out from the tree and hung in the upper layers of the water. I applied upwards pressure on the pole, grabbed the landing net and within a minute a hefty common carp was in the net.
Up to the unhooking mat grab the scales a quick weigh confirmed the size of the fish. All 18lb of it! A neighbourly angler kindly took some photos for me before the fish was returned unharmed to water lair.
Despite my best efforts that was the last fish on the drop during the day. I had the hook pull out of a few more fish later on as the fizzing in the swim
became more regular as the fish seemed to be getting ready for a later feed. I managed one small common of 9lb off the bottom as the light level faded, to
finish with 5 fish for 58lb - not bad when you consider most anglers on the lake have been blanking.
Although slow by some standards, I had a thoroughly pleasant afternoon. I'd had a chat with a couple of nice carpers who were setting up as I left, I'd seen some baby stoats playing (if only briefly), I'd seen the lapwings flying excitedly in the field behind me, watched as the long-tailed tits dived between the trees in the peg and caught a fish or two, and enjoyed the fresh air and pleasant sun… you know, I'm not sure it gets any better than this.
