Good Afternoon.

I am sat in a Leclerc car park so I can publish the latest post. It is not the most attractive place to be, but there are attractive females here so that is one bonus, more than at the river that’s for sure!!

Here is the update since my last post…..

I got back to my swim at around 8pm on the Tuesday evening. I needed to re-bait, and reposition the rods before darkness loomed in for the night so I had no time to spare. Mick asked how the walk was! “Oh it wasn’t that bad mate, about 2.5km. I tried to hitch a lift but no-one would stop for me probably because I was dressed in camouflage and trying to hitch along a secluded, narrow country lane. It must have been because I looked like a serial killer”, I said trying to keep a serious and straight face. “Oh good, it won’t take me long to get my van tomorrow then” he replied!!

On with the rods! I put two out on the far side again. One off a large tree with a large horizontal trunk on a gradual slope at about 9ft, and the other was placed further upstream on the drop off at 10ft. I baited with a few handfuls of boilies and a little of Mick’s maize and small particle mix he has bought with him. Mick has also got some pellet which he scalds with boiling water which then goes all fluffy. This can be moulded around your lead, which not only creates more weight allowing it to sink quicker and initially hold the bottom better, but it also gives off an extra cloud of attraction. I moulded a large ball of this around the lead on this particular rod, dropped it in position and returned to my swim as quickly as possible. There is an area in the section of river where the flow is actually quite strong and this does create a large bow in your line, but you just have to live with that. If a fish picks up your bait you will instantly know, due to the massive tension on the line, so it’s not a problem.

I have been doing a little mix and match with my Imperial Bait’s boilies and the Half ‘n Half hook baits. On this rod I put a Monster Liver Half ‘n Half combined with a Fruit 20mm bottom bait. Savoury yet sweet! On another rod I used the Elite Half ‘n Half combined with a Cream boilie and so on and so forth.

I had got the short rods done and casted from the bank and I could hear Mick still getting his sorted. It was time for a quick sit down and a read, and also time to get the kettle on for a coffee. After all that walking I was really quite tired. I am just glad someone had the heart to give me a lift for the last 4.5km!!

Out of nowhere came a complete one toner! The rod on the far side on the drop off had been successful and an angry carp was really going for it ripping line off the tightened baitrunner. This one obviously liked my tasty Imperial Bait’s combo! Due to the extra braid in the water from me to the fish, caused from the bow in the line, I was worried it might get into some snags on the far bank, so I couldn’t give an inch. It kept pulling hard and pulling me forward in the process, but I held firm and slowly I managed to get the fish away from the edge. It then started kiting upstream, so it was time to jump in the boat; quickly! I have a large tree to my right, which sticks out horizontally over the water for 25 yards, so it would have been very foolish to apply side strain. The fish would have kited into the edge on a tight line and I would have lost it in the snags. I needed to get out into the middle of the river and catch up with the fish.

By the time I caught up with it it had gone underneath one of Mick’s lines. It wasn’t a problem as I gently lifted it over my head as I went through it, and then the fish turned and went back downstream, so again I gently lifted Mick’s line as the fish passed underneath it. This is actually fairly easy as long as you don’t panic. Timing is the key, and you just need to be careful when you drop the other parties’ line back in the water making sure it does not catch on your boat motor control lever which sticks up vertically from the boat behind you. It is surprising how much stretch there is in line, even braid, and it shouldn’t even move the other person’s rig out of position if you do it carefully.

The fish I could see was a mirror carp, an old looking fish and very long and lean. I got him in the net first time, and Mick was waiting at the bank, when I returned to shore. This looked a slightly larger fish, although not a monster, but I expected most of the carp to be commons in all honesty and I was very pleased to catch a mirror so early on. I think I do actually have a favourite preference after all and it is the mirror carp variety.

The fish weighed 27lbs or 12.2kg and it had really beautiful patches of scales on its pale flanks. Just look at the pictures; this fish is built for a river and the shape of its head is slanted. What a stunner! It was a good start to the evening and Mick and I were in high hopes for more action. Mick likes to cook a little, although he does confess to being a tinned man. We ate Mick style and had corned beef hash with some fresh new potatoes, which were from my stocks, and not the farmer’s field I have to add! The food wiped us both out and we retired to our confines for a hopeful night of action.

At 1pm I had a chub from the other far side rod near the tree trunk. I dealt with the species and got ready to take the rod back out. I dropped it in position and returned to shore. I was just holding the rod, with the ridiculously taught braid and placing it in the rests when it tapped a few times, surely not another chub? No, it was a bream! Once again I got the rod back out and that was it for the night’s action for myself.

In the morning Mick wandered into my swim. It turned out he had had another small common around the 7kg mark at 4.30am. He had slipped it straight back, chucked the rod back out into the middle somewhere and got back into bed.

Once the boats start coming through at around 9am you have to reel in the far side rods. The boats don’t pass with much regularity; probably about one or two an hour, but it does mean fishing the far side in the day presents problems. Because of this I decided to fish all of the rods about ten yards in front of the channel that the boats use. Obviously the boats stir up the bottom and there is always a chance you can pick up a fish this way. Mick waved goodbye as he was off to get his van. “Enjoy the walk” I said!

I got the rods all done and fished with PVA bags of chopped and whole boilies. These were lobbed out without much fuss onto the gravelly/sand bar that runs out in front of my swim. This feature is about 10 yards wide and runs the length of my swim. As I ate a breakfast of 4 fried eggs with olive oil fried toast, one of my ATT alarms beeped and I heard the line pull out of the clip and I was in. Rather than have the fish plough around in the margins I opted for the boat and was very quickly over the fish. I could see it was another mirror and a very small one at that, with clearly visible spawn damage. A carp caught never the less and my plan worked. I did some quick self takes, as Mick was no doubt still walking to his van! It was turning into quite a hot day, and I was beginning to think that I should have persuaded him to take some water with him!!

At around 2.30pm Mick arrived back with his van. I walked to greet him with a cup of water and to see the look on his face. In actual fact I don’t think he even noticed the wind up at first until I started laughing and pointed out that after the initial walk of 2km to the junction with the signpost to the village, the signpost actually read 6km and not 1km as I had said. Mick had actually taken the optional footpath after the signpost which reduced the distance by 0.5km so in fact he had walked 7.5km. I could see the gears slowly clicking into place and then he realised the stitch up! For a moment there I thought he was a secret rambler and he actually enjoyed the long stroll. He explained once he finally got to his van, he sat in the back wiping his sweaty brow, recovering with some juice from the emergency stash in his van. I needn’t worry about repercussions as yesterday whilst filling up the dogs bowl with water from the river, I slipped and fell in up to my thighs soaking my trousers and boots in the process. Mick did not laugh but I know inside he was in hysterics!

The afternoon soon passed and we got our rods sorted. The far side rods were done first and it wasn’t long before we were nearly done. The last boats have been coming through at around 8pm, so we have been waiting another half an hour to be on the safe side before putting out the long rods. I just had one short rod to do when I heard a run from Mick’s swim. I took my camera down to photograph the action. The fish kited into the margin and went into some branches. He was going to need the boat it seemed. All of a sudden a late returning boat came into view going at full speed. Disaster! I had to run back to my rods to sink the tips and left Mick to contend with the catastrophe that was pending. As I approached my rods I heard two of Mick’s rods burst into life as the boat swept up the braid into its propeller. The driver was clearly in a rush to get back to his mooring and was going far too quickly. Most boats that have passed have had the decency to slow down when they have gone through our swims; most have waved and acknowledged us too which has been quite pleasant. This guy was talking on his mobile phone whilst driving the boat, and although he did slow down for a split second when he heard Mick’s anguished cries, he then pushed the accelerator lever up to full speed and carried on regardless.

By the time the boat passed through my swim which was seconds later, I had managed to sink my rod tips. I waited till the boat had passed and it seemed I had escaped. Then all of a sudden the clutches on both reels starting stripping line which was very strange as the lines were still pointing towards their dropped positions. Surely I didn’t have two runs at once after the wash from the boat? One rod stopped but the other one was still going so I grabbed the rod and there was definitely something pulling hard on the other end. I jumped into my boat and made my way quickly out. As I got near to the line I could see another line caught on mine. I then realised what had happened. The boat that had caught Mick’s lines had pulled one line complete with lead and rig through my swim. The problem was the length of line was about 50yards long so it appeared that the boat was well in the distance before it caught my lines, fooling me into thinking a carp was responsible. I managed to get Mick’s complete rig and loose braid back from the water and I then saw some more braid floating on the surface. This was his other cut line. At least two baited rigs and bundles of braid weren’t going to be left in the water, but what a complete nightmare it all was. We now had to redo all the rods again, and poor Mick had to re rig half his rods. The fish incidentally was landed and it was a common weighing about 8lbs!

I must admit I went to bed not feeling too confident of a take. The rods had been spot on before the lunatic in the late boat appeared from nowhere. River fishing does have its pitfalls and my relationship with rivers is one of love and hate! Surprisingly though I did have take at 4.30pm. I actually thought it was a chub but it turned out to be a carp; another small common and a shade under 10lbs at a guess. Mick also had a common carp at 7am and that one was slightly larger at about 14lbs. His fish came from the far side and mine came from the bar in front of me about fifteen yards out.

It is now 11am as I write this summary of the last couple of days. Tomorrow I have to leave this place and head for pastures new. There are various reasons for the early departure. We have caught eight carp now between us and the biggest one has weighed 27lbs. We are beginning to think that quite possibly we are in a small fish section. I am sure there are bigger carp in this stretch but out of those eight you would probably expect one to be a thirty? Also the mosquito problem is reaching crisis point, not only for us but also my poor dogs. Horse flies have also cropped up, and they seem to have taken a liking for poor old Flash. He keeps getting stressed by them, and we found a persistent one on him earlier and whenever we flicked it off him, it simply jumped/flew back on. In the end I grabbed it with my forceps and we burnt it on the coleman stove till it smoked and crackled. Finally I have some urgent things I need to sort out via email and without my connection I can’t do it from here. After having the internet for the last five months it really feels like there is something missing and I can’t function properly without it. I don’t use my mobile phone anymore as I can communicate with my laptop. I need my communication back! Plus I don’t really like writing the blog his way either!

I am now going to drive to get a connection so I can post this update onto the blog. I also need to nip to the shops and then a crucial decision needs to be made. Where to next? Rest assured you will be the first to know when I have made up my mind!

Take care.

Jake Langley-Hobbs & two flustered Doberman dogs!
Team Imperial Fishing-We love to fish!!…..
www.carp-gps.com

Tags: carp, common, jake langley-hobbs, Lot, mirror

This entry was posted on June 18, 2009 at 12:48 pm and is filed under River Lot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.