Good Evening From the Tree Line Swim!
I am sat writing this by the rods just in case one of the rod tips whack round. I have been writing my blog the past few days using the WIFI at Gigantica. However, yesterday my new internet stick arrived and fortunately it works very well. Therefore the blog continues, despite the best/poor efforts of a certain selfish, greedy, manipulative and rather sad person who tried to put an end to it!!!
The lovely Tree Line swim!
Very surprisingly no bites came during the night. There were fish boshing all through the night and sleep was difficult to say the least! I did have a couple of one bleep knocks which woke me but once morning arrived there was work to be done.
I left the rods till 11am and then wound them in. I went to get some Carp Extrude pellets from Danny the Bailiff and returned and set up my spod rod. The plan was to spod out some pellet and then some tigers to the edge of the tree line. There were still fish rolling and leaping up until 10.45am and I just felt they needed a little encouragement. One other way I am introducing loose feed, is to make up some PVA bags using the Korda funnel web and I catapult these to the tree line. I am using PVA bags when I cast and hopefully the little piles of free offerings will replicate my trap.
Tiger nut bags!
After I had done 45 minutes of spodding I went round to see if the fish had been disturbed; they were still there, mooching around in the sunken branches and on the bottom. It was now time to get the baits back out. Casting accurately to the tree line is quite easy. Using your line clip on the spool of the reel, you can adjust the length of line so your cast drops right on the edge. You may need to cast a couple of times, gradually getting closer, till you get the right clip mark, but once I have it, I then mark my braid with a permanent marker. If I want to cast left or right of my mark, I can manually adjust my casting length to give me more or less line on the cast. Using the clip is just a safe way to ensure you don’t end up in the trees!!
I got two rods out and was just sorting out the third rod, when I had a few bleeps and my middle rod was being violently pulled round. Immediately I held the rod away from me, and to the side. I could see the fish on the surface in the tree line, and the lead had ejected on the take; perfect. As a result the fish then kited on the surface right out into open water on a tight line, and safely away from the snags. After a short tussle I had my first carp of the session in the net. Result! The weight was 21lb and this fish was in immaculate condition. A great looking plump common carp.
My first ever carp to fall to tiger nuts!
I slipped the fish into the supplied Venture retaining slings and wound in the other rod. I walked to get my tripod as I wanted to get a quick self take for the blog, and I always think you should photograph your first carp of the session, whatever the size! On returning to the swim and after the photos I got the rod back out, and quickly tied up another tiger nut rig. I then got this particular rod out. That just left one rod to cast. I had my back turned at this point and was just tying a rig, when two bleeps alerted me. I looked round to see the left hand rod wrench round. It was so forceful, and then it suddenly sprang back. I wound in a slack line and on inspection my 25lb coated braid hooklink had snapped by the ring swivel. I think I may have just lost a good fish by all accounts! The rest of my set up was fine. The lead had ejected from the take, and my other knots were sound. I think the size of the fish moving off quickly on a short line was too much for the hooklink. I am using Korda’s 50lb Arma-Kord as a leader and I have total faith in this very strong abrasive resistant material.
No messing...360 rig with size 2 Kurves and two corked tigers and a piece of corn for colour.
Great stuff!!
That is all for tonight as my leisure battery is low, and it is now time to sit and wait for the action.
Cheers.
Jake Langley-Hobbs & two Doberman dogs.
Tags: braid, common, Gigantica, jake langley-hobbs, Korda, Kurves, pva
July 6, 2009 at 12:12 pm |
Hi Jake, stick with the tigers mate! patience will pay off big time, the big common lost on salagou was on tigers left in for 2.5 days! best wishes, Hugo
July 6, 2009 at 7:19 pm |
Thanks for the words of encouragement Hugo. If you read tonights post you will see it is all starting to work nicely!
Leaving your rods out for 2-5 days is right up my street…only try and make sure you are by your rods and not at the local market buying food, when one of them goes off mate!!!!! At least Jonas was there to hit it for you and it was just a shame he lost it. I am sure if you were there it would have been in the net and a new personal best mate!!
Cheers Jake.