Good Morning From Gigantica.
My final week at Gigantica is upon me. I have a week left to try and nail one of the larger residents of the lake. The weather is still rather moody and I have a swim choice in mind, but more about that later. My final night on the Small Lake at Bluewater provided me with some heart-stopping moments which ended with the tale of ‘the one that got away’!
I decided after the margin activity the previous night and morning, that I would lay some traps along the edges. I identified three clear spots that looked like they were visited regularly by the fish on their patrols. Using my waders I dropped the rigs in place by hand, carefully concealing the lead, and placing a couple of flat small stones on the leader, and line. Surely this would fool any carp. I scattered some loose feed over the hook bait and admired my work from the bank. Spot on!
My final rod was cast into a hole in the weed at the deeper end of the Small Lake. The three margin rods were fished with tigers, but this rod got the boilie treatment. A small snowman set up, comprising of a small Mainline pineapple pop up, and a 15mm Mainline cell bottom bait. I threw a handful of offerings accurately into the hole area and that was that. Two hours of careful rod placement, for hopefully one slightly larger carp.
It looked like rain was on the cards as I got my head down. I kept waking the first few hours to screaming runs coming from the Main Lake, which fortunately meant that some of the Sanders Group, from Coventry, were getting some action on their last night. After a restless night I woke at 4am. I looked at the rods and willed one of them to spur into life. I rolled over and drifted back to sleep for an hour or so, then suddenly the rod placed in deeper water beeped a few times. I knew I had the baitrunner done up extremely tightly to stop the fish burying itself too deep in the weed. I remembered to slip on my shoes, picked up the net, and ran the 20 yards down the bank to the rod, that was now creaking in the rests. The baitrunner was slowly clicking away, the rod tip was dramatically shaking and the braid was like a piano wire. I picked up the rod and felt the fish on the other end. It hadn’t got far into the weed, but it needed extracting nevertheless. I walked backwards and it started to come through it fairly easily. I flicked the baitrunner off and started to gain a few turns of line. I should point out now that I was stood on the bank in amongst some skinny willow trees and my rod was vertical as there was no room to turn. The fish continued to come, rather too easily and I thought another smallish carp was responsible. My lead clip had obviously done the deed though, and a carp suddenly surfaced in some broken weed to my left, the water absolutely erupted and was followed by a heavy splash, as an angry carp turned and bolted. Not exactly expecting this and still being half asleep, the fish flat rodded me in a split second and before I could get my backwind on or flick the baitrunner back on, my shockleader cut on something under the surface! Due to the willows I couldn’t turn my rod sideways to apply sidestrain either, and the clutch on the reel was still done up to the maximum from fishing in the tree line swim ‘locked up’. I was left with one of those early morning battle scenes, that only you could witness. Everyone else is asleep and who would believe you anyway! The surface weed rocked back and forth from the commotion from the fish, I stood cursing my bad angling and thinking I had probably just lost one of the mysterious bigger carp that Jim and others have seen from time to time; the elusive monsters! Ah well, you win some and you lose some.
The time was now 5.30am and it was light. I couldn’t get the loss out of my head, so I started to pack everything up. The margin rods were all untouched. I walked round the perimeter of the lake and studied each spot carefully before reeling in. Maybe these fish had learnt to avoid the edges after the previous morning’s mistakes.
I stopped off at the lodge as the Coventry lot were just preparing for their departure. Jan cooked them all the full works for breakfast and after a few farewells, and they had re-booked a week for next year, they disappeared out of sight. Such is the popularity of Bluewater Lakes, most bookings are re-bookings from parties that have have a great week and want to return the following year. The lake itself is set in quiet countryside, away from any towns and main roads, and the lake itself is very picturesque. If you are thinking about a first trip to France for carp fishing, you want to be looked after by the helpful owners who are never far away, and you arepretty much guaranteed to catch some lovely looking carp (no one in the Sanders group failed to catch), then Bluewater Lakes gets my commercial water vote. For more info go to www.bluewaterlakes.com
I eventually got back to Gigantica shortly after 11am. Danny Turtle, the manager, had his mum and brother Scott, over for the weekend. Dan had set them up with some match fishing tackle so they could fish for some of the nuisance species that are present in Gigantica. It looked like great sport and by 5pm I could resist watching no longer. I got my little Greys 5’6″ spinning rod rigged up with a swimfeeder and a size 14 hook, and armed with some groundbait and a tin of sweetcorn, the rest of the day/evening was spent bream, roach and rudd bashing. I obviously love carp fishing best of all, but sometimes a change is good for the soul. By the time it was too dark to see the rod tip I had probably caught 50 or so decent sized roach, which were taking my corn on the drop. It was almost a fish a chuck at one stage. Scott took the title for biggest fish with a 4lb bream, and I think it was fair to say (!!) I took the overall weight prize. Dan was moaning about cheating, small hooks, swim hogging and all the usual complaints you would expect from a head bailiff. He even blamed his 2.75 TC carp rod, for breaking his fragile 1.5lb hook links on the strike!!
Scott with his 4lb beast!
Today the weather is overcast, the odd speck of rain has landed, and the wind is south westerly. I have decisions to make as to where I will fish for the week. There is plenty of space this week, and I may start in a swim called the Big Southerly. It is ideal for these weather/wind conditions. If the sun comes out and it warms up, then I shall sneak back into the Tree Line. I shall be keeping a close eye on the fish and if there are plenty sat in the snags, the rods will be straight in there!
Diem's Mark Munson with a super koi.
That just remains me to say I hope you all had a good weekend. If you were fishing I hope you caught a few (my mate Mark had a lovely result at a water in the UK) and I will catch you all tomorrow.
This is the life!
Cheers.
Jake & the dogs.
Tags: Bluewater Lakes, boilies, bream, carp, Gigantica, monster
