Good Evening.

Last night’s action started early just as dusk fell with a very small common caught on my long-range rod. I quickly released the fish from the boat, re dropped the rod and came back to shore. This carp was caught from a new spot and the rod had only been in place for about three hours, with two choccy malt pop-ups being the bait. It was a nice start to the night though and I sat outside with anticipation as darkness fell.

There were plenty of bats in action last night, as the mossies/flying insects have arrived. You can tell spring has begun properly because millions of ants have now taken refuge wherever they can amongst my shelters. I have a mossie coil in action and my mossie door closed as I write tonight’s post and it’s more for the dog’s protection. They seem to get bitten to pieces and mossies fly around my bivvy, filled with their blood!

I waited up till 9pm and finally tiredness got the better of me. I collapsed on my bed trying to keep my eyes open and even had a strong coffee to try to keep me alert – it failed and I fell asleep. At 1am a single beep had me flying off my bed, into my waders, and rushing to the rod in question. The carp pulled very hard and for a while it was touch and go. You need a very good hook hold in order to win these extreme tug and war battles, and you just have to hope that you have one. Fortunately the hook held, I heard the carp splash and then felt the fish come out of the reeds. I carried on reeling for a few seconds before taking to my boat. I started the outboard, reversed it out of the gap, avoided my other lines, and now it was time to get to the fish.

I arrived near to where I thought the carp was and it was just on the fringe of some reeds to my right that travel down to a point which then hides a small bay. I hooked the carp opposite on the other side of this bay and the fish had cleverly got his head down and tried to seek refuge in this other set of reeds. I threw my anchor into the water which gave me extra purchase and then gently tried to extract the carp. It splashed on the surface and amongst the edge of the reeds and finally, and much to my relief, it came free. After two or three more minutes the tired common swam obligingly into my net and my second largest carp of the session was mine. It weighed 13.5kg and I sacked it up for some morning shots. Mussel and Oyster was the bait on this rod incidentally.

At 5am my long-range rod was away again. This is placed in front of the far set of reeds at 550m range. I got the carp away from the reeds very easily and guessed it wasn’t a hippo. A common of about 7kg was netted after five minutes, as it takes a long time to get to the far reeds, even with the outboard engine. Three carp in the night – I was happy with my results.

The pictures were taken when my mate Pippo arrived. He actually arrived to allow me to nip back in my boat to my van, so I can put my spare tyre on as I have a puncture! I showed him how to use my camera and he fired off some nice shots before we released the lovely looking common. Pippo speaks no English and my Italian is as good as his English, so there is a language barrier, but sign language and my Italiano accent seems to work!

I left quickly to sort out my van. Unfortunately, I could not find the special key to remove the spare underneath my van so it was a wasted trip. Back at my swim I called Renault using Skype and they told me where it might be. I was actually trying to use the special locking nut that came with my alloys (yes, my van has alloys!) thinking it would fit, but the nut holding the frame for the spare has a sleeve and takes a slimmer fitting locking nut which is a separate item. I have to try again tomorrow and then I can park my van about 50 metres from my new swim which will be much better for as it has bait and other stuff inside.

I then started to write a diary piece for Dynamite Baits and all was going well, when a very savage take occurred. This rod is placed about 280m away against some reeds and some snags. The rod was nearly wrenched out of the pod and I was immediately pulled forwards by the power of the carp. I held on for dear life, not daring to give an inch, and prayed my hook held in place. I could tell the fish was in the reeds and this battle continued for about ten seconds. Slowly I felt something budge, then it pulled forwards again. This fish had some power! Finally after much gentle persuasion I managed to coax it out so I got the fish moving and repeated the boat manoeuvre. I managed to get going and started heading to the fish. When I arrived I could tell it had got back into some reeds, so the anchor was dropped again. I was confident I had quite a good hook hold, so I gave the fish some encouragement and it begrudgingly came free. As my lead had obviously released it kited out on the surface, and as I suspected a good carp could be seen.

Whilst I continued to play the tired fish a catfish swam underneath the boat. He was obviously eyeing up the distressed carp for dinner, but as the carp and catfish were about the same size, he probably thought better of it. The carp was beat and I pulled it into my net and I could immediately see it was a plump, well-sized common which had taken a liking for a 20mm Mussel and Oyster pop-up combined with a 15mm Strawberry and Cream pop-up – a sweet and savoury offering! I was sure this stunning carp was the biggest of my session to date, but was actually very surprised when the scales read 14.3kg. It did not matter though as it was my second better sized carp in twelve hours, and I was now growing more confident of a looming biggie.

I took some self takes and got the fish back safely. I went to retrieve a rod that I placed yesterday and as I returned I noticed or heard a problem with my petrol engine. It spluttered and then stopped. Smoke was coming from the hood so I quickly took it off and poured water over the very hot engine. After some research on the internet and a few calls to Liverpool (!) it has been established that my water pump has probably gone, and that explains the overheating. It is a two-stroke, water-cooled engine and a 2001 model. I called someone I know and he has found a boat engine repair shop for me, and now I need to get it to the workshop, which I will manage somehow.

I now have a few ongoing problems. My Yamaha outboard is broken, my electric motor is in the back of my van, my van has a puncture and is 3km away, and my laptop screen is playing up, meaning I can’t view pictures properly. The fishing is great however, so I am going to soldier on and I will get through this little crisis and hopefully end this session with the carp I came for.

It does mean that tonight I am limited to oar power. This is fine till you have a carp on and you have to get to the fish; not a problem in open water, but when a plethora of reeds are involved it will take a serious amount of luck to get to the carp before it has gone ten feet back into the reeds. For this reason I only have two rods out tonight, and they are positioned so I have a chance to pull the carp out into fairly open water, and then I will pull myself to the fish in the boat – it is all I can do, until I get my electric outboard motor to my swim tomorrow and get that in action. I have a generator with me and I will need to charge some batteries as there is plenty of boat work involved with this style of carping.

To show it is possible to land a carp without an engine on my boat, as I returned to my swim by oar power, after dropping a rod on the point of some reeds, to my dismay my long-range rod had gone off whilst I was out in the boat. Was the carp still on? It was, so I rowed the boat out of the gap, and reeled my way out to the fish. This was a very slow process, but I got there in the end, and met the fish about halfway out. Again my anchor was dropped and a chestnut common was seen scrapping for all its worth. I had to take a picture of this little fella as the whole episode was quite a drama. Needless to say the 550m rod is not being put out tonight as I don’t fancy repeating that again till I get my outboard on my boat! It could cost me a big fish and it is not worth it as I know I will get rather annoyed if I do!

Two rods tonight are better than none however and the carp are here, so my going concerns are no big deal, albeit slightly frustrating. I am starting to think that someone has cursed me at some point in the last six months, perhaps it happened during my Orient session!!

I will be back tomorrow with an update and hopefully some more carp and some good news!

Cheers

Jake and the dogs.

Tags: Dynamite Baits, jake langley-hobbs, Orient, Renault, Skype, Yamaha

This entry was posted on April 20, 2010 at 9:55 pm and is filed under The Italian Job!. 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.