Posts Tagged ‘Carp care’

Finished on a High!

November 12, 2011

Good Morning.

I am back at my house after packing up early this morning. After nine night’s I decided it’s better to be happy with your results and walk away, rather than stay on in the hope of catching more, and possibly be faced with packing up in the pouring rain. I also had another reason to pack up a night earlier than expected, as at 9pm last night I caught a new personal best mirror carp from Sierra Brava! A regular reader, Martyn, commented earlier in the week how my carp senses seemed to be functioning well during this session and I guess he was right. In yesterday’s post I made the bold comment that it would be great to finish my session off with a 30lb+ mirror – I got it right again as my fishy prediction came right!

I made a couple of subtle changes to two rods yesterday and placed them about five yards further out than they had been throughout the whole session. I did this because I had a hunch that it may produce something larger, as quite often big fish can be in the vicinity of smaller feeding carp, yet they can often hang back, almost watching their counterparts feeding, but possibly not wanting to join in due to sensing danger! People often talk about fishing off their baited patch, and what I was doing was essentially that.

I also did something I haven’t done before on one rod, also to try to tempt a larger fish. I am not going to say what it was, which is unusual for me, as I don’t normally have secrets! However, as it worked, I would like to see if it works again on my next trip, before I reveal what my simple change to my hookbait turned out to be!?

After I ate my dinner last night, I was hoping if I had a run, it would be on this very rod. Five minutes later, as I was sat outside, the rod took off – don’t you just love it when that happens! The fish powerfully took a lot of line in a short space of time, and then slowed down. I gradually bought it back towards me as it kited inch by inch to my left. I was expecting the fish to put up more of a battle to be honest after its initial surge of strength, and then I heard a small splash a few metres out, and my heart sank a little. I suddenly thought the fish had fooled me completely, and it was in fact another small carp, but then it bobbed to the surface and stayed there. I could see a pale and large shape that grew and grew as it got closer to me, and realising I had a big mirror coming straight towards my net – I was then completely gob-smacked!

I broke the net down quickly and carried the fish to the unhooking mat. My size 2 hook was securely in its bottom lip, so after gently removing it, I transferred the fish into a retainer and weighed her. The needle swung round and settled on 38lbs or 17.23kg to be exact. My previous biggest mirror at Brava was a mid-thirty so not only did I get my 30lb+ mirror, I also got a new pb mirror from Sierra Brava. What a result!

A two-tone mirror from Brava weighing 17.23kg

I left the fish to settle in the retainer, secured against a bankstick, and got the rod back to the mark. Three spombs followed and then I checked on the fish. She had tilted to one side and wasn’t looking comfortable so I guessed that she was having problems with her swim bladder. I never like to unnecessarily retain fish for long periods of time especially when the fish looks in distress, so I quickly got my camera equipment sorted out, did the deed behind the lens, and carried the fish back to the water. I stayed with the fish for twenty minutes until she seemed to let out a big burp of air! Only when I was satisfied, did I let her swim off, and happily, she looked okay, and was not tilting to either side as she waddled off into the depths.

It is very important when you have a carp in this condition that you don’t let it swim off until you are completely sure it has recovered. The best technique is to hold the carp under the surface and gently let go. If she rises to the surface and tilts to one side then there is obviously still a problem. The danger sometimes is the fish can seem okay and swim off quickly, partly due to stress, then once the fish has swum a few yards it can suddenly resurface; meaning the fish is now out of your reach, and you are now unable to help the fish recover. Carp care is not just about unhooking mats and miracle anti-septic products(!), and it is always your responsibility as an angler to return a carp that is healthy and strong.

Finishing my session on a high with my new personal best Sierra Brava mirror carp!!!

Nothing else happened for the duration of the night. The weather is not exactly how I would like it as the winds are easterly for the next few days, so once morning arrived I made the hasty decision to call it a day. Packing up took about two and a half hours, as I like to pack everything away, so it is ready to go at a moments notice. My house is now set up so I can quickly unload everything straight through the front door into two different rooms: a tackle store, and a bait room. I even have a drying room outside for smelly items such as unhooking mats and slings. It is just as well that I currently don’t have a girlfriend, as although it might be the carp anglers dream house, I am sure a female would have other ideas!!!

My next session is planned in a weeks time. I will be doing another longish session and will continue my mission to catch my first twenty kilo carp from Sierra Brava. A fifty pounder would be nice, but one step at a time!

Thanks for following my blog during this session. I hope you have enjoyed reading about it as much as I have enjoyed writing about it. Finally, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Cheers

Jake and Flash!

 

 

 

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Posted in Sierra Brava | 11 Comments »

Thirties All Round!

June 24, 2010

Good Morning.

There is a layer of broken cloud in the sky, the sun is trying to peep through, and blue sky is beginning to fill the gaps. It looks like it may be another fine day at the lake, and as I type, my dogs are arranging their beach towels for another day’s lazy hound bathing!

Mobile cooking!

Last night Jon and I had a little BBQ once the rods were all sorted, and as I typed last night’s blog, Jon prepared his special pork Kebabs! They were spot on, and after England’s victory and progression into the last 16, it was a very good end to the day.

The successful boilie from Dynamite Baits.

Action in the evening has only happened on the first night at the lake. Last night though, saw plenty of early action for Jon, and he quickly landed two upper doubles in the time it took me to drop off to sleep! One of my rods alarms kept beeping once, every thirty annoying minutes. Eventually I got up and went to have a look and reeled in the rod to find nothing amiss. Quite possibly the line was suffering from passing fry knocks, so I attached a stringer and got the rod back into position. As I carried this out Jon received another take, and he was into a strong fish that continued to take line, even after he had gained initial control. Eventually he netted a good common, followed by a victory cry (!), and a 33lb common was duly photographed. It was Jon’s biggest of the session, and in fact the biggest carp of the trip between us. They are gradually getting bigger and a whacker could well be on the cards.

Jon's thirty three!

A while later, through the meshed door of my Armo bivvy, I saw Jon attending to another carp. He had now landed four and was clearly on a roll for the night. The spawning activity of yesterday eased during the afternoon, and quite possibly, Jon was intercepting the carp as they made their way back into the main body of the lake. Either way, from the comfort of my sleeping bag, it was great to see him in constant carpy action , and I am really hoping he will beat his Italian PB of 37lb during this session.

At some point this morning my new spot rod took off. Fishing with a single 20mm bottom bait, combined with a stringer, the rod was trembling on the pod as I picked it up. The carp was kiting slowly towards the direction of my other lines, so I hopped in my boat to try to get a better angle on it, to try to guide it away. As I jumped in my inflatable, the fish flat rodded me very powerfully and my reel handle bashed my knuckles, as I let the carp have line. Several times during the fight I was forced to give line as it made long powerful runs, and eventually it even managed to get underneath one of my other lines. I could now hear my ATT beeping back on dry land, and every time the carp moved, the alarm beeped. I suddenly saw a head-torched Jon rapidly approaching my pod in the dark, so fearing he was going to pick up the rod, strike, and possibly pull the hook from my carp, I shouted at him very loudly to “Leave it!”

Finally after a few more tense minutes had passed, I noticed the fish come up to the surface. I lifted my anchor and made my way over to the carp on top, and slipped the net underneath the creature. The single haired boilie had in fact twisted around the other line, so I was very relieved indeed to have landed the fish.

Gorgeous!!

Early morning perfection.

I slipped the carp into my Armo weigh sling and thirty-five pounds was the weight. The carp looked awesome! As Jon had received plenty of evening action, and was probably tired, and also had to leave at first thing this morning for a day’s work in Milan, I decided to retain the fish for a couple of hours in the sling, and we quickly took the shots at 7.30am. I also wanted to take some shots of the fish’s belly, as it had some recent marks from spawning in the reeds, and I wanted to put this on the blog. At Varese I actually had to remove a piece of reed stem from the 30lb common I caught twice in four days. The chunk of reed was embedded in the carp’s belly, it had started to go rather infected; so I applied some Korda carp care lotion and I am sure it is now back to good health. I guess this is the hazard of spawning in reeds. (Ouchy!)

Spawning marks from the reeds.

The Carp-Tec Mussel and Shellfish boilie continues to work, and it seems to be getting better and better as the session progresses. I am going to keep the feed going in throughout the day and fingers crossed there will be more manic action once darkness falls. Who will be the first to break the 40 barrier? My monies on Jon!

Catch you tomorrow.

Jake and the dogs.

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Posted in The Italian Job! | 3 Comments »

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