Good Morning.

As I write this post, it reminds me of many mornings sat at Cassien. The sky is now blue, the sun is shining with strength, and the sharp morning frost has all but disappeared. Cassien in January, February, has very similar starts to the morning. You wake to a bitterly cold morning, a layer of frost lines the ground, and clings to unhooking mats; landing nets resemble stiff cardboard, and a warm cup of coffee is certainly needed to begin the day. I am on my second cup, and I am going to enjoy some quality time lapping up some late November rays of goodness! With the waves lapping the shoreline, if I closed my eyes and imagined, I could be on a beach anywhere in the world. Happy days!

I caught my sixth carp of the session from my little tree spot. I was actually spodding to my open water spot as I noticed the take coming. I had just cast my spod out when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the rod tip start to pull round. This gave me time to drop the spod rod in the margin, and then after a quick grabble with the rod in imminent crisis, I was attached to the next victim! A short fat common had taken a liking to a larger bait presentation I offered. Big baits don’t necessarily catch big carp; however, my snowman trap, consisting of a 26mm boilie and 20mm pop-up fished with a blow-back rig, was laid down to see if a big hungry mouth liked the look of it. I don’t think this little carp could actually fit the whole lot in his mouth but he tried, and was hooked in the process. He put up a determined scrap though, and kited in a big arc from start to finish. I had to thread my rod under my other rods, including the spod, as tubby junior tried in vain to escape my clutches. An upper double chunk was unhooked on the mat, and returned after telling him to stick to baits his own size next time!

Wellies at the ready!

Waders or Wellington boots are essential at Sierra Brava. The margins are very shallow and whilst the practice of netting the carp whilst stood on the bank is possible, it’s not very wise. The margins are lined with gravel and sharp little rocks, so not only might you lose the fish, you may also damage the fish in the process, with scrapes or by scale loss. A big fish would probably beach itself, and if the hook pulled and it got away, you would only have yourself to blame. In the summer when the water is warmer, netting in bare feet is a lovely thought; however, now the water has a distinct nip to it, some foot protection is definitely needed. I have some Wellington’s which I slip on once I have the fish under control. I either slip on my desert storm side-zipped boots before leaving the bivvy, make a dash for the rod, and then switch into the Wellington’s whilst playing the fish, or I run out in socks and put the wellies on once things are looking in my favour. I have a long bankstick near my wellies to help with balance, as trying to put them on whilst playing a fish is not always easy. My wellies are too big which helps slip them on, and this wasn’t done deliberately, Le Chameau had a sale on, and the fur-lined pair that should have cost a massive price, were knocked down to a cheeky little number. The only drawback was they did not have my 45 size, so their last pair, a 49 (!), was taken home – best buy ever in my opinion!

I do now have a new foot friend though which I thought I would tell you about. Sonik’s breathable waders. These are very comfortable, they can either be worn using the floppy neoprene feet they feature, or with a pair of boots that are waded in. The actual wader clips onto the boot and the boots have slip-proof soles to keep you steady on shiny, moss adorned rocks. I just have the wader and last night I gave them the full test – wearing them in bed! The idea behind this is it means you can forget about wet feet, and worrying about whether or not you should put boots on etc… Instead once that alarm sounds you make a dash for it and it cuts the time it takes to get to your rod by those vital seconds you sometimes need. They are breathable, and even in my sauna like bivvy, I was not hot, I did not sweat, and my feet were dry this morning – plus I did get to test them with regards to a fish take.

Pink...

Orange...

Encore!!

I stayed up till 9.30pm last night. I could feel the air turning cold, and as the moon has now gone for a couple of weeks, the night seemed very dark indeed. I drank some coffee, some tea, followed by a glass of Canalva’s Tinto Fino Reserva (it was a Saturday night after all!), whilst gratefully watching the amazing sunset. If clouds are present on the hozizon then that is when you get the amazing coloured skies as the suns rays refract through the obstacles. I watched as the packed Saturday night theatre backdrop turned pink, then orange, followed by a blood red – quite a show by all accounts,and the best thing – the seats were free.  Finally I needed to lie down, so I donned my waders, and slipped into the bag. It felt comfortable, there was no rustling, and I was soon drifting off, when all of a sudden a loud “bleeeepppppppppp” came out of nowhere!

I often find that when I first drift off at night I am far more confused as to what is happening when a take does arrive. I shot out of the bivvy, and although a blue led was angrily glowing, and the reel was in a blistering meltdown, I still had to check which rod I needed to pick up!! Fortunately, I chose the right one, and immediately walked slowly to my left to draw the fish away from the obvious danger – a large submerged Spanish Oak tree. My 2.5lb SK3′s are becoming a joy to use as determined side strain is applied and the fish has to change direction. The fish reacted beautifully and started to kite left, I walked back to my starting point whilst keeping in contact, and the fish then turned and started heading right. In she came, reluctantly shaking her head a few times, when suddenly she forcefully took ten yards of line. I controlled the run with my backwind, and turned her back towards me. I was now winning the situation!

Another five minutes of angling tension passed, mixed with happiness I might add, whilst stood in the water watching the rod tip. The fish was not yet giving up, and after another marginal display of power, I finally saw the specimen in my headtorch. Mirror? Common? Mirror? Common?  “Common”!! I led her into my net and quietly let out a mini “Yay”! I had just landed my biggest common since arriving in Spain – no wonder I was grinning from ear to ear. 15kg was the recorded weight and a stunning common she was – deep, wide, and long, and fairly dark in appearance. I decided to do the shots at first light so I put her in her own sleeping bag in the water, checked she was upright, and then got the kettle on for a warm up drink.

Whilst the kettle boiled I got the rod back out to the spot, followed by three spods of boilies and three of tigers and hemp. The tea was needed, and tasted much sweeter than normal. I got back into my warm cocoon and was half-expecting more action, but was actually pleased this morning when I woke, to know that nothing else had happened, as I was well rested, and I had my prize to attend to.

Vital Baits.

Vital baits were the winner on this occasion, with a little help from the green joker – the Mussel and Anchovy fluro pop-up was combined with one of Nicky’s personal wafters, to give the whole presentation more lift for my 360 rig. I fished this with a three bait stringer, over a combo of the 15mm K-12 and SB-X  boilies soaked in the K-12 liquid attractor. The K-12 is Vital’s fish meal boilie, whilst the SB-X model has green lipped mussel combined with pineapple. For more details about Vital check out their website on my links page.

Take a test shot and adjust as required.

Job well done!

A happy carp angler with a 15kg common.

Self-take photography really is one of my passions, aside from the fishing, cooking, writing, and caring for two dogs; and I like to do a good job if I can, of everything. My remote for my Canon is still not working for some reason (note to self – I must buy a new one); fortunately, the ten second timer is an alternative method for taking trophy shots on your own. Important things to take into consideration are a good unhooking mat, and the fish must be relaxed before you attempt to begin. I usually get the fish comfortable on the mat, and cover it with a wet sling or sack. Pour lake water over the carp, and let it settle. (I was tempted here to write: finally add salt and pepper, and a basil leaf, but thought better of it!) Incidentally, I always take some test shots before I get the carp out of the water in the first place, and in this instance I did a manual focus on a bankstick where I would eventually hold the fish. I set the depth of field to 8.0 and used a powerful flash to add more light, due to the aperture size being smaller, and to add fill-in flash to take away shadows caused by the sun. The greater depth of field means you too, are in focus, as well as the fish. The end result is a much more balanced photograph. The trick with timer photography is not to lift the fish till she is ready. I usually do a couple of practice lifts first. If she struggles, then I cover her back up and leave her to have a tantrum. I also sometimes turn the fish upside down in my arms, which seems to help calm them down a little. When the fish is properly ready, and you know you aren’t going to have a fight in your arms, then you begin. Now ten seconds may seem like a long time, but it goes very quickly. In your head you should work out your fish pose, press the shutter release button, and then hurry back to the carp. Pick her up, smile, and wait for the click. I then gently place the fish back down, quickly check the result, and adjust the pose if necessary. When the sun is shining brightly, and at a low height, the most important thing to check is that the sun is not bouncing off the fish, straight back into the camera lens, creating horrible glare; turn the fish slightly at an angle to bounce the sun away from the lens and you get a fish that lights up beautifully displaying all of its splendour. I am very happy with the results on this occasion, and the fish was returned safely, without any damage, and swam off strongly.

That’s it for today folks. I am going to enjoy the rest of my day.

Cheers

Jake and the dogs.