Good Evening.

The past twenty-four hours have flown by. I have been working/fishing hard, whilst managing to relax in between (when not stuffing my face with food)! My appetite has gone through the roof since quitting the fags, but I am definately not complaining. After March, and working all month with Sierra Brava Dreams clients, my weight had dropped significantly. I am happy to have the 7kgs back!

Some of you may also remember back to October when I badly injured myself in the gym, and I blogged a painful session whilst fishing. This injury was actually very severe, and the knock-on effect of the injury caused some rather worrying problems. To cut a long story short, the muscle mass in my right pectoral muscle started vanishing – rapidly. In January of this year, and after X-rays, blood tests etc, it was confirmed that I had severely damaged the nerve that controls muscle mass in that area of my body. Oh dear! I am now doing physiotherapy to slowly try to rebuild that part of my body. I remember when I first did the injury and it wasn’t possible to spomb more than 50 yards as I just didn’t have the strength. At Orellana the other week I was spombing 120, so the strength is back, just not the mass. It will take time. I am sure the lack of cigarettes will speed up the recovery too, as the weight, as I mentioned above is coming back.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, fishing is a sport after all, and I do believe, the fitter you are, the better you will perform; especially over a long session. I had little sleep last night due to fish, yet I have been spombing every two hours during the day, and I intend on working extremely hard for the whole session.

After I posted last night’s blog, it wasn’t long before the familiar sound of rolling carp began over my spots. It was exactly the same with my clients. This was a case of deja-vu. I was expecting a take so therefore it was no surprise when the first one came. I was reading a book, so I tossed the kindle onto my sleeping bag, and raced to the rod. After a short tussle and the hard part won, the hook then just pulled – it happens!

My spare rod.

I am using a ‘spare’ rod this session. I have an identical rod, walked out to the same distance, made-up and ready to go. I have primarily done this for when I catch a fish, and I need to recast the rod quickly. It is a really good thing to do, when speed is of the essence. It means I can land a fish, leave it in the landing net in the water, and then recast the made-up rod quickly back to the spot. After a few spombs have quickly followed, only then is the fish unhooked, carefully weighed, photographed and finally returned. It is obviously during this period when another take can quickly follow, as you can be sure there will still be fish in the vicinity. If you were to unhook the carp and deal with it; by the time you have sorted out the rod, recast to the clip mark, changed hook baits, and cast it out, the fish may well have done one. I am not fishing in a competition this week, but I want to fish as efficiently as I can, and I am sure it will catch me more fish, and maybe one of the ones I am after. Sierra Brava is a numbers game. You need to be catching consistently in order to land a big one, as all my clients know, and most fortunately capitalised on.

Spare rod terminal tackle is all made up and ready to go when a quick recast is required. I keep it in a tub to stop everything drying out.

A close up of a rig I am using. Blow-back with a 26mm bottom bait and small pop-up. Two bait stringer is added for attraction near the hook bait. Old Skool!

My next take came at 3.30am. A smallish common weighing somewhere between 16-18lbs was unhooked and released. My spare rod had already been cast back to the spot, so I made this rod back up and hopped back into the bag. I noticed how bright the sky was as the half-moon was still visible in the sky. Now fully awake, I read for a while, had some food, made some tea, and lay there watching the rod tips. In the end, I set my camera up on a tripod and took a picture of the moon, just before it disappeared for the night.

5am in the morning. Taken using delayed shutter speed, and no flash; set-up on a tripod.

Around 6am I was finally dropping off again when another rod was away. This fish pulled very hard, then came in like a dog on a lead; the dog being a greyhound! I had to wind very quickly to keep up with it, then I heard my shockleader knot rattle through the rings. The fish was literally at my feet! Fortunately my clutch was set correctly as all of a sudden the fish turned and went absolutely ballistic. In the shallow water it took off like a missile and I could see its shoulders as the line screamed off my clutch. I don’t know if this fish had a game plan, but I bet he has caught a few anglers out before if he uses this technique often! After more dramatic displays of power, the fish was finally subdued and I slipped her into the net. What a set of shoulders!

A lovely looking fish from Sierra Brava aka ‘the shallow water scrapper!’

I weighed the carp and the needle swung to 12.5kgs or 27.5lbs. I did a quick self-take and released the fish. This fish still had plenty left and literally planed across the surface as it disappeared into the depths. It was time to get the kettle on!

A simple spomb mix which works.

Throughout the day I kept topping up my spots. I like to do my recast at 11am at Sierra Brava. Once they are in position I leave them be, until they produce a take. You often find 11am is calm so everything can be done with more accuracy, and if everything is spot on, then there is no need to reel them in at 7pm, just to recast them back to the same spot. There are no nuisance species to worry about. It is a case of being confident in your rig, hook bait, and the fact that nothing is tangled etc.

Eat well – fish well!

By lunchtime I was zapped. I made a good lunch to knock me out and then had a siesta for two hours. I spombed just before sleeping, and then after a power-coffee after waking up, I topped up the spots with two more spomb loads over each spot. Little and often works very well at Brava, but you must try to be consistent. My consistency paid off when at 5.30pm the first day-time carp put in an appearance. Another 18lb’er but they are all gratefully accepted, as I treat each carp equally, and look forward to what the next one might be. That is how the numbers game works! In a public water, where the stock is not known completely, these waters do throw up surprises from time to time, and that is the reason why I love public waters so much.

Expecting rain!

I am confident of a good night so tune in tomorrow to find out what happens.

Thanks very much for reading my blog – it means a great deal after all these months of writing it, that I still have a following and it is enjoyed and greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Jake & Flash!