Good Morning.
Above is my score prediction of tomorrow’s game although I am not saying who are the tigers and who are the boilies! Joking aside a total of five carp have now been landed, and the first thirty was slipped into the net this morning. It is turning into a very enjoyable session and we still have twelve days to go – fantastic!
We decided to start applying a little more bait with the throwing stick yesterday and put out a couple of kilos at 11am to keep the swim topped up throughout the day. I recast the rods shortly before 6pm and added another kilo for the night over my half, Jon did the same. There is a resident posse of five coots that are regularly clearing us out and as I write this morning’s post they are in fact diving over our spots. I am positive they are not taking baits off the lake bed though but plucking them from the weed five feet beneath the surface.
After a pleasant evening meal and a glass or two of ‘red’ I called it a night around 10pm. At 4am a few beeps from the left hand ATT alerted me to a tiger nut take. The fish had kited out and away from the delicate lilies and into open water, so I took to the boat to keep it away from my other lines. After a short fight a 22lb hump-backed common was netted, photographed, and returned. I always think when two anglers are fishing together there is no ‘real’ excuse to sack up a carp till the morning, as the photographs can be done there and then. A good flash certainly helps, and a good eye from the picture taker is also critical, but as Jon is English, the language barrier has temporarily vanished, and he is doing a good job with the camera.
A 22lb'er caught at 4am...and released at 4.15am.
Jon was ‘in’ next but unfortunately the carp kited right into some pads. I went out in the boat and handlined my way to the location of the terminal tackle which hopefully still held a carp. Sadly the carp had shed the rig and I found the hook stuck in a lily stem. Jon had caught a tench on this rod earlier that morning and recast the rod with a fresh boilie immediately afterwards. This very rod had ripped off moments later, which meant two quick takes on two consecutive mornings after an early morning recast with a fresh bait. I therefore decided to recast my ‘long’ rod with a two bait stringer and a fresh bait. Would it produce a take?
Over the next hour my rod suffered from a few line bites. Eventually it took off and I took to the boat immediately rather than try to pull it through the dense Canadian pond weed. It was a good idea and once near the fish I dropped an anchor and sat down to enjoy the dawn battle. After ten minutes of plodding back and forth I spotted the lovely looking common and finally got my prize in the net. The length was that of a 25lb’er, but the depth and width pushed the scales round to a healthy 31lb. One notable thing about this carp was the funny shaped mouth it displayed which you can see in the pictures.
The first thirty...lovely!
Back she goes...
This carp was my first capture on the bottom baits. One 20mm Carp-Tec Mussel and Shellfish boilie was fished using a blow-back combi rig. These boilies have dried very well and are withstanding nuisance species to date. We are not protecting them in any way. One thing I have noticed is some of them crack in half when pierced with a standard baiting needle, so a very fine splicing needle remedies this. I am also adding some Mussel and Oyster liquid attractor to the dry boilies to re-hydrate them slightly. Once this works its way into the bait the cracking should stop.
In the middle of the lake, which is approximately 100 metres from the bank, it is 15ft deep. This channel could possibly be an old stream/river from many years ago before the lake was formed. I do think this channel may be a very good patrol route, and as four takes have come from the other side of the weed bed, in a depth of 11ft (which is probably about thirty yards from this channel); tonight I am going to fish one rod in this area. In fact in a moment I am going to go out in the boat for a better look!
Pure bliss for my brown boy!
One beautiful aspect about the fishing at this stunning lake is the lack of mosquitos. I have only seen a couple in my bivvy and they are the normal variety. It is such a welcome break from the previous hell hole called a lake, and my lovely dogs are much more relaxed and enjoying the sun without getting bitten by tigers and sand flies; plus we can all sit outside. This is how fishing should be – enjoyable!
Back tomorrow with more news.
Jake and the dogs.
