Apologies everyone because I cannot actually tell you where I fished yesterday. Let's just say it's a small private estate lake somewhere north of Watford which I started fishing this year. It contains billions of stunted rudd plus some decent ones, plenty of tench, crucians,some decent size bream and a fair head of carp to, I'm told, low double figures. Because of the rudd small soft baits are out so my plan of action was boilies and pellets on method feeder/pellet feeder.
Yipee, on my first visit a couple of months ago I had 2 small tench on my first 2 casts.Because you can only fish from platforms which are about 4 feet above the water I invested in a rod pod.
My favourite peg is right by a reed bed which is clearly home to a good proportion of the carp population. I fish 2 rods, one in open water and the other as close as I can get to the reeds. First try the carp won 3 nil.
This prompted me to speculate on ebay for a whopper stopper rod. Actually I got (hopefully) a dual purpose rod because I have felt for some time that my Shakespeare heavy feeder rods are not powerful enough for the Ribble barbel in certain swims and conditions. I settled on a Fox Floodwater Barbel rod, not cheap but very nice indeed to use. Second cast into the Ribble with it a 7lb barbel, very encouraging.
Meanwhile back at the estate lake yesterday afternoon first cast on the newbie rod a nice common about 4lb. Strangely the open water rod was seeing no action at all so eventually I decided to cast it in a different direction. I had just stood up to reorientate myself for this cast when my beautiful, expensive Fox rod flew off the pod and into the edge of the reed bed. At the price I'd paid for it there was no option. I would have to go in after it. I was in the process of jumping down from the platform when I stumbled and went a over t into about 18 inches of water. I suppose I should be grateful that the only damage done was breaking a leg of the rod pod on the way down. I managed to get to the rod and the carp was still attached, another common about twice the size of the first which I played and netted whilst still in the water.
After clambering out I decided to drain off a bit, have a coffee and my sandwiches before going back to the car and heading home for a much needed shower. Of course it would be silly not to fish on whilst doing this so with the rod pod propped up on a baitbox both rods were cast to their original positions. Not surprisingly nothing happened and I was just starting to gather my gear up when the open water rod whipped round and before I could react the carp (presumably)had charged into a sunken hawthorn bush on the opposite side of the swim to the reed bed. I could only pull for a break so last word to the fish!
May I answer my own question? We go fishing because it's a challenge. I would imagine about 10000 anglers on commercial fisheries today caught bigger carp than either of mine but I don't think any of them will have got greater satisfaction from their catches than I did from mine. I planned to catch them in a certain way and I did. The final bit of action however just shows we'll never get it completely right.
Yipee, on my first visit a couple of months ago I had 2 small tench on my first 2 casts.Because you can only fish from platforms which are about 4 feet above the water I invested in a rod pod.
My favourite peg is right by a reed bed which is clearly home to a good proportion of the carp population. I fish 2 rods, one in open water and the other as close as I can get to the reeds. First try the carp won 3 nil.
This prompted me to speculate on ebay for a whopper stopper rod. Actually I got (hopefully) a dual purpose rod because I have felt for some time that my Shakespeare heavy feeder rods are not powerful enough for the Ribble barbel in certain swims and conditions. I settled on a Fox Floodwater Barbel rod, not cheap but very nice indeed to use. Second cast into the Ribble with it a 7lb barbel, very encouraging.
Meanwhile back at the estate lake yesterday afternoon first cast on the newbie rod a nice common about 4lb. Strangely the open water rod was seeing no action at all so eventually I decided to cast it in a different direction. I had just stood up to reorientate myself for this cast when my beautiful, expensive Fox rod flew off the pod and into the edge of the reed bed. At the price I'd paid for it there was no option. I would have to go in after it. I was in the process of jumping down from the platform when I stumbled and went a over t into about 18 inches of water. I suppose I should be grateful that the only damage done was breaking a leg of the rod pod on the way down. I managed to get to the rod and the carp was still attached, another common about twice the size of the first which I played and netted whilst still in the water.
After clambering out I decided to drain off a bit, have a coffee and my sandwiches before going back to the car and heading home for a much needed shower. Of course it would be silly not to fish on whilst doing this so with the rod pod propped up on a baitbox both rods were cast to their original positions. Not surprisingly nothing happened and I was just starting to gather my gear up when the open water rod whipped round and before I could react the carp (presumably)had charged into a sunken hawthorn bush on the opposite side of the swim to the reed bed. I could only pull for a break so last word to the fish!
May I answer my own question? We go fishing because it's a challenge. I would imagine about 10000 anglers on commercial fisheries today caught bigger carp than either of mine but I don't think any of them will have got greater satisfaction from their catches than I did from mine. I planned to catch them in a certain way and I did. The final bit of action however just shows we'll never get it completely right.
