After enduring a busy week at work Friday evening couldn’t come quick enough, I was sat at my desk on Friday watching the clock - seconds seemed to last for minutes and such like; I could tell it was going to be a long day!
I was kept in the loop by the lads down the lake via twitter, the lake was filling up fast and I began to panic but as luck would have it Mark had to make a premature end to his session and would be off at about 5, perfect! I knew he had a few fish in front of him so with little other options available I could jump in the swim as he left.
Once 5pm had arrived I did my greatest Superman impression by getting out of my civilian clothing and into some more suitable attire in the toilet then jumped in the van and headed for the lake, I certainly would have given Colin McRae a run for his money over those few miles!
Once I had pulled in the fishery gate calmness descended upon me, the working week was over and I had some quality dangling time to look forward to.
I dropped my kit off at the back of the Island then parked the van up and made my way back up to the Island swim to see how the lads had faired.
I walked into something that resembled a swim, although it could have easily have passed as a war zone, the lads had endured some rough weather over the last 48 hours and looked windswept to say the least but fortunately the carp gods had smiled upon them and they had managed to bank a couple.
Mark kindly moved his kit out of the left hand swim so I could get the wands out before the light faded, I easily managed to locate a clear spot about 35 yards out to place my left hand rod on so quickly put three mini spombs of Odyssey XXX over the top before placing a Ninja Rig on the spot baited with an Odyssey extra hard hook bait to withstand the attention of the small stuff.
The other two rods were fished at 45 yards range, both on chod’s the middle was baited with a white Northern Special and the right hand rod was baited with an Odyssey XXX Pop Up, I then scattered about 200 baits over the top of the two rods with the throwing stick.
I quickly put the Oval up and stuck the kettle on to have my first brew of the session and as the last rays of lights fell upon on the horizon I couldn’t help but feel that it looked good for it.
Another lad David had moved in on the front of the Island and popped round for a brew at about 8pm, for an hour or so we chatted about all things carpy and like me he was new to the water so we swapped a bit of information on what we had found out about the water.
David retired to his bivvy just after 9pm and it was about this point that I heard some strange noises coming from my stomach, a bit of curry will sort that I thought so rummaged around in my rucksack to find a tin to warm up, for a bog standard girlie curry it actually wasn’t that bad!
I stayed up as late as I could chain drinking coffee and watching the water. I heard a few roll out in front of me and a few of them certainly were water pigs!
I got in the bag at about midnight unable to keep my eyes open any longer and soon drifted off into a deep carp filled dream and slept like a baby until 4am to answer to the call of nature, I decided to sit up for half an hour to see if I could hear anything before getting back in the bag at 4:30am.
I awoke again just after 6am and immediately fired up the coleman and rolled a smoke, it was pi%sing it down and the wind was hacking straight into my swim, it looked perfect, it was then that I had a sudden urge of confidence, not if but when will it happen I thought!
The rain continued until 10 am before slowly easing off to fine drizzle, David popped round for a chat to see how I had faired through the night; he too hadn’t had any luck but agreed with me that it looked good for it.
After he had returned to his swim I made myself a coffee, rolled a smoke and went and stood by the rods. I was just surveying the area when I heard the unmistakable sound off my right hand Neville screaming for my attention, line was being stripped from the spool at a rate of knots! I lifted into it and noted straight away that it had managed to kite 30 yards to the left before I had lifted into it, why the indication was that bad I am not sure but I was just pleased to be attached to my first fish of my new campaign. The fight wasn’t a spectacular one and I soon had it under control, I shouted over to David to see if he could give me a hand, as I really didn’t want to lose this one and it looked like it was going to wipe out my middle rod.
David was soon at my side and expertly netted the culprit, I let out a little cheer pleased to finally open my account on the water, we both peered into the net and both said that it had to be 26-27+ so as you can imagine we were slightly shocked when we hoisted it up on the Reuben’s and the needle settled on 22.04, although to be honest the size was completely irrelevant to me [although I must admit after we had done the photos as I slipped her back I did whisper to her “now I’m going to have your mum and dad”]
David stood and chatted for 10 minutes before leaving me to bask in glory, he had decided to have a slow pack up so I got the rod sorted, re sharpened the hook and put it back out on the spot, I also changed the middle rod to an Odyssey XXX Pop Up and moved that nearer to the area where the take had come from.
The afternoon passed quickly and before I knew it “Pete the Coooonnntttt” walked in my swim carrying a healthy portion of pie and chips, that’s two sessions on the bounce he has done that, the guy is a gent!
I filled Pete in on what had occurred over the last 24 hours, it really got his fire burning and I could tell that he was excited about returning to the water Monday night for his session, maybe I’ll return the favour and bring him a chip supper!
At about 8:30pm I received a take on my left hand rod, I lifted straight into it but unfortunately felt it bump off almost immediately, my heart sank!
Pete lifted the atmosphere by saying “it was probably a tench anyway” and we both laughed as I put the kettle on for another brew.
Pete left at about 9pm so I was left to reflect on the session. As I sat on the bedchair coffee in hand I decided that as I was over the moon with a fish under my belt I should pack up and head for home to get a few things done, saving me from rushing about all over the place on Mothers Day so with that I started a slow pack up in the dark before eventually barrowing back to the van at about 11pm then headed for home a very happy man indeed, roll on next week!
Until then,
Smithy