Doesn’t time just roll on so fast when you’re out fishing…days in the office never seem to past this fast! As I’m writing this I’m just through the half-way point of the trip and on one hand it seems like I’ve been here for ever – caught up in the Rainbow bubble, and then, in terms of days – it’s but a blink of an eye! Last night felt cold, really cold and the resident coypu paid me several visits during the night. Somehow they managed to savage some boilies that were air-drying in the tree on a make-shift washing line. I deliberately put some decoy baits (leftovers from last weeks’ anglers) on the lowest point of the line and soon after dark my long-tailed friends were feasting. They’ve become more tame as time has gone on this week but they still aren’t tame enough to get their photo taken properly - yet!
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| Tricky to see but there is a large greedy rodent-creature here! |
Fishing wise I’ve still not been seeing much fish activity and last night (Tuesday night) passed without so much as a bleep on the alarms. At 8.30pm last night I was seriously starting to flag. I’d been up most of the previous night listening and trying to figure out if the carp were coming through into my side of the swim under the cover of darkness. By 9pm I was ready to crash but I fuelled myself with some French rocket fuel coffee, stuck on my jacket (as it was chilly) and stood on the top bank up to my left poised with the headtorch on full power to zap any areas where I heard any fish activity. I did hear enough activity to keep me interested, even though it was difficult to pinpoint exactly where the swirls were coming from. By 11pm I’d made a decision that in the morning I was going to move one rod off of one of my four main spots and investigate the bay down to my left – there seemed to be enough activity to warrant giving it a go at least!
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| Chilli...con...carne! |
By 6.30am I gradually dragged myself out of the sleeping bag and whacked the kettle on for my first caffeine hit of the day. With one coffee down the hatch, I pulled on the jacket and stood once more on the high bank. I saw nothing but strangely, and almost in an eerie manner, the mist started to drift in engulfing everything around it. Then the mist then because a thick bank of fog...spooky times! By 8am the mist started to burn off and the sun once again reigned supreme and confirmed we were in for another cracking late-November morning.
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| My carp house seemed more appealing than being stood outside...the sun was coming! |
By 9am I was deliberating what the hell to do with the rods. Three of the rods I was happy with but I had made up my mind to move one down to my left. Then completely unexpectedly a couple of sharp bleeps sounded from my 4th rod, the one positioned where the hookbait was positioned some 200yds away close to a small dot island. After the initial burst from the alarm, the clip pulled, the tip bounced and bent over…fish on! I legged it to the rod, picked it up like a demon and lifted into whatever was on the end. For a split second I was convinced I’d hit into thin air but thankfully I felt a kick from a carp on the end – come on!
After a bit of navigating under the other rods I was out in the boat winding down to the fish. In my head I was cool and focussed but for some reason my right leg was shaking uncontrollably and it wouldn’t stop! What the hell was I attached to? With a deep breath I passed over the first shallow bar some 30 yards out in front of me and turned the boat round and whacked on the engine and steered myself out to the fish, reeling steadily and dropping my rod on a tight line, either left or right to steer myself out to the carp zone! I was only a few yards away from the spot when I lost the tension in the line and momentarily I thought I’d dropped the fish. Fortunately I needn’t have worried as the fish kicked hard as my leader knot passed onto the reel…this was now battle time! I kept on winding and wound down to the top of my leadcore leader – now was the time to hold on and keep my nerve. The fish surfaced and I caught a glimpse of a golden-flanked common – not a massive one, but big enough to keep my right leg shaking like an epileptic baboon! Once more the fish tried to spin the boat but I just steered her left or right to keep myself straight. After five minutes of plodding around up she came and after a bit of a scramble with the net in she went! Yessssssss…..I so wanted to shout it out aloud but not wanting to sound like I Rainbow virgin who’d just netted his first fish, this shout only sounded inside my head! Relief was draped all over me – a fish in the net after getting a bite on a hookbait that had been in position for nearly 72 hours! With my leg returning to normal I grinned from ear to ear as I made my way back to terra firma with my prize.
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| Get in there - 40lb of November carp! Nice tache too! |
On the scales she went 40lb 10oz – not massive by Rainbow standards but for me it was a massive personal achievement and a huge sense of relief that I’d actually managed to catch one from a swim devoid of fish! Never give up – too damn right.
Until tomorrow, Jerry.
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