continued
I had my first fish during the day, a 31lb mirror, now I don't know about you, but it is nice to catch carp during the day, so many waters I fish it seems to be darkness that produces most of the bites, don't get me wrong I'm not complaining! But it does make everything easier, landing the fish, controlling the fish, weighing the fish, photography and returning the fish all become straightforward during daylight hours. Let's not forget how much better the photos are when taken during daylight.
The fish didn't want to feed confidently in any area of the lake, I had my left hand rod in the margins of the lodge bank, baiting and fishing various points along the bank, there are a few spots that I have caught from along these trees and bushes on prior visits, but this time I wasn't sure if there was any fish present, but I would continue to bait this margin throughout the week knowing the fish would get there. Perry was in a similar situation with his side of the dam wall, he was also fishing to gaps within the bushes on the right side of the bay, one particular spot was identified by a white stick bankside. He was running his baitboat out to this spot as the previous year when Vince fished the swim most of his fish came from the area.
Both mine and Perry's other rods were being fished straight out at varying distances from the dam wall, this was where my first fish came from, the middle rod at about 60yds. Perry's middle rod was fishing to the edge of a plateaux, this was the same plateaux that Darrell was fishing to but the other side. Rich was fishing to his side of the far point with one rod just off a patch of weed, again this point and weed was the same area as the Hammer was fishing to from the other side of the lake in big snags. As you can see these areas are all boundary areas and unless the lines are kept on the bottom it does make you think it might encourage the carp to feel a bit uneasy to feed confidently. However my next fish was a cracker of a mirror weighing in at 46lb 8oz, Steve had a 29lb mirror and Darrell had a 33lb 10oz common.
46lb 8oz
Perry had started to get some action from his spots but had failed to land the fish, this was to change on Thursday, Richard had caught a small mirror of 26lb so it was only Perry and the Hammer who still hadn't caught. It was the rod fishing towards the white stick that produced the bite, Perry took this very carefully not wanting to lose another fish, after a well fought battle the net was slid under a lovely 42lb 12oz mirror, the pressure was off! I know we shouldn't, but we do tend to feel pressure to catch fish when we go to France for the week. Let's face it, it cost a lot of money, takes a lot of planning and organisation, it's nice to catch! It was now Thursday night, now we have always been believers of 'big fish Thursday' and what happens Rich goes and catches one of the big girls. It's about 10pm and his rod that is over towards the centre point gets a bite, after playing the fish in darkness with Steve helping with the net a cheer goes up and a message comes over the walkie talkie that he has a monster, after weighing and checking the scales, the weight is confirmed as 61lb 8oz a new PB and a very happy Swedish angler! That was the last fish to come from that part of the lake for the rest of the week, Perry had a nice 39lb common later that night, I had another mirror of 45lb and Darrell had a 36lb mirror Friday during the day. The last fish landed was a beauty of a mirror by Perry early Friday night, this one weighed 49lb and looked a beast of a carp.
49lb
61lb 8 oz
We had 14 carp between us for the week, Darrell and I had 4 each, Perry had 3, Rich 2 and Steve had just the one, unfortunately the Hammer blanked, no reason for it, it was just the way it worked out on the week. All the swims can produce fish at this venue and I would even suggest big snags as being one of the most productive.
I have uploaded a youtube video, if you fancy watching, if you do I hope you enjoy it.
Other Pics of the week, just click on the thumbnail.
