After the seemingly endless winter, with northerly winds keeping the temperature very low even when the sun was shining, it was a joy to have a hot spring day even though I was working in the shop all day.
When I got home, Sandy made a quick meal so that I could be fishing by Darracott Reservior for 6.45pm. It was a gloriious day, one that everybody dreams of fishing, and with the strong sun heating the water, I thought that the fish would have moved into the shallows at the top of the reservoir by the trees. I decided to floatfish here, about 5 foot deep, but fearing that I would have trouble with a carp sooner or later.
So it proved, no sonner had I set up fishing with a solitary grain of sweetcorn, throwing in about 10 grains of loosefeed, when my float slid under. After a quick strike, everything went solid and then started to swim towards the trees. On my light line (4lb) I held as hard as I dared, and he hook pulled free. A second cast and a few minutes later, the float slid away again with the same result, except this the fish ran into the trees breaking the line. I didn't expect two carp in two casts within fifteen minutes.
After quickly setting up again, I changed to lighter terminal tackle, small float, and went to a 12 hook. I had to wait about ten minutes for my next bite and this fish tore off again but didn't seem to have the bulk of the previous fish but fought really hard; it was a really beautiful tench, one of my favourite fish and this one alone would have made the evening memorable. I deplore the lack of nice tench ponds with reeds and lillies, and catching a nice looking fish is a real pleasure.
I then carried on landing a stream of silver fish (Do rudd qualify here as they are more golden?). rudd, roach and bream. On light float tackle, it was a fun evening and even though I fished for a just over 2 hours, I landed over two dozen fish.
Then it happened, the float slid away again and I felt the bulk on the end of the line. I quickly struck and pulled as hard towards the trees as I could hoping that the fish would instinctively head the other way into open water. Much to my amazement, the plan worked and I was able to largely tire the fish in open water before bring it in near to the trees where I was fishing. By this time, I had the upper hand and was able to control the direction of the fish sufficiently to keep it out of trouble.
The carp weighed 13lb and was an old acquaintance of mine. It is one of the batch put in several years ago with damaged mouths from another water to give them better living conditions. It is sad that barbed hooks, bolt rigs and people striking at shortr range with 3lb test curve rods result in this happening all too often. The last time I caught her she was about 15lbs but, other than the deformed mouth, she looked in healthy condition and fought well.
After all the commotion, I decided to call it a night and walk home having enjoyed every minute of the sport and the surroundings. As I walked around the pool I noticed that the warmth had also encouraged the roach to start spwaning, so will now give the water a break for a month as I don't think it is fair to catch fish about to spawn or having recently spawned. Time to go fly fishing, or try for the impossible mullet again.