It had been a really beautiful week with sunny skies and a warming sun greeting the onset of spring, so Lee and I were really looking forward to a days fishing, only for the weather to cloud over on our selected day, Saturday. We arrived at Michael, our friend's lakes at Bishop's Itchington where the car immediately sank into the mud on our approach. Apparently the drainage was playing up, but we made such a mess of the grassed area, and felt very guilty trying to tread the rut as flat as possible before starting to fish. However this did give me time to see a fish moving in the corner and set up a rod with a piece of bread flake. I crept up to catch the first mirror carp of the morning, but a fish of barely 5lb.
I was keen to catch a pike as we don't have many in Devon and on my last two attempts I had lost goodish fish well into double figures, and I was keen to put matters right. As I changed over from my stalking presentation to pike spinning, making the wire trace (I don't trust purchased ones) Lee was quickly into a jack on the specimen lake. He always manages to catch a jack out of this corner. We then worked our way around the water, Lee losing another jack as the hook pulled out (we always squeeze our barbs to prevent the fish from being damaged in unhooking) Then he had a stroke of luck, the lure snagged on the bottom and after a few seconds he managed to shake it loose only for a jack to smash it, virtually taking off in the process.
As we progressed around, I then spotted a fish moving under a tree which I thought was a carp. Lee crept up and confirmed it was a carp in the low 20lb range, and although he quietly baited up, the fish obviously felt his presence and just drifted off into the deeper water.
After circulating the lake, we decided to leave spinning until nearer dusk and to floatfish on the house lake. Whilst the fish aren't so big in this lake, it is more picturesque and offers an ideal vista when floatfishing. By this time the wind was changing direction and there was a real bite in the air so we weren't very confident, but I managed to catch a nice common carp (pictured) and a few roach/rudd/bream hybrids, I always enjoy watching the float dip under.
Lee decided as dusk approached to set up another rod for spinning and walked away from his set up, only for a clanking noise to start. I thought Lee was playing a tune by tapping something and I was just about to say a selection of expletives when he returned to his rod, the noise being his centre pin rotating against the rod rest. Lee quickly licked up the slack line and managed to turn the fishsome 40 yards to our right, just short of a submerged fence post. He then gently eased it closer but only had 4lb line on his flick'em and a Thames style float rod with no tip power, As time passed he managed to get the fish to the net and it was only then that we realised it was a good fish for the lake turning the scales round to 16lb 4oz. i couldn't believe he had been so luck for the fish to hook itself and to play it away from the posts, past submerged bushes and bring it to the net.
As normality returned and the light started to fall, I went spinning. After three casts I struck into a good pike which steadily took line from the reel. Lee arrived with the net as I steadily played the fish and it got ever closer to the net. then, just as Lee was about to net it, the hooks pulled out!!! This makes it three in a row that I had lost and thids was another double fighure fish. How could he be so lucky, and luck totally desert me. I blamed him for using all our luck up and was tempted to make him walk home, particularly when he started to smirk.