I had dabbled with a bit of bank fishing on the river in the past and caught my 1st river Carp. A small but mint common. This time I had the boat so set about baiting a couple of spots that are hard to target from the bank. The reason being that if I was going to spend time and money bating I didn't want to make it easy for someone else to gain from my effort. But if they did I would accept it as nobody has exclusive rights to fish a specific spot. Unless they own the venue of course.
When June 16th came around I had to work so I got everything ready for an evening session. I was thinking of maybe doing the whole night in the boat. But it would not be the most comfortable nights fishing in that cramped space! I got to the river about 4.30 pm and set about getting the boat into the river. The excitement was building! With everything loaded the electric motor set me off down river. I was cautious about gunning it to the spot as I wanted to make sure I had enough power to get me back! I did see one Carp on the way to my chosen spot. It was a small common of about 10lbs in weight not far from the area I was going to fish. I wondered if this could have been the same fish I caught a couple of seasons earlier?
A few minutes later and I was anchored up in my chosen spot. The weed was not bad but the cabbage lilies in front of me would make my lines stick out like a sore thumb! I had my weed rake with me so I made a clearing to allow a better line lay. I baited the spot with a quarter kilo of my trusty homemade squid and shellfish sense appeal boilies. A mixture of whole and broken baits. I didn't want to bait too heavily as if a Carp came along I wanted it to find my hookbait easily. My rigs were 2 hinged stiff links but with a soft coated braid main boom just so they presented better on the soft river bed. And 2oz leads on clips. The hookbaits were homemade pop ups of the same flavour as the free offerings. 1 red and 1 white. I was not expecting anything to happen anytime soon as the weed raking may have scared away any Carp in the area?
Maybe I was worrying over nothing as a couple of hours later my rod was bending and the reel screaming as the white pop up was taken by a strong fish! I picked up the rod and was met by a surge of power from the fish. I had to slacken the clutch as it made off down river. Whenever I turned it the fish just ran stronger the other way! It tried to take me into the snaggy margin. Luckily I steered it clear otherwise it would have been game over! The fight was nearly over and I could see it was mirror. I got it over the net and as happens so often it decided it didn't like it and swam out again! I pulled it in again and this time I scooped up the net around it. Got one!
With the fish safely in the net I set about getting ready for unhooking and weighing the fish in the boat. I lifted the fish up and placed it on the mat. He was nose to tail to the width of the boat. I thought to myself I'm gonna need a bigger boat if I catch any bigger fish! The hook was never coming out as it was firmly in the bottom lip. I treated it's lip with anti-septic as always. The fish weighed 18lbs and was in mint condition. I slipped it back extremely content I managed to get a fish in my little boat and returned safely.
I carried on fishing into dark but only managed a reasonable Bream. I decided I didn't want a night unhooking those so I called it a day and steamed back to my car. It was dark but my head torch and hand held mag lite were more than enough to see my way up the river.
Surfice to say I can't wait to get back afloat again! Watch this space :-)
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