Friday, 16th. November
Preparations for the next session
I’d already started to think about what I might do for the next session at the end of the last one. A plough through my diaries (which go back to 1978!) reminded me of several stories which had valuable lessons learnt and which I had completely forgotten about. There were two in particular which guide my thoughts now:Back in the mists of time when dinosaurs roamed the earth (1986 to be precise) I was fishing Bysing Wood, Faversham where I had done extremely well, catching over a hundred fish in a season (and in one memorable year, nearly twice that number). In those days, a twenty-pound fish was a real result and were few and far between in any twelve month period. It was a heavily fished water then and had seen some of the best anglers this country has ever produced - Fred Wilton (developing his HNV baits), Gerry Savage, Bob Morris (who became the first angler to officially record a hundred ‘doubles’ in one season); even Kevin Maddocks had a session on there before he ripped apart the nearby School Pool with his new invention The Hair Rig (actually, it was not him alone - The Hair was developed in conjunction with Lenny Middleton).
The fish were ‘cute’ in every sense and had seen it all (for then anyway). At the time I’m talking about, Kevin was just about to introduce The Hair and his ‘Side Hooking’ method was currently the ‘standard’ way of carp-fishing; even this however had had its day and as always the fish began to be ‘one jump ahead’ of the angler. This was evident in a session which proved to be one of those seminal moments that happen from time to time (although in the ensuing decades, the lessons of it have been forgotten somewhat).
I’d had a frustrating day. Fish were topping over my baits, rolling and occasionally crashing and I’d had not a bleep, twitch, or movement of any kind on the indicators. I was tearing my hair out! Where previously I had been stacking them up like breeze-blocks - I couldn’t buy a bite! I just could not think what to do. There were only a limited number of options available at the time, carp-fishing not having been developed to its current giddy heights. I sat back in frustration not knowing what to try next…
Then an old, long-time member turned up and started fishing opposite me on the far side of the lake. I knew him of old and thought “he won’t catch anything; if I can’t get anything then I’m damn sure he won’t!” His baits had been out about half an hour I suppose when I saw him jump up and reach for his rod, whereupon he reeled a fish straight in to the bank!
Fluke. Had to be a fluke. He’s not that good. Doesn’t really know what he’s doing. It’s probably that the fish have just started feeding so I should get one myself since his baits are about five yards away from mine yonder…
Ten minutes later he was up again and had another!
Now that’s just rubbing it in! Two fish in under an hour and I’ve been here all day and had zilch. Confusion in my mind. I knew that he couldn’t possibly be fishing as ‘well’ as me with all the knowledge of up-to-date methods I’d got.
Serious frown on my face. Red-faced embarrassment.
Twenty minutes later he was in again!!…
Now this really was serious. One fish was a fluke, two was damn lucky; three, and he was doing something right and I was doing it wrong. But what?
I knew how he fished - a bog-standard running leger - An Arlesey Bomb on the line stopped by a shot pinched on, and whatever hook he’d got in the bottom of his tackle box. It must be bait then. They’re on his bait and not mine (I’m afraid I have no record of what I was using on that day). I could see through binoculars however that it was the familiar orange colour of a commercially available boily which had recently become available (can’t remember what it was but it was one of the first boilies to be sold in tackle shops).
I had to change something. I was obviously doing something wrong and in order to catch I had to try and emulate what ‘Bonehead’ opposite was doing. I knew he used the running rig so I cobbled together something, chucked it out and had a fish in ten minutes! The rod with my normal rig lay untouched, as it did so when fish number two took off. I even had a third before it was time to pack up but unfortunately it fell off before I could net it. The lesson was learnt however and I went on to catch many more fish in the following sessions on the lake. The lesson of The Running Rig faded from memory however over the years until some time a couple of decades later…
It was my good friend Phil who got me into fishing the French rivers in the Picardie region, but one day he suggested a long trip down south - to the River Soane in Southern France. It was a very, very long way and took seemingly forever but Phil promised that it would be worth it in the end.
The river was packed with locals when we arrived. It was a French Bank Holiday and almost every swim on the river was taken with carp anglers. I was astonished at this as on our visits to Picardie, we had barely seen another soul! However, we managed to find two swims adjacent and we set ourselves up just before dark.
Phil got the boat set up and set about baiting his swim. In those days this involved industrial quantities of Hemp, Maize, Pellets, boilies, and anything he thought was edible by carp - he chucked it all over the river from bank to bank and just on dark he started getting results as fish after fish came to his rods. As usual, ‘muggins’ here was fish-less and getting very frustrated at the lack of action to his rods! By nine o’clock in the evening, by which time Phil had caught about six or seven fish, I determined to duplicate exactly what Phil had got on. We were on similar baits so it wasn’t that which was doing the trick, but he fished in a completely different way to me. I was using a lead clip arrangement on a ‘Korda’ plastic leader with a coated braided hook-link, the hair formed using the stripped-back braid. Phil on the other hand had a short leader made of high strength braid and a simple knotless knotted hook-link about ten inches long to which was fixed two boilies. It was as simple as it is possible to get - but it was ‘doing the business’!
Back in the swim and I cobbled together a similar arrangement and started catching almost immediately.
The moral of these stories is that the change from a Resistance Rig to a Running Rig turned blanks into successful sessions. I have pondered long and hard about why this should be and I suppose the obvious answer is that the resistance to the fixed/semi-fixed lead was what they didn’t like. Once again, the lessons of these experiences has been forgotten in the fog of literally hundreds of sessions since. So now it’s time to dredge up the running rig again. At the very least it will enable me to see if there is any interest in the baits as with fixed/semi-fixed rigs, inspections occur without any indication on the bobbin at all. With a running rig, at least the fish ‘tell’ you when there’s a pick-up.
Thursday, 22nd.November
The Back Lake, The Hidden
11.00So I’m back on the BL in The Hidden with a new strategy, new tactics, and new bait, (well, the same bait - Cherry Carp KMT bottom baits glugged in H-DEC, but used in a different way).
I reminded myself of the depths - 8 ft. At 3 + 1 yd. wraps and found that the rise in the bottom (what I’d thought was a ‘hump’) was in fact the up-slope to a marginal plateau. The depth continued in to the bank so the bottom looks more like this:
This makes the spot no less significant as the fish come up from the deeper water of 12 - 13ft. and feed on the plateau.
It was very cold last night - down to zero, and there was ice in the puddles on the path down to the lake this morning. Not as cold as some areas of the UK which registered minus figures where a hard frost was recorded. Here in North Kent I think we were saved by cloud cover which stopped the temperatures from getting that low. It’s still cloudy now and there is no wind down in this sheltered spot, the lake looking its typical winter self, benign, but freezing cold!
Rigs and Bait
As promised I’ve made up running rigs very similar, if not identical to those I used all those years ago.
The 15lb. Mainline is joined to an ESP Rig Ring, size Small. The sizing is of vital importance as I will explain shortly. The ‘leader’ (which is knotted to the Rig Ring) comprises eighteen inches or so of ‘Korda Semi-Stiff’ coated braid. The aim of this is to provide sufficient stiffness behind the lead to give an anti-tangle effect on the cast. The running lead is a 3ozs. Korda square pear, the eye of which is big enough to easily pass over the rig ring. This is of such importance I can not stress it enough - if the eye of the lead does not pass over the rig ring then the rig becomes a Death Rig. In the event of a break above the leader, the lead must be ‘dumped’ if the fish is not to be towing the lead about. The hook-length is the most simple, basic rig you can contrive. 15lb. ‘Daiwa Sensor’ is knotless-knotted to a size 4 ‘Combat Chod Hook’, the bait positioned on the shank rather than off the bend. This was how we always used to fish baits ‘straight out of the bag’; it worked well then as I’m sure it will work now. A few bottom baits have been thrown onto the spot - not too many as I don’t want them eating my ‘freebies’ in preference to the hook-baits although I see a Coot is already diving on them so I shall have to keep them ‘topped up’, certainly at nightfall.
To make one bait stand out amongst the dark red offerings, one of the rods is ‘armed’ with a ‘Sticky Baits Signature’ pink wafter. I’ve tested it in a bucket of water and the hook just sinks the bait, so one good sniff by a carp and it’s in!
12.00
From my position in The Hidden I can see right down to the far end. A fish has just rolled on the edge of The Pads.
Should I pack up and move down there? As I’ve said before, I have no appetite for ‘snag fishing’; but for how long can I ignore these obvious ‘shows’ before getting on them and fishing where they are instead of fishing where they are not? At what point does standing by an ethical principle cease to be a virtue and becomes bad Angling?
12.15
Bovril and Marmite. You either love ‘em or hate ‘em! If like me you are on the love ‘em side of the fence I can thoroughly recommend these drinks. Just add boiling water; taken at regular intervals they are just the thing for a cold winter’s day and help to keep the body’s core temperature at the right level. Quick, convenient, and tasty. Only down-side is that the constant pouring of fluids down one’s neck gives rise to the need to pee at regular intervals! The widespread distribution of Urine about one’s chosen angling-place is not to be recommended on so many levels!
14.00
I am the only one here; I have the place to myself. How rare it is to have an entire lake at your disposal with no-one interfering with what you are doing… More Bovril is required to keep out the cold. I may be imagining things but I feel really confident. But haven’t I had this feeling before?
15.30
Signs of activity at this end of the lake - could be small fish but one or two swirls look to be from fish considerably bigger. Just going to have a cup of ‘Yorkshire’ tea and then change the baits as it’s starting to get dark already.
16.00
I re-cast the r.h. rod one yard shorter to make sure it is on the plateau rather than down the ‘slope’.
20.00
The evening has been very quiet. I’ve the front door of the bivvy down and I’m making a cup of tea. Earlier, just after dark, there were a couple of snatches to the right-hand rod. Bream? Although I caught one last time I was led to believe they are very few and far between in this lake. No signs of rolling or swirling like I’ve seen off the Pads at the other end of the lake. Perhaps I should abandon my principles and fish the snags? I really don’t want to. ’T’ has pledged to fish the open water swims because of losing fish and I am with him on this. However, the longer my run of blanks goes on, the more I shall be persuaded it may offer my best chance of a fish. But at what cost? I really don’t want to chance leaving a fish trailing line and especially not in snags where it may tether itself and die…
Friday, 23rd.November 2018
07.15It was very quiet for the rest of the night. Just before dawn however I had a series of twitches to the r.h. rod (again) which lifted the bobbin four or five inches. Bream again or carp?
I awoke this morning however with a very strong feeling of futility and frustration. I confess, all seems hopeless at the moment and it feels as if I am never going to get a bite. I know I must carry on though; I will get one eventually but I’m thinking more and more about ’T’s’ instruction to “fish the third cross-member of The Pylon”. What does he call the ‘third cross-member’? Does he mean the third from the top or the third from the bottom? Of course, the reflection in the water is the mirror-image of the actual Pylon itself so he could have meant either the top one or the bottom one!
Plumbing rod out again methinks.
07.45
Just checked the spot again. I was right. It is the first cross-member reflection on the water and it isn’t a hump but a marginal plateau. I think what I’ll do in future though is not wrap up to it - but use the reflection on the water as my marker and cast directly onto it.
Maybe next time…
Comments
Post a Comment