Saturday dawned and I realised it was
my five year anniversary with girlfriend Denise so a quick visit to
Tesco did the trick, well almost! I tried to find a card, however
they were all titled, to our friends, on your, to my wife etc, no
cards titled to my girlfriend so instead of this I had to go
overboard on other gifts. Champagne - half price, flowers – buy one
get one free and a meal for £10 which included a bottle of red, for
me, set the scene yet after cooking and drinking I fell to sleep
early, so all in all it was almost an anniversary to remember! Love
you darling…
Sunday I headed to Wotton House on the
outskirts of Dorking as I was the photographer for a friend who was
tying the knot. Arriving at 10.30am and leaving some twelve hours
later took the stuffing out of me, yet come 8am Monday I was on the
bank of Badshot Lea Small Pond looking after a couple of youngsters,
Luna and Nico. It was a rescheduled FAS junior teach-in yet the
Helicopter rig that I wanted to show them just doesn’t work as well
as the year progresses so a change of venue to Badshot Lea Small Pond
saw them perfecting the art of using ‘The Pellet-Lead’. It was a
shame that they were slightly late as just before they arrived I
landed a common of 17lb 5oz which would have made their day. Whilst
setting up another enthusiastic young angler, Ross showed an interest
and joined in and come mid afternoon we had all caught a few carp and
bream, making it a very rewarding day for all parties. I would have
loved to have given them more time but I had a prior engagement that
evening with the river that had given myself and Chris big barbel the
previous week. Arriving late and after a long walk I found another
angler fishing the swim l wanted so had to head downstream and target
the carp, yet during the night and after no indications, up sticks
and moved. All in all a lot of effort but I just felt a few hours in
the right spot is better than a whole night in the wrong spot.
Unfortunately my efforts went unnoticed as did Chris’s yet we both
know that we are fishing a very difficult area, one that doesn’t
give up their inhabitants easily. At least the carp and barbel areas
were primed ready for another attempt shortly and come 6am we were
both on the road to work.
After a few hours kip I met up with my
good friend Jake Curry who I hadn’t seen for a while as he’s been
busy studying for exams as well as having a working holiday in the
Bahamas, luck boy! Today we were going to try our luck at floater
fishing and with temperatures rising to 26 degrees and with no wind
we instantly knew that we had made a wise decision, especially when a
cruising carp slurped in a few floaters in front of the car park on
the big pond. Heading round to the small pond we took a stroll around
the lake, found most of the carp in front of a few swims and
proceeded to feed them up before casting in. Five hours later we were
heading home with twenty-one carp to our names, the biggest 14lb 5oz.
An early night Tuesday saw the alarm
waking me at 5.30am and after a forty-five minute drive found myself
meeting up with good friend Alan Clancey on the banks of a new
stretch of the river Loddon as his guest. Alan put me in a known
barbel hotspot, yet apart from a couple of chub bites that were
missed the barbel failed to show and come 3.30am I was on my way to
pick the girlfriend up from work. Alan moved into the swim after I
left yet I haven’t heard from him so assume on such a bright day
the barbel just didn’t want to play. It was a great day, albeit in
conditions that weren’t conducive to catching and great to fish a
new stretch of the river and I’m looking forward to another go
later in the year when conditions are better and when I can fish all
day.
After dropping the girlfriend of
Thursday morning I headed to Stanford End for a day guiding a new
customer. Fortunately we had arranged to meet later than normal which
was good as it had been raining hard all night and as we meet the
rained eased. It seemed most other anglers planning to fish the river
that day were fair weather anglers as surprisingly the car park was
empty. Heading for a known swim it took Steve around twenty minutes
to receive a three-foot twitch from a barbel weighing, maybe
six-pound, but it was a start. Soon after catching other anglers
started to arrive and apart from one missed chub bite we were forced
to move downstream. Just one other angler allowed us to move around,
yet a couple of very productive swims, ones that I usually keep to
myself failed to produce, however dropping his bait in a likely
looking spot soon bought another bite, yet seconds after making
contact, what was almost certainly a chub saw the hook pulling.
Chancing a second cast saw another bite yet a repeat performance
occurred and although we kidded ourselves it was another chub we both
knew it wasn’t dam! Moving downstream we started to see other
anglers set up and apart from a couple of small plucks that ere
missed another barbel failed to show and with the light fading it was
time to call it a day. I was hoping for a relatively early night yet
it wasn’t to be as I had to get the tackle ready for another days
guiding on Friday, this time at Broadwater.
Meeting Chris at 7am and taking a quick
look at the lake gave us very little to go at regarding locating the
carp, so I decided to set up along the road bank, an area that is
rarely fished but almost always produces for me. Two hours later and
with just one common to show for our efforts it was time to move,
this time to the more favoured rugby bank, peg 12 in fact. Literally
after priming the swim it took no more than thirty seconds for the
alarm to scream. Come three hours later and with around a dozen more
carp to 13lb being landed Chris left having learnt a very important
lesson, don’t be afraid to move! It was more of a learning day of
casting repeatedly and accurately, scaling down not just terminal
tackle but also bait size and matching this to the feed. By the time
Chris left he was catching far more than any other angler on the
lake, had perfected the art of casting accurately and learnt some
vital lessons in how to get the best from a venue, lessons and tips
he can take forward to other venues and reap the rewards.
All in all a very busy, rewarding but
draining week, yet with a long weekend planned I’m looking forward
to being able to put my feet up for a few hours.
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