Pleasant Surprises

The short session last Sunday on the local lake with my 2 mates had fired something up inside me. As I have described before in this blog, when I was in my early teens I used to spend every spare moment over the lake on the estate where my mother lives, float fishing bread for roach. I used to keep the rod made up in garage to grab at short notice, and always made sure there was enough bread in the house for me to pinch, but leave enough for the breakfast toast. And I've now found myself in a similar situation. It's a bit difficult as I have now moved away from my mothers, but this Tuesday I was back there as I had the dentist in the morning. I arrived back from the dentist at around half 10, and I had 3 hours to kill before I had to get off to work. It wasn't exactly a hard decision.

A corner of the lake on 'Castle View' Estate

As soon as I arrived back from the dentist, I went off into the shed to make up a rod. I grabbed my brothers 12ft Garbolino squad combo rod (as my rods were at the house where I live) and my Diawa exceler reel. I then slid on a 3BB waggler (although I used No4 and No6 shots to shot it down) straight through to a size 12 hook. Now this does sound quite a heavy outfit for roach fishing, I actually gave a little cringe as I typed it, but these fish see very little angling pressure, so as such are not tackle shy. There's also the slight possibility of catching a carp too, so I wanted to make sure I would be able to land it if the opportunity arose. Once the rod was set up, I quickly made a bait box full of bread mash to use as a ground bait (by soaking 6 slices of bread in water, then mashing it with a fork and adding 2 teaspoons of sugar to help it bind) and made my way over to the lake.

There was quite ripple on the water, so I chose to fish an area of the lake that I've only wetted a line in once or twice. To my right was a reed bed that protruded about 6ft into the lake, and as the wind was coming across from this direction, it created a nice area of calm water in front, in which I could present my bread flake in the best possible way.
I kicked the swim off with 2 golf ball sized handfuls of the bread mash. My plan was to start off feeding light, and then increase the amount I fed if the fish were really switched onto it. It only took 5 minutes before the first roach hit the net. Not a big fish, maybe 6oz, but I was happy that the fish were there and willing to feed. So I slipped the roach back, and fed the swim some more.

An example of the roach in the lake from a previous trip


 

2 minutes later, another roach succumbed to the bread flake. I had a feeling this was going to be a good session. I slipped it back, fed a bit more and then recast the float into the swim. I didn't have to wait long for another bite to start developing, and after a bob here and a weave there, it eventually glided across the surface and slid under. I hit it and the rod instantly gave a better bend. The fish didn't power away, infact it didn't take any line, but it kept deep and wallowed around under the rod tip. I felt quite excited to find out what it was and lived in hope that it would be a sizeable roach. Alas, after 30 seconds the figure of a baby common carp broke the surface and was soon lying in my net. This was a pleasant surprise, as it was the first time I had caught a small carp from this lake. I felt chuffed as beans as I slipped the little carp back and was already considering this to be a successful session.

The small common carp

Although I was pleased to have caught the small carp, I did feel that this was a fluke and the numbers of such fish in the lake would be very low. Oh how I was proved wrong, when on the next cast I had another baby carp lying in the net, this time an immaculate little mirror!

Beautiful Little Mirror Carp

All in all, I finished my short session with a total of 9 roach and 3 small carp (I managed to land another small common). I'm always happy to be out fishing, but to catch something is always a bonus. I would of been happy with just catching the roach, but those 3 small carp really made my day. It gave me a satisfying feeling to know that the older carp in the lake were spawning, and that fry were surviving and thriving. As long as the council keep the lake clean and free from litter, the future is looking good for the fish of this lake.

Tight Lines,
A R Howorth