FLOOD FIGHTS

Hello to all

The dream of us winning the European cup has once more ended due to the fact that England are cack! I could easily write multiple pages detailing my dispair of pretty much the entire squad, But I wont bore you with all the details so lets talk some fishing.

Rain rain and some more rain has been the forecast as of late which has seen our rivers assume winter-like conditions, running fast and thick with colour and debris. Actually, the words colour and debris are in fact a massive understatement; The water is like mud and I have witnessed actual trees flying down stream like Nordic longboats. Conditions like these can prove a bit daunting but with a bit of venue knowledge and adaptation one can still enjoy a bit of sport. By adaptation I meen stepping up your gear to tackle a large fish combined with the heavy flow in the event of a hook-up.(After all I wasn't going tiddler bashing was I? )

The session in talk was one of those" Oh sod it, I may as well give it a go" affairs which saw me jump in the motor late evening to grab an hour or two's carping before Dusk.I knew what conditions awaited me so I grabbed the relevant equipment to counter the swollen river. Here's a quick tackle breakdown-3.25lb tc rods, reels loaded with 20lb mainline,4oz leads and super strong hook-links made from 25lb coated braid. It may sound like I'm going Cat fishing but believe me river carp fight hard enough in normal water levels so for this occasion the heavy approach was necessity.

For hook baits I opted for some CCmoore Meateor boiley's which I had left to soak in the matching glug for around a month. I also nicked on a pva bag of crushed boiley's and again dipped the whole lot in the glug creating a highly attractive parcel which would leek scent into the murky water.Rods were fished barbel style with the tips sky bound to keep as much line as possible out of the rivers thundering flow. An hour passed when I began to think I was wasting my time, then out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of what looked like a carp rolling on the surface.With my revitalised optimism I waited for another half hour or so when out of the blue the tip hammered down lifting up the rod butt as the free spool span like the wheel of a Ferrari going flat out....Fish on!!! the first run was unstoppable with the fish using the current to its full advantage. 50 yards or so later the reel was smoking but with a fully compressed rod I managed to turn the fish.To make things even harder I now had a 6ft tree branch attached to line and I began to think this was a battle I would surly lose But I hung on for 15 minutes and eventually bundled a beast of a mirror into the net.

This 18lb warrior gave me one of the hardest fights of my angling career so far.River carp are truly amazing creatures, just look at the size of its tail and fins.

Til next time

Good luck yall