Hello to all
You may have already guessed it by the title of this piece?..... yep back at Zyggy's , since joining the 5c's I can hardly tear myself away from the place. I have been some what side tracked from my usual tradition of spending the bulk summer chasing river fish; and to be honest I'm having so much fun at Zygs I'm not really missing the sound of running water at all.
Fun and enjoyment is what its all about; learning and making improvements is also a big part of angling. During my short time at Anglers paradise I feel I have learnt more about catching Carp than I have in years.Spending time on the main lake has given me the oppertunity to experiment with lots of different presentations and methods and most importantly really understand the reasons for using them, thus enabling the angler (in this case me) to tackle each situation with the most effective way of catching the fish.
My latest session on the Main proved to be very fruitful, After a bit of exploration with the trusty marker float I located a good sized hard patch situated a few rod lengths of an island. This seemed like a good spot to lay on a nice spread of boiley and pellet, and at around 30 yards baiting up with the catty and a few cheeky spombs was an easy task. I decided to spice things up a bit and use solid bags on one rod and small sticks on tutha,both rods where fished on the baited patch and before I could even get the kettle on the right hand rod with the stick on it was away with a proper one toner! the fish had instantly responded to my offering and whilst playing what felt like a reasonable Carp I could still see bubbling over the baited patch. After a dogged fight in the margins I slipped the net under a pristine Mirror of 20lb 2oz, a good start indeed.
The morning continued to produce on both presentations,but by around lunch time the action dipped as the fish took a break to sun themselves in the upper layers. I don't blame them really and to be honest I felt a bit lazy myself, a floater set up may have yielded a few but I was quite content to remain planted on my arse soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the fact I was'nt at work toshin plaster around.The lake was devoid of anglers other than myself and pal Dan Price, who's initiation into the 5c's will be coming up soon, I look forward to being a spectator this time ( lol ).Dan also enjoyed some sport and caught a few Carp and a plump Golden Tench.
After cooking us up a typically shoddy anglers dinner I set about topping my spot up with fresh batch of bait in the hopes of having multiple visitor's during the night.The evening was very warm and muggy,it felt like a heavy downpour was on its way.I hoped this wasn't going to be the case as I wasn't really kitted up for a wet one,any way getting wet aside these are often good conditions for a decent hit.The Wels catfish (more often than not) will go bang on the munch during such conditions and didn't I just know it. At around 3am the solid bag rod had snared me a fish that couldn't possibly be a Carp! Crunch crunch crunch went the heavily set clutch as the fish powered off into the darkness and frankly where ever the hell it wanted, I felt pretty powerless during the opening round.After ten or so minutes I started to get the upper hand and shouted for Dan to grab my head torch and shoes.We lit up the lake revealing the fish was close. Get the net mate I nervously said as I piled full pressure on to try and get its head up and sneek a glimpse of its size.The fish was having none of it and in a rage suddenly ripped off leaving me no choice but to slaken the clutch and let her get it out of her system.This process repeated a few times and my wrist was aching but with a last gasp walking backwards locked up heave and some bloody good netting from Danny boy the donkey was in the sack.
Pheeew, with a deep breath I could finally relax.There lay a huge Cat that would surely smash my pb of 47lb 8oz and after just about getting her into the sling the scales proved exactly that, she turned the needle round to an impressive 62lbs. I was standing under the moon feeling well over it. I love Catfish,there bloody brilliant!
Til next time
Good luck
