I hope you have been catching lots of fishes and enjoying the summer!
Summer used to mean lots of lazy days sat behind rods in the hopes of catching Carp and Catfish,but since I have been infected by the lure bug my efforts towards these species has taken a bit of a dive.Not that it matters as I am loving my fishing and that is all that matters so what the hell am I banging on about?
Well I keep looking at my lovely set of carp gear sat dormant gathering dust and thinking to myself that I must get out and give the Horizons a good flexing.Back in the winter I was invited to a catfish fish in at Todber manor with the motley crew of the region 12 ( Somerset )Pike anglers club,
A few months passed and the time had come to load the gear into the van,head up to Dorset and give those rods a good bashing.upon arrival the lads were itching to get going,but not before Paul Western presented us all with some excellent t shirts he had knocked up in his sweatshop,I mean factory.Anyway we drew swim numbers from a hat to keep things fair and as luck would have it I drew a nice little peg with an island feature a short chuck in front of me and some lovely reedy margins flanking my swim.Old Mox had drew the peg next door to me so if anything we would have a laugh even if the fishing was shit.
Thanks for the shirt Paul,spot on!
It was a boiling hot day so after lathering myself in crem de sol and setting up my home for the weekend , cracked a beer and mused on my tactics for the session.I know this was meant to be a cattin trip but I had Carp in mind and after having a bit of a lead around I found a silty patch located at the bottom of the island shelf,on this I presented 2 naked choddy's either side of the feature and pulted out a bunch of boileys around the area.After giving the line a moment to sink and settle I attached the bobbins and began the waiting game.
The going was slow on the lake and the first night only produced a lone Cat of around 10lbs which fell to a whole squid on one of Moxey's rods.Not the haul we were all hoping for but as we all knew cats can be very fickle,nevermind,we still had another night ahead of us and a day time bite is not unheard of.I was a bit peeved that I had not had an inspection of either of my pop ups so I wound in and put on fresh glugged baits with a plan to cast singles around over the course of the day whilst keeping an eye on the area I had been baiting.
An hour or so later I was boiling the kettle to fix a brew when I noticed the limp line tightening on the rod I had pubbed to a reed-line past the right hand side of the island.the alarm was yet to sound but before it did so I piked up the rod and wound down the slack to be met with what felt like the bottom,a bit of pressure was applied which woke the fish up and sent it ape-shit.The line was being ripped of my reel as the fish went on a huge unstoppable run to my left getting her self round the back of the flippin island.I had the worst angle on the fish and could feel the line grating on the side of the island,this left me no choice but to strip off and get into the drink to get a clean angle on the fish and do some serious arguing with what was clearly a good Cat.I got into the lake and made my way along the reeds to get to the channel between the islands,thankfully I persuaded the fish to come out into clear water.A few tense minutes passed before she gave up to the charm of mox's seamless netting skills.
Its wasn't until we had the fish on the mat did I realise how big she was,the gutt was huge.She had certainly been living the good life.At 62 10 I had landed myself a UK PB beating my last by 8 ounces! on a chod rig of all things.After a few snaps it was time for her to go back into the pond,I held her for a moment before she swam off strongly to go and fill her face again I imagine.
If your not already bored of seeing Mullet and Bass pictures, here's another fine example of the fun that can be had using ultra light lure tackle.
Til next time
Good luck
