stevetheangler

Well… I suppose this should really be ‘Session 48’ as I did go off fishing last Friday but due to a biological explosion in my pants, the devastation of which had not been seen since ‘The Blitz’, and which happened literally within minutes of arriving waterside, I had the need to return home…. but TMI….

Anyway, back to more pleasant things….

Tuesday 16th August 2016 and I was away to a club pool (actually there are two on site – and they are more ‘ponds’ than ‘pools’ with about space for 10 anglers on each – and even that only if they are very friendly) that I’d not visited for probably 2 years, mainly due to it being 35 miles from home and the generally expected size of fish is not that good compared to more local options. However, it is a nice fishery – very quiet, rarely see another person all day never mind another angler, and out in the sticks… and it does hold grass carp…. which I intended to be my target for the day due to 2 factors…

1. I had watched an episode of Matt Hayes/Mick Brown’s ‘The Great Rod Race’ whereby they were after two species that day – crucian and grass carp. In fact, the venue they were at, Himley Hall, is actually located only 2-3 miles from my house! Why didn’t I save fuel and go there? Well, as a public asset these days, its a bit too busy with dog walkers, ramblers and other anglers for me at the moment- but that said once the summer has passed it gets very much quieter and has it contains a good head of many species of decent size too – and at about £6 a day (£3 for codgers like me! And everyone gets that price from November to March IIRC :)) – it is a fantastic facility. Anyway, seeing the grass carp brought on my urge to try to higher my PB which currently stood at 7lb 1oz.
2. With hot sunny weather the conditions for grass carping looked to be perfect for my ‘crusade’ out into the wilds of Shropshire…

So, the plan was to start off generally floatfishing for whatever came along whilst catapulting out floating freebies – bread, dog biscuits – from time to time to entice the grassies to start surface feeding… and this I did, catching a few small common and mirror carp ranging from a few ounces to just under 2lb on worm and meat baits – sweetcorn prodiced not a nibble. However, the conditions for surface fishing for grassies wasn’t perfect with a slight ‘orange peel’ ripple on the water from the slight breeze of the day – I find anything less than glass smooth and its hard, if not impossible – and it wasn’t until around 1330 that any interest was seen in the floating freebies. So, the float rod was put to one side and the ‘floater’ rod (12lb mono, size 4 hook, lump of bread) was cast into the area of interest – and resulted in 2 common carp  of 2-00 and 2-08 being landed over the next hour. And then all surface activity stopped again… so back out came the float rod… and the size 10 hook was baited with 2 x 1/4″ cubes of meat and cast out. Soon the float sailed away and a strike met solid resistance …. and a few minutes later the net was slipped under a nice grass carp….. NOW… does this prove that Plumrose tinned meats are more cereal binder than meat?? LOL!

So fish was quickly unhooked, weighed and photographed… and the photography was a game and a half as the fish was extremely boisterous and I ended up taking 15 shots (3 lots on a 5-shot timer) to get a few semi-decent ones, the one above being the best of the bunch – far from perfect but I wanted to get the fish back in the water at that point to save it undue stress…

Oh yes!!! That fish was 8lb 0oz – a new Personal Best!!

I always say, if I had to rate a fishing day, just being there makes the day 70% successful, having a bite or bites makes it up to 80%, landing a fish 90%, and having a PB makes it a 100% day – hence the title :)