Ok, so I got up at 0445 on a warm but overcast Friday, 13th June (should have realised what day it was!!) and headed off down to a club pool (AA-GH) with bream in mind – although the pool’s main inhabitants are carp up to the low 20’s with bream. roach, rudd, and pike – plus a few perch (literally 1 or 5) that appeared last year. Rumours of tench too but I’ve not seen or heard of one being caught there in my 8 years fishing this pool.
Had breakfast and watched TV until around 0615 and then set off to the pool, arriving at 0645 in air temps of 16’C – officially I think the fishing starts at 0700 if you’re not a night syndicate member but never had a problem with arriving early at this time of the year as there are usually users and members of staff of the venue’s main facility there already … just keep it quiet and unlock, open gates, and re-close again as required by the owners and don’t run over the livestock…
So, down to the pool I went – choosing to fish peg 5, a short walk from the car, instead of a swim diagonally located on the far side – both can be very good bream swims but I feel the closer swim has a slight advantage at this time of the year….
… so it was a matter then of electing how to fish – and due to carp visibly cruising in the upper layers and outbreaks of bream bubbles rising in the area I decided on two ledger rods – which I set up in the usual style … well, my all rods are carried pre-set up so are virtually always the same and setting up really involves just pushing the rod halves together – main changes are in the length of the ledger tail (easily changed by moving the ledger stops up and down the line done at the waterside) and hook sizes and BS of lengths (easily changed as I carry ready tied hooklengths)…. So ledgering on pools (gudgeon to carp) is always with 8lb main line. Feeders and leads attach to a 3”-4” rubber sleeved link of 6lb mono terminated with a link swivel on to which they attach … and the link is connected to the main line via a free running large eyed swivel. NOTE: I did use to use plastic ‘run rings’ previously but found the plastic eventually grooved with the line running through and ended up snatching at the line and stopping the free running – probably people who tackle up fresh each outing wouldn’t notice so much as probably a different ring would be used each time but, as I say, my kit(s) are permanently pre-tackled and unless I get broken, etc the same swivel/ring could be in situ for months… and as such be used at least one a week on average for 6-8 hours at a time.
OK… final adjustments made, size 10 hook on one rod baited with worm, size 4 on the other with bread and frame feeders fitted on both loaded with a solid mix of cereal, particles, dead maggots, etc – and first casts were made at 0815 … and all was well in the world at that point with a slight breeze to ruffle the surface, slightly overcast skies – and so very muggy that I had to remove my jacket…. and the first fish of the day came at 0835 … and the *NIGHTMARE* started…
The fish tore off. I lowered my second rod’s tip under the water… but, shortly after, the second rod’s tip started nodding and pulling as the hooked fish wrapped the line around it …. eventually the fish was landed, unhooked, weighed, photographed and released (3lb 2oz common carp) … and I turned to the job of unwrapping the crossed lines … LIKE HELL! … unwrap? The lines were so badly tangled that the swallows were well and truly trapped within (bird’s nest… get it?) and necessitated the cutting of both lines and the re-tackling them both from scratch… OK, so ‘stuff’ happens … BUT whilst I re-tackled bream foam seemed to stream up in masses in front to me, but before I was able to get a bait out … yep, they’d gone away!
Now, as they say, once is an accident, twice is coincidence and three times carelessness – BUT this EXACT thing (inc bream fizz whilst tackling up, gone by the time I cast in) happened FIVE TIMES to me in landing 6 fish (actually caught 8 but I’ll come to that later) in spite of winding in the second line whilst holding fish on a tight line and other methods of trying to keep the lines apart – and so I just got MORE and MORE frustrated and angry – to the point of intending to look up carp bow’n’arrow fishing clubs in the UK and if none existed then I’d start one of my own – TRUE and not an exaggeration!
Luckily, on the return home I’d settled and relaxed a bit and accepted it as ‘not the best day’s fishing but possibly the worst one YET’…
Anyway, the last two fish caused me not a problem – as after the last crossover/line cut I just tied on a size 4 hook directly to the end of the line of one rod (the other rod was put away) and fished floating bread down by my feet were carp had been making tail patterns on and off over the day – and I had my best fish of the day (and for several weeks) – a common of 8lb 9oz – followed by another one of 2lb 4oz just before I packed in.
One bit of luck though – when cutting lines to disentangle, at one point I cut through, or held on to, the wrong bit of line and lost my entire end tackle on one of the rods inc feeder, etc. A couple or so fish later – tangled again – but when I started trying to make order of the mess I realised I’d got 3 feeders dangling around me ie the lost end tangle had been recovered…
SO … end of day results … 8 common carp … 3lb 2oz (worm), 3lb 14oz (worm), 2lb 14oz (bread), 2lb 15oz (bread),. 2lb 10oz (worm), 3lb 2oz (bread), 8lb 9oz (floating bread), 2lb 4oz (floating bread) … 5 tangled and cut lines … 10 full re-tackles … and a lot of naughty words!
As I was leaving another angler (fished around pegs 1-3, hidden from me by a large tree betwixt us) was heading to his car – he’d arrived after me – about 0930 or so – and he’d had 30 carp up to 12lb or so – the biggest ‘off the deck’ but most on floaters, I think.
PLANS:
Well, tomorrow (Monday 16th June) Liz and I are hoping to have a tench session at a club pool but will be a late start as I need to get a follow-up appointment with my doctor in the morning … so hoping to be able to get away around noon-1230 to get to the pool around 1245-1345, and fish into the evening … and pack up in time for a beer on the way home. Weather got looking too good – light rain forecast from 1100-2100 – so may be cancelled but we’ll see and decide at the time.
stevetheangler 
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