Tracy&James | Thursday, 6 September 2018
We made the most of the last few summer days by going carp fishing at the weekend. The fish were visible on the surface and after peppering the lake with dog biscuits, the carp were slurping them down. A few casts and we both had several hooked, netted and released, though as usual there were also many misses and some odd attempts where the carp just nosed the fly away when they bungled the take.
The local anglers have cropped trees around the lake recently, so this meant we could try various spots, though in one part of the lake where the carp where rising consistently, there were still branches overhanging the casting area. Even though we were both careful, those occasions when you missed a take, or cast to scare off the birds trying to steal the floating bait, would result in the fly snagging the tree! James takes about 40 minutes to tie a deer hair fly, so losing one in a tree is so frustrating, to the point that if the ducks and geese had come too close, there might have been feathers flying! One fly was highly visibly embedded in a branch but too high to safely climb, so James is thinking of popping back with a step-ladder. (He says it’s less effort than tying another one!)
We have been using a particular tippet material for the last few fishing trips that we haven’t previously used. We have found that it might not be the 8.5lb strength depicted on the label as we’ve had more breakages than normal. Perhaps this is another sample for James to do some Instron testing on?
I wonder sometimes if the fish ‘wise-up’ as on the first day we had over a dozen fish in just a few hours, whereas on day two, there were much less caught. The birds certainly learn as they seemed to know to wait until one of us was playing a carp before swarming in to snaffle all the bait! (They’ve also learnt to follow us around the lake)
Hopefully, we’ll have a few more sunny days to go and try to catch more carp, though if not, we’ll switch to river fishing for trout and grayling instead – perhaps we’ll have a trip to the Dee. This Sunday, we’ll be supporting our good friend Gilly Bate at the Country show in Alresford by drinking beer, eating cake, oh and perhaps running some fun casting competitions for anyone to enter.
Enjoy whatever you are doing this weekend and come along to Alresford if nearby,
Tracy
