Full of surprises
I arrived in the car park around 7:45am and after last weeks session there was only one place I wanted to go – the pool.
I was still clipped up from the week before so spombing and getting the baits in the spot was easy and to be honest I had the two rods and spomb over the top before I had remembered to fix the net up, which doesn’t sound that bad until you realise I spombed for 30-40 minutes.
Not a lot was showing but the odd top and disturbance under the surface had me confident.
I had people arrive and fish next to me which wasn’t a problem as they were fishing close in, the weather was around 17-18 degrees Celsius with sun and the occasional cloud – singular.
It was but 5 minutes after I finished spombing and fixed the net up whilst talking to a friend my right hand rod screamed off.
The right hand rod was fished with a double 20mm bottom bait in white and black coconut flavours with a small crumb bag just to keep everything neat during the cast. The fight wasn’t special, erratic like what you would expect from a small common. Twisting, turning, kiting left and kiting right until finally a small beautiful white and orange koi appeared in front of the net. Size really is not necessary with this fish whether it was 20 or 2lb (probably a bit over the latter) but a stunning surprise to get me in the mood for some fish!
21.5 – 12ft wraps and I was back on the spot with 5 spombs over the top, nothing fancy just consistent.
The odd jogger and dog walker kept me company telling me all sorts of stories like you would expect at a park until around 11am when I was being interrogated by an old man and my left hand rod ripped off.
From the off this fight was different it almost felt snagged with the odd thump of the head and it wasn’t until I saw a big dorsal fin right over my spot I realised something wasn’t right, the swivel in my lead clipped had popped out, so now I was fighting a fish with the lead 13ft below the fish, at around 20ft out I caught a glimpse of without doubt one of the most beautiful fish I have seen, big scales a dark wide back you could saddle, you know the complete opposite of the type of fish people that aren’t in the know label France for having. Anyway after 10 minutes it all came in fine and the sharp tackle size 4 krank served me well.
It took me a moment to stop shaking after I had got everything ready for the fish and photos, a quick look inside the net had me calling back my friend as I couldn’t risk this being a dodgy self take, after describing the fish to him over the phone he immediately said the name “Jurassic park” and told me he would arrive in 5 minutes. As far as I am aware this fish hadn’t been caught since September 2013 at a weight of around 32lb by my friend. We hoisted the sling onto the scales and needle swung around to 34.5lbs! Result! And the sling was covered in the remains of my spomb mix! They were on the feed and hopefully more big girls to come..
After that, the day really died down in a fishing sense.. I was still on cloud 9. Every 2 hours I spombed 5 spombs over the spots just in case the silver fish and poisson chat had depleted the spots!
After a long day and now with some young kids fishing next to me, throwing rocks in, throwing scooters in and swimming. On the verge of blowing up, my right hand rod screamed off much to my own and their surprise! Finally something had shut them up! The fight was much like the first fish although the swivel stayed in the clip this time! And around 10 minutes later I great big head and mouth extended out from the surface and kissed the spreader block and she was mine.
Unfortunately it was almost time to pack up and I didn’t want to keep calling out a friend so I asked a passer by if he could take some photos.. after giving him a quick crash course on fitting everything central in the frame. It nearly worked we got one or two satisfying photos and the fish itself went 36lb + not as pretty as the first but not expected! A big old head with a smaller bottom half.
That rod was fished with a small white pop up tipped with sharps tackle banana pop up corn and also a small bag of crumb.
Nothing followed after but as the wind dropped and the lake calmed, I noticed my spot was stopping other anglers as they were on the way past as it was sheeting up, like a boiling cauldron, must’ve been 5x5ft of solid fizzing!
if the lake rules allowed I would’ve stayed longer as I’m sure more fish were on the cards.
My spomb mix consisted of a mix of allinpartikels hemp, tigers, pellets and I added chick peas, Maise and chilli flakes with a drizzle of coconut liquid to really stodge up the mix.
As I sit here writing this I am currently fishing a different part of said lake and have had another member of the A team.. But that will have to wait for another time!