It may well be April first but I managed to make it onto the banks of my favourite concrete hole last night which by my reckoning made it still only march. I picked a corner out of the wind, chucked one into the corner near some old reeds, one down the margin and the other into deeper water.
As the light faded the wind dropped and so did the temperature, a thick fog filled the whole place and I started to doubt the wisdom of placing two of the three rods down the margin. In these low temperatures surely the fish would be staying clear of the shallows until the morning and the chance of some sun.
9 pm came and went and I was considering packing up and calling it a night when the corner rod something most interesting, against all the odds the swinger limbed all the way to the top and stopped. Suspecting a bream had snaffled the bait I wound up and lifted into the fish which kited out of the corner and wallowed in front of me with not even token resistance. I was amazed to see the bream change in front of my eyes into a carp. I suppose with hindsight I'm lucky the fish wasn't up for a scrap as the quick release clip holding the hook link to the main line snagged on the net leaving the fish on the outside. Luckily for me the fish waited patiently while I scooped and twisted the net and finally she was mine. She pulled the scales down to 12lb 10oz and whilst not a whacker was certainly more than welcome for a short session after work
And the words of the day? Tungsten tubing. I fished a 2 ft section above the hook link to help keep the line down. Ease to fit and quite effective. Well it never did me any harm.
Finally the guys were working hard fitting an otter fence to keep the vermin out when I arrived and I can only hope it works.
Until next time ..
