I'm Back

Its been a good few months since I was at my favourite concrete hole in the ground but I made my return last night. It has been warm and humid all week and I set up into a warm breeze. I got the first rod set up and flicked down the margin before casting my second rod with a bare lead to check the drop. The place was stocked with quite a few carp in the pound region and as they're growing they're now becoming a bit of a menace. As I was casting my bare lead I got a few bleeps and pulls on my margin rod and then noticed the line had kited out slightly so decided that the small stock fish that had picked up my bait almost immediately would have to be dealt with. On lifting the rod it was a great surprise to see a decent bend pulled into the rod and a dogged fight under the rod tip ensued until with great relief I slipped the net under the mystery fish. It had stayed deep all through the fight and as I opened the mesh it kind of grew and grew. The batteries in my all singing all dancing fox scales let me down at exactly the wrong moment so I fell back on my faithful Avon set for a bet of retro weighing. The needle swung round to 19lb 10oz and after 5 minutes of fishing I was a very happy angler.

The venue always fishes a lot better in autumn and the stiff breeze and warm weather coupled with a good fish at the starting gun led me to believe it might be a very busy evening. However after 3 stockies upto around 2lb and a bream it occurred to me that it wasn't going to get any better. With a fish knocking on for 20lb already in the bag its hard to do anything else but smile.