More mixer madness

At the start of spring I wrote on here about how I was hoping to share my fishing experiences with the children.  Having dipped in and out during the summer, I’m delighted to say that lately Isaac is really showing some enthusiasm towards the sport, he’s now asking me when we can go fishing.  We had a couple of hours spare this weekend and when I mentioned this to Isi it was a done job.  Should we fish for Rudd at the Marsh or Carp at the puddle?  Carp won this time, they’re a little bit bigger and more exciting for a ten year old.

We arrived around 0830 on a cloudy, dreary morning and found a couple of anglers sitting in the spot we usually fished, so undeterred went round the other side to try a new area.  I chucked a couple of handfuls of chum mixers out while I baited up and I could soon hear the slurping of oh so hungry Carp.  Both of us freelined two 10mm boilies, hair-rigged on size 12 hooks, Isaac used a whip while I used a light Carp rod.  Other than that we’d only brought a minimum amount of tackle.  Just the landing net, unhooking mat and one small bag containing a few spares along with chairs to sit on.

I’d barely got my bait in the water before Isaac hooked his first fish which was giving whip, elastic and boy a good work out.  After a protracted tug of war Isi eventually steered his first fish of the day into the net.  It was one of the bigger fish in this particular pool and we were pretty sure it was Isaac’s personal best, which the scales subsequently confirmed.

After that the action was pretty much constant, it seemed as if one of us was into a fish at all times.  Every handful of loose mixers brought more fish into the area, more competition for food made them increasingly easy to catch.  Most were Commons though we also caught a couple of Mirrors and one or two ghostie things.  Sadly there was, as always, signs of bad angling.  Most had damaged mouths, a couple looked more like Chub than Carp at the business end.  Also many of the fish were very thin, torpedo like shaped fish like wildies.  Their body shape has nothing to do with genetics and everything to do with lack of food.

It was very pleasing to watch Isaac now expertly flicking his bait out with the whip as well as playing the fish patiently, holding on and letting the elastic do its job.  As we began to run out of bait so bites became more finicky, the fish were more adept at ignoring our baits whilst slurping down the few remaining mixers we were eking out for freebies.  It was Isaacs suggestion to use a mixer as hookbait so I carefully hair rigged one up for him and bites became more easy than ever.  He caught three fish in as many chucks, overtaking my tally in the process.

After ninety minutes or so we were out of bait and were content with what we’d caught.  Isaac finished with a nice round total of ten fish while I managed nine.  Averaging about four pounds each we must have totalled nearly eighty pounds of fish in this short session.  On the way home Isi was making plans for his next fishing trip, he thinks it’s high time he christened his Pike rod.

September has come around again, the nights are drawing in and there is a heavy dew on the grass in the morning, autumn is well and truly on the way.  I spent most of Sunday reorganising the fishing shed.  The bivvy, bedchair and all the Tench/Carp equipment is now at the bank while my Piking kit has been moved nearer the front.  One set of tackle for bank fishing and another for the boat.  For personal reasons, very little of what goes on in the boat will make its way onto this blog but hopefully a little bit more of Isaac’s fishing progress might.