Late Spring

After six weeks of confinement we were let out into the countryside again.   At the beginning I didn’t fish for a few days as waters were busy, even the wild places where I like to spend my time.  I saw footage online of around forty cars queued up to get into a popular southern carp fishery which was fucking ridiculous.  As were some of the comments urging for the clip to be taken down so angling didn’t get halted again.  Thankfully most of the commercials in this area were run in a much more sensible manner.

When I did start fishing I had a plan for the impossible Tench/Carp.  Instead of flitting about fishing here, there and everywhere I decided to concentrate on one spot, where I’d seen fish before and prebait it.  I really don’t like fishing in this way but as I’d tried everything else I thought ‘what the hell?’  So this I did, depositing around twenty kilos of pellets over a two week period and fishing regular early morning sessions.   On my first trip I saw a fish roll over my baited spot which gave me confidence but in the end it made no difference, I still caught fuck all.  Not then nor the subsequent half dozen trips.  On my final attempt I cracked and started throwing a lure around.  One hour and three Pike later I’d had enough.  I could have easily caught silver fish at almost any time but I just couldn’t be arsed.

But this spring I learnt a little more about how to approach this type of fishing from the punt.  How best to lay things out and keep the space organised and comfortable.  It’s a bloody shame nothing pulled my string so I could put the theory into practice.  It was wonderful to be back out in the wilderness again and I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching the birds and animals which included rabbits, hares and a fox.  The sky and water was full of all the usual suspects but also a Red Kite, the first I’ve seen this far east.

So after a few weeks of blanking I decided on a change of scenery and visited a commercial that I’ve never fished before.   My motivation for doing so?  Just to actually catch a summer fish that pulled back for once!  I got there a few minutes after the gates opened but when I saw the amount of cars parked up already I nearly turned around again.  I took a deep breath, loaded my gear onto my back and went for a walk.   I saw a carp poke its head out and found a swim within reach that had a nice tree I could sit under/hide behind.  Surely I’ll get my string pulled today?  No, I blanked again.  In fact of the nine anglers on the small lake only one Carp was caught.  It was one of those days when fish were mostly cruising around on the top, not even taking floaters.

I was amused at the antics of some of my fellow anglers though.  I couldn’t help wondering why anglers needed a full barrow of kit on a water where night fishing isn’t allowed?  Why would anyone set up a bivvy on a dry windless day?  Why use ‘distance sticks’ to cast to an island about twenty five yards away?  And after that how did he manage to land his cast five yards short?  I shouldn’t criticise, I did blank after all.

So that was spring and now we are limping towards summer, although nobody told the weatherman, soon the rivers will be open and it’ll be time for something completely different.