|
After my
recent Catfish session not going to plan, I needed
to get back out for one more try before the start of
the river season. Mark, Ratty and myself had planned
for a 2 day trip for the bank holiday weekend, we
guessed it would be busy, but not quite as busy as
it was. We arrived to find the lake totally packed
out, but luckily found 3 swims side by side,
although they were in a poor area of the lake. We dropped a bag off in each
swim to claim them and returned to the cars to grab
the rest of our gear. When we got back to the swims,
I couldn't believe my luck, some old boy was
erecting his bivvy as quick as he could in the swim
I had left my bag in!
In the
end both Ratty and I squeezed into the bigger swim
of the two left, while Mark fished the other.
Ratty's game plan was to fish lives, whilst Mark and
I opted for pellets after learning a fair amount
during our last session. Just as we were settling in
for the night, Ratty received an absolute screamer
on his ledgered live Rudd, and before long he was
connected to his first catfish. He did make me
laugh, his initial comment was "it's an eel"; and
his face when this eel suddenly turned into a steam
train was one i really wish I'd got a picture of!
After an arm aching game of tug-o-war, I safely
netted Ratty's first Cat. It weighed in at 20lb 5oz,
once again someone else had caught a 20lb Cat for
there first! The rest of the night passed pretty
uneventfully, but the following afternoon really
picked up for me!
Around 2pm I had steady take on my two 16mm Halibut
pellets, a firm strike was met with a heavy
resistance. The fight was good, but nothing like the
ones Ratty and Mark had received with their firsts.
The Cat weighed in at a very pleasing 21lb, a
Personal Best! I was now on cloud nine as I had done
what I had came to do; I recast and sat back
content. About 30 minutes passed before I received
another steady take, upon striking, I knew this was
a fair bit bigger as it plodded deep and felt very
heavy. After a couple of minutes it hit the surface,
it was a Carp, and one that looked set to beat my
personal best! Mark did the honours and I was soon
admiring my new personal best 27lb Mirror Carp.
After foul hooking a PB on my last trip i felt that
I deserved this one!
Mark
was by now feeling left out, but soon chipped in
with a PB 7lb 6oz Tench! All the fish we landed were
PB's, a right result! |
