It was another sunny day when I arrived during mid afternoon

Summer August weather is still around, it had to turn up eventually, but the algae at the lake is still there, turning the water to tea brown. It’s not even making the Pondweed stop growing, that is getting heavier and heavier, most carp hooked now are being lost in the weed. It was another sunny day when I arrived during mid afternoon. The ‘tea’ was up nearest the road so the far end was where the carp were visible, swimming around sunning themselves. After chatting for a while I decided to fish the swim where I lost a carp from the week before, there were several carp milling around there. I fired out some mixers and even got some interest so I dragged my gear around there. From this swim I could also fish a small shallow weedy bay. There were five carp in there, none very big but I could not resist having a go for them off the top. Before I did so though, I flicked a bait down the near channel as there were three carp getting under the same small set of pads that I lost the carp from before. All settled, as evening approached, I proceeded to get the five carp going by firing mixers out. Before long a couple of them were getting very excited, bow-waving around, pushing their heads and shoulders right out of the water when taking the baits. Accompanying the next catapult of freebies was my freelined offering. Not surprisingly their attitude changed to one of caution but over the next couple of hours I had three aborted takes. Exciting stuff, time slipped past and before I knew it dusk had arrived. The carp by then had ceased to feed with much vigour so I cast a PVA bag out to the islands where movement on the surface showed a couple of carp were milling around. I had a few visitors through the evening, as you do on sunny evenings, but by darkness I was alone on the lake. It was a warm humid windless night and the carp were extremely active, leaping and swirling all around my end of the lake. I knew something would happen. Line bites started around 2am, getting me half leaping off the bedchair. At 4am, the indicator on the island rod stayed at the rod butt and line was slowly taken off the baitrunner. Sweeping the rod back I connected with a carp that seemed intent on coming towards me. This was not a good idea, as I wanted it to stay out in the lake where there was less weed. As I gained line I knew the carp was only ten yards out. Then it turned and charged off, the rod being wrenched down in my hands, there was no mistake then that it was a good carp. Unfortunately that was all I felt from the carp, it knew what it was doing, it charged into the thick weed in front of me and I was left connected to a solid mass. As I heaved, the weed came free but I knew the carp was gone. I grabbed the torch and tore through the mass of weed now in the edge but all I found was my hook in the middle of it, carpless and baitless. The problem is not so much the carp in the weed but the lead getting caught up in the weed causing the hooklength to change the direction of pull to the carp and causing the hook to pull out. What I need is a weak link to the lead so it breaks free when the carp hits weed. An actual weak link of line has in reality hundreds of problems associated with it. I have now though come up with a rig where the lead will stay on for casting and retrieving, even if a little weed is encountered but will without fail come off when a carp is attached. Several casts into thick weed have proved its effectiveness. The good thing as well is, it enables me to use cheap leads, the actual weight of the lead is immaterial so I can use really light leads as well. Let’s hope it works, as far too many carp are coming off in the weed and it will not die down for another two months yet. That was my only session to the lake last week as I took some time off but I did attend an open pike match on the river Ouse near my adopted home in Sussex. To those of you who do not know the river Ouse, it rises in the Weald and hits the sea near Newhaven. In its middle reaches, it meanders through farmland and has endless ox-bow lakes along its length. The river Ouse Preservation Society control most of the interesting bits and the fish are impressive, with double figure barbel, 6lb chub and 5lb perch recorded each season. The problem the river has is an abundance of pike and although these grow to well over 20lb, the jack population is huge so they need to be thinned out. I was glad to see they were not being culled in the match but moved to stillwaters nearby, all under the approval of the EA of course. The day was cloudless and hot when I arrived at the car park and the fifteen or so present made the draw for the walk off. The rules were simple, it was a roving match and only plugs and spinners were allowed. When a pike was landed it was to be retained in the landing net until an official turned up to witness and return or take it off to the holding tanks. Because the weather was so hot I was not hopeful but it was pleasant wandering along the river in the middle of nowhere, surrounded in wildlife. The pike did in fact play ball and I landed four jacks in the three hours of the match. The biggest was a hard fighting 9lb 3oz. I did not win anything though, I think I was 8th in the end. The biggest pike of the day was a whopping 26lb 11oz. I wish I had taken my camera as another 20lb plus specimen was caught as well. These fish were the exception though and mainly the fish were in the 3 to 10lb bracket. After the match I stayed a while and had a look at some of the ox-bow lakes. Most are separated from the river and silted up but one I found was deeper and still had a channel linking it to the river. In the reeds here I found what to me was amazing, four common carp were sunning themselves, the smallest cannot have been less than 20lb, the biggest, well, I do not yet believe it myself. I’ll wait until I catch it to even guess at its weight. The following day a friend and I went for a beach BBQ. I haven’t been to an English beach for years so I was a bit surprised to see that the European liking for dispensing with ones shirt whilst sunbathing seems to have affected even the modest English females of the species. Hm. Sometimes there is more to life than carp fishing!

Have fun!