Saturday morning saw foxy and paddy heading to Felthorpe for another try at the carp.
I was most chuffed as I had my new Okuma Epix 55 V2 reels onboard and couldn't wait to try the bait runner feature (a new gizmo to me)
Weather was superb and by mid afternoon we pretty much had foxes lake to ourselves.
A visit from Morris the foghorn was most amusing as always.... He's had a stroke you know....
The carp rods remained silent. We could see carp patrolling around all three lakes, but they just weren't interested.... Good fun to watch though.
I went in search of tench with my new leeda stalking bag and a small net. I fished a medium waggler hard to the bottom with a few maggots on a size 12 hook. The perch and a few good size roach were coming out regularly. Sat amongst the Daffodils, with a couple of bottles of foxy's "lovely old job" onboard, my cheeks were rosey and all was really good in the world. I have to say it was probably the happiest i've ever been whilst fishing. I was probably only a rod length out at the most. Bliss!
Chris came over to chat to me and my float slid away nicely. I hit what I thought was another perch, only to feel the avon bend round nicely and the clutch on my little drennan red began to buzz.
After a bottom hugging scrap, a lovely little mirror carp graced the net and much smiling was had....
Captain foxy had a common mid afternoon...... not by standard means though.
He had managed to cast over a snagged fish and his line caught onto the snagged line. As the fish was brought to the net, I could see a boilie hanging out of it's mouth... Chris wasn't fishing boilies....
It seems that someone had broken off, but the leadclip hadn't done it's job, so the poor thing was hauling the lead and leadcore around... Poor thing.
We got the barbed hook out (eventually) and set the little fellow free. Bet he was rather chuffed!
The rest of saturday was very quiet indeed. The sun dropped and so too did the temperature.
The new foxy bivvy was up and all was looking good for a cozy night. The chimnea was lit and we looked forward to an evening of posh nastys, nuts, crisps, booze and crazy carp action. How wrong could we be....
I was FREEZING! My rubbish £9.99 camp bed didn't do the job and I was uncomfortable and cold to the core. What with foxy's snoring, it was decided that I should sleep in my car. Not much better, but slightly warmer.
The mist descended and the alarms kept silent.
I woke around 04.45 and got up as there was no chance of anymore sleep. A hearty breakfast and a few coffees and we were good to re-bait and recast (now we could see where we were aiming ;) )
It remained cold and overcast until late morning. I was still freezing! Weird!
We were joined mid-morning, by what can only be described as a pair of idiots, who proceeded to basically spoil our sunday. The less said about that, the better..... Some people just know how to push my "p*ssed off" button. Feckwits the pair of them.
I had a run in the afternoon which took me straight into the snags near the island. I couldn't believe how quickly the little blighter got me in there. Foxy was kind enough to go out in the roller boat to try to free me off, but it was too late. What a bummer.....
The afternoon remained very quiet. I could still see carp patrolling the island thanks to my super dark glasses. They were having none of it.
Chris decided to take a trip home to drop some of his stuff off. No sooner had he left, than his left hand rod was away and the alarm was screaming. I took some time to register that it was actually his! The fish must've taken 30 yards before I picked it up and hit it.
It felt weird when I went for the reel handle and it wasn't there! I had to learn to play a fish right handed pretty sharpish
After 5 mins or so of too and fro, I slid the net under the best fish of the weekend.. 8lb 6oz of mirror carp.
I didn't quite know how to feel..... When he returned, Foxy was less than pleased to say the least....
We called it a day around teatime and headed home.
A good social weekend, not the best fishing weekend, but hey!.... that's fishing for you.
