Sometimes we get into a rut. A trench you just can’t seem to claw your way out of regardless of how damn hard you try. That’s exactly how the start of 2017 has felt regarding my angling ability and if it hadn’t been for total chance, it may well have been how the rest of 2017 went as well!
From a vague recollection (in hindsight I think I’d have preferred not to look back on it) I’d been on 9 separate Carp fishing sessions, with just 1 lost fish to show for it! Now usually this wouldn’t get to me as much as it did however everything I was doing seemed right! Location spot on, rigs perfectly simple, disturbance to a minimum and a bait I trusted anywhere! But alas, a very dry landing net.
I would love to put it down to a difficult venue too but the truth is, I can’t! Brandesburton 3&4 pond, a mature pit of around 8 acres on the Hull and District book is a water I’ve spent innumerable hours on over the past 4 to 5 years and somewhere I thought I had finally cracked about 2 years ago. Having caught a good head of this lakes fish shortly before venturing onto pastures new I felt sure I would return soon and that’s exactly what I did this year. I instantly regretted leaving during the good spell.
Session 1 – Mid February. Arrived early doors, lapped the lake numerous times as always, but with no signs of fish. Winter weather and very few other anglers made swim location easy leading me to the deeper water of 3 end and away from the other lines. 2 casts, 2 rigs in prime locations. Catch report by the end of the 12 hours.. A bream.
Now that’s just a very simple version of the session to give you an idea of just what was going on and the next 8 sessions followed in a very similar manner. I did occasionally get a group of fish feeding on floaters when the weather had warmed up and that’s how I came to lose the only take of the year to that point but something had to change, and fast!
Low and behold, I arrived one lunchtime just a few days ago after a last minute decision to get out the house with nothing more than a 6ft stalking rod, a kilo of corn and some essentials, and within minutes found carp swimming around the margins looking and feeding on anything they could find! Surely it had to be the session to turn things around!
None of these fish were particularly big, excluding the whopping great common and ghosty bolting up and down like their tails were on fire. I didn’t hold out much hope of catching a whopper but quite honestly, I didn’t care all that much either! A fish was a fish at this stage and if I could avoid going home smelling of bream slime, or worse, no slime at all, then I’d be happy!
By the end of the barely 5 hour session, I’d not only caught, but caught 3 and lost a 4th which seemed more than acceptable for such a spontaneous yet productive session!
Could you ever get bored of fishing?