freeline-96 - Flipbook - Page 243
JACK
BOBBY
THOMPSON
COOTE
absolutely full of colour. You don’t often awake to the sounds
of parakeets perching in the trees above, and what a wonderful
sound it is to me, as it’s not something I often hear, so just being
there is enough sometimes. But I am here to catch the beasts
that time forgot, which lurk in the pit, so without too much
disturbance, I managed to get all my rods out on the spots. I
tucked up into my bed, full of anticipation for what the night
was going to bring and hoped for a bite during the night. As I
learnt from last year, the feeding spells seemed to come early
morning, and this was exactly what happened.
J u st as dawn broke, my r i gh t h an d ro d b u rs t o f f f rom t h e
p rebaited spot . I lifted in to th e ro d an d co u l d te l l s t ra i gh t
away this wasn’t anything m as s ive . D o n’ t g e t m e w ron g; I l ove
c a tching all sizes of carp , a n d yo u have to m a ke yo u r way
t h rough the smaller fish so me ti me s to g e t to t h e p ri z e – t h i s
i s what makes your journeys . Wh e n i t h i t t h e s u r fa ce , I c o u l d
s e e it was a mid double co mm o n a n d m an a g e d to s l i p t h e n e t
u n der it . Just as the fish we n t ove r t h e c o rd , I was d i s t u rb e d
by my middle rod melti ng o f f . I c o u ld n’ t b e li eve my l u c k o n t h e
f i rst night . It was just ano t h er m i d d o u b le c o m m o n , b u t I wa s
ve ry pleased with how my f i r s t n i gh t we n t , a n d I wa s l o o k i n g
fo rward to the next sessio n a lre ady.
A few sessions had passed, a n d I wa s s t art i n g to b u i l d u p q u i te
a tally of cricket bat commo n s . I t wa s s ta r t in g to c o n ce r n m e
t h at the bigger mirrors we re n o t v i s i t i n g t h e s p o ts o r s i m p ly
g e tting beaten to the bait . So my ga me p l an d u ri n g t h e d ays wa s
to stay hidden as much as p o s s i b l e a n d t r y to s t a l k o u t s o m e
o f the bigger residents. Sh o r t ly af te r, t h i s ac t u a l ly b e c ame t h e
o n ly way I was fishing it , a s a ve r y eve n tf u l n i gh t o c c u r re d
whilst I was having a little s o c i a l w i th a f r i e n d . Ab o u t 11 p m ,
FR E ELINE 99
