freeline-99 - Flipbook - Page 73
EXCLUSIVE
confidence again. A few weeks
later, I had my first sighting of
the ‘uncatchable’ since the loss
and the fish started spawning
and my initial thoughts were
confirmed. He was a male
fish, He thrashed around after
three double figured females,
they were literally swimming
for their lives, He was such a
powerful fish. During this time,
I didn’t fish but kept the bait
going in and after three days
spawning was over. I knew
they would be hungry after
all the energy they had been
using. So no surprise I had a
take which turned out to be a
small squat simmo.
August and September, t h e
f i s hing was frustratin g t o
s a y the least, with th e f i s h
c o nstantly in the pon dwe e d .
T he big un was such a
c h aracter, he was the b o ss
o f the lake. Any coo ts o r
m oorhens he woul d sm a s h
h i s way through the weed t o
m ake them scatter, liter a l l y
s h itting themselves, He wa s a
r e a l a n g r y m al e !
All through the hot weather
I had put floaters out, mixer
& b r e a d t o m a y b e m ak e a
chance ‘but you guessed it,
they never touched anything
o f f t h e su r f a c e, n o t o n e m o r s e l !
T h e a u t u m n w a s s l o w, a l l t h e
c a r p we r e to g e t h e r h o l e d u p
by the snags. A large willow
g r o wi n g i n to t h e l a k e w i t h a
s i x f o o t c l e a r c h a n n e l be f o r e
t h e d e n se p o n d w e e d . I t w a s
t h e h a r d e st s p o t t o g e t a b a i t
to…. I decided to concentrate
m y e f f o r ts t h r o u g h t h e w i n t e r
in this area just trickling in
t h e b a i t w h en I l e f t t h e l a k e
and fishing single hook baits
i n t h e d a y wh e n I r e t u r n e d .
On 23 rd December, I saw the
big un, clearly push out by the
snags and as his head was out
of the water he pushed again
‘he was literally hovering in
the air’. What a sight that was,
the colours were stunning
but unfortunately no early
Christmas present for me! The
only time I didn’t fish was
BigCarp 71
