I'm not sure where to post these shots without committing to a more regular angling blog but I think this is as good as anywhere.
I've enjoyed a lovely winter fishing Ashmead as part of the winter syndicate. It's been a difficult winter for many, with one of the members who is a good angler fishing 46 nights for two fish. It's been the same across the country though and I don't know anywhere that's fished well. Why this should be is unclear because it hasn't been a harsh winter by any means. We had those cold Easterlies in the early part of October and the fishing never seemed to recover under the constant high pressure conditions since then.
I've picked my fishing times carefully and spent a great deal of time walking and looking and in this way I've landed seven carp in fourteen nights on the bank. Actually it is wider sensory perception rather than observation that has been most important; that feeling I get when I stand by a spot that may be out of the wind, in a patch of sunlight or somehow just more "alive" than other parts of the wetland and think "Yes! This is where they will be..."
My best two fish were a 37 pound mirror and then, this week the 40 pound 4 ounce common that prompted this post.
I fished Ashmead last Thursday night. I set up in the Hut Bay where I had seen some fish but then went for a walk at last light to check the otter fence. In No Carp Corner, at the other end of the wetland I found a group of feeding carp that included a mirror I'm pretty sure was the Big Linear, uncaught for nearly six years. There and then I decided to move. It's a long old slog round to the Corner at the best of times but that night, moving in the dark through the thick wet clay I thought I must have been mad. Just as I finally reached the swim, a shooting star flashed across the sky
always a good omen!
All three baits landed sweetly and with hardly any disturbance and I sat back full of confidence. The night turned wild with a bank of cloud building from the North heralding the arrival of strong winds and driving rain.
The take when it came was dramatic and I knew straight away that it was a big fish; just that slow ponderous shaking of the head. The fish ploughed into heavy floating weed close in but I ran round the corner to change the angle of attack and the entire weed raft started to come towards me. Eventually the fish kicked free and set off on a long, surging run along the channel. I thought it was going to keep going under Wilson's bridge and I clamped down hard, rolling the fish over in the darkness. After that drama she came in easily and I soon had the golden scales of a huge common reflecting the torchlight in the net....
Forty Pounds four ounces... I couldn't be happier.
The best four of the winter.
Thirty-seven pound mirror.
Twenty-nine and a half pound common.
Thirty pound common.
Forty pound four ounce common.
https://vimeo.com/169988300
