Not worth getting the car out, tin of luncheon meat in my pocket and I off I went. I found a few fish in a secluded corner, hidden by a rush bed and with a few yellowing lily pads. In went the meat. Cubes about 3/4". I repeated this process for a few days. The weather looked bad on Thursday which would keep everyone else off the lake. That would be 'The Day'.
Thursday saw me at the lake early (7.00am) which was just as well because another angler arrived before me. I parked the car and dumped my bag in my pre-baited swim as the other angler appeared ! Another minute and the Cunning Plan would have faltered.
On Wednesday evening I had cut a narrow slot in the rushes, wide enough for the rods but still giving cover. Thursday morning was not as forecast, the weather was lovely and there were loads of fish in the swim. I was very confident. After 3 hours I hadn't had a bite. Down came the rain. Then the wind strengthened and swung South East. It was quite warm.
Nothing happened until 2.30pm when the rain stopped and the float twitched. Line bite. I tried different shaped baits; round, cubes, flat. Nothing. I was using 6lb bs Fox Illusion Fluorocarbon and I thought its stiffness might be putting the fish off. I changed to Orvis 5lb bs Flourocarbon (which is a lot softer) but didn't feel very happy about such light line. I noticed a crimp in the line so I cut it out and started again. Then on the other rod I had an enormous tangle. I cut it out and started again. Nothing happened until 5.00pm when the other angler went home. I was feeling nervous about the light line and as it hadn't brought any more bites I switched back to the Fox.
As 6.00pm approached I was getting nervous, any second one of the floats was going to disappear. At 6.30pm I thought I would tidy some of my stuff away so that I could fish into the dusk as long as possible. No night fishing allowed. Black clouds were gathering. I stood in the rain watching my floats thinking that I was rapidly running out of time. Just as I started to look away I saw the right hand float slide under, so I picked up the Scottie and tightened. The clutch screamed and kept screaming for ages. Stupidly, I followed the fish along the bank without my net. I had to get in the water/rushes to navigate a small tree. In fact I had to do that twice. The fish had gone through three lily beds and the line was grating badly. I thought "I am going to lose this fish". I bent into the fish and dragged it back through the lily beds and got it into clear water. It made a strong run but I clamped right down and held on. The fish was on the surface but my net was 50 yards away, around 2 trees ! I squelched/waded back to my starting point. After a lot of messing about I finally got it in the net and bit the line. By now it was quite dark. I weighed the fish, a very long common and it registered 27lb exactly. I took a quick photo with my phone and then nursed the fish for 10 minutes, it swum off strongly. I was exhausted, soaked and very happy.
It was good that I changed back to the heavier line. I was pleased that I had not ignored the damaged line. The Scottie worked very hard. It dealt with a large carp and lily beds without a problem. Everything went according to plan :-)
