What better way to get out from being under the weather with a cold - head out at 6:30am in the morning and catch yourself a few carp !
So after devouring a box of tissues overnight to stem the the tide from my nose, and against the sensible warnings of my wife, I decided to "British-up" and head out to the local lake for a few hours fishing.
The hot weather of the past few weeks has died down, was a nice 70F and little wind when I arrived at the lake. Sadly the car park was pretty full which is never a good sign. One would think, Sunday morning, 6:30am, most people would be sleeping ! Obviously the local trout fishing crowd were out in full force.
My favorite spot, about half way down one bank between the piers was taken. I usually don't like to fish off the pier, no where to stabilise the rod and as the pier is "floating" can almost feel sea-sick if the weather picks up and the jetty is bouncing around. However, with no where else to setup, I made my way down to the far pier. Think i've only fished from that pier a couple of times and so far had little success.
I setup my 8ft rod, with the Sealine Black Reel, spooled with 17lb Berkley XT. A 1oz pear attached to a safety clip. 8" of 12lb fluro leader. A size 6 curve hook loaded with my favorite "out the can sweetcorn". Hook bait was encased in 2" ball of simple packbait. Tossed this out about 30ft from the bank, trying to get as close to my favorite spot - and waited - rod propped precariously against the railings. At least the baitrunner was on so if I had a good take then hopefully this would save me from a swimming trip into the lake to retrieve my gear.
About 7:15am the reel let loose that exciting scream of line being ripped off. A challenging 10 minute battle later, trying to prevent the fish from heading under the pier, finally got the fish to the surface and close in. Luckily my work colleague and his son had just arrived so I had someone to deploy the net. On the downside the pier deck is a good 20" off the water and there are small gaps in the railings to get a net through. However with much dexterity my work colleague got the net out there and grabbed the handle firm as I guided the fish inside.
My joy was short lived as my friend attempted to lift the net from the water - the handle of which, snapped clean at the collar! Thankfully some remnants of metal held the net head still to the handle and we manged to carefully lift the remains up and over the railings to unhook the fish. Whew!
For me, it was one 24lb beauty of a common, a new PB, for the price of a $24 ranger net. I know folks here were not fans of that clunky device - at least it died it's final death landing one last carp ! RIP Ranger Net - you served me well !
