TackleTart
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Posts posted by TackleTart
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oopppps.....lets zooom in a bit....
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Now, as I sat on the bank and pondered what kind of shot I wanted, for reasons better known to gawd knows, I decided I wouldnt do the usual bivvy shots with the two biggies....no, I would do release shots in the water,....I figured that after a night in the sacks they would be at the very least frisky, and I didnt want them leaping about on the mat and running the risk of getting damaged. No, I would put the sack on the mat, unzip, lift out, photo and release. If there was any liveliness, it would be safer on the water...
ok.....lets set it up....
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....so we're all set, bait is in, plenty of boilies and nice mix of corn, hemp and groats, nice carpet....semi-fixed 4oz rigs, size six ACS K-9s, snowman blueberry clam, sit back, soak up the sun and keep an eye on the water....
....a few carp showed mid-afternoon but the rods were strangely quiet, apart from some likely line bites, so the rigs were moved closer and various things were tried, but no dice....
....stilll confidence was high and I got ready for the night....
...the sun slowly sank below the horizon and, without warning, the right hand rod was away....
....there is definitely a way the more substantial fish feel. They will not be bullied, you must be patient, they will take line, they will grudgingly let you regain it, but they must be treated with utmost care.
This was certainly a better stamp of fish and by the time it safely in the net (with handle this time!) it was dark. It felt very heavy in the net and so on the mat, out with the hook and straight into the weighing sling....it really did look like it might go thirty, so with some shaking hands the dial spun round to....29.11.
A new PB and oh so close, but what a way to start the session
I thought for a moment and decided to sack the fish for the night. I had access to some deep water via a small boat dock and the sacks certainly keep the fish quiet for the short night and it would be really nice to get a photo if someone came by at first light....
This done, rods out again and settle down for the night....
And quite a night it was.....another five fish including two twenties on the bank by midnight...then it went quiet....i fell asleep dreaming of extra large ones....
1.30, the delkim chattered and I lifted the bivvy door, swung round, off the bedchair, straight outside, on with the lamp...routine that we all practise, practise, practise......
...spool spinning madly...lift rod, engage and nicely over in a good, solid curve.....taking line straight away, finger on the spool, will not slow down.....yes, this is a good one..
...I stood at the end of the dock and looked around as the line silhouetted against the dark sky was lit up by my headlamp. The fish kept deep and went way, way out.....would not be led and I already knew that this was another red letter carp....
around ten minutes in, the other rod was away and I was genuinely concerned with losing it, since I was nowhere near getting the other in and I had visions of a spooling!....fingers crossed I bent into the first and got on with it....[NB the other run did eventually stop and apparently weeded me. I eventually retrieved the rig later but no carp].
After what seemed an age I eventually saw the deep, dark shape swing by in the clear water....having seen so many other thirties caught by others it was very clear that this could go the mark, and when eventually she folded over into the net I was elated. Heaving the mesh, we got to the mat, the scales and at 31.04 the second PB of the session and I was over the moon.
Into a sack and I looked forward to an exceptional photo session.
Four more on the bank by the morning, giving 11 total with five 20s and a 30, certainly a catch to remember.....
..dawn came and it was time to get those photos done....
first lets have a modest one, around 21.08, to get us in the mood...
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...this took quite a bit of knobbing about....
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and here we are.....a Friday into Saturday session....alone this time, the mother-in-law having headed north....
Now, one of the difficulties of fishing alone when you are expecting quite a bit of activity is getting the photographs set up....first, you have to make sure you are correctly framed when you set off the remote....
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Final result of an excellent night was around 21 runs with 16 landed, with 7 twenties, biggest 25.00 and 25.04....
...only two fish showed signs of preparing for spawning, so I figured they would be hanging in this fairly deep water for a while yet....
....delighted would be an understatement.....plans were already afoot for another session, since that pb would surely fall soon...
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pretty much the best of the bunch, three nice twenties up to 25.04.....
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....off to an excellent start, and the night, though totally cold and miserable, it went from 80 to 40 in a couple of hours, with high winds hitting our exposed site....which was fine for the others bundled up in their bags (and how dig the wife get my trakker big Z????) but for yours truly, it was up and down all night, with each fish necessitating a wade into the freezing water (thank you JRC!!
) since the landing net handle went crappeto on the first fish........so all were brought in using just the frame....
.....come the morning, a very tired bunny had some nice fish in the sacks...
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....and back she goes, around 24, this one...
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kiss the fish, Rachel
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....which weighed more than she did...
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...to introduce Rachel to her first carp...
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....which provided a nice opportunity....
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Easter weekend looked promising for an overnight, so believe it or not, with wife, daughter and mother-in-law in tow, we set off with a bivvy, a tent (for the mother-in-law) the tackle and a pile of bait including the soon-to-be-awesome blueberry clams
we were soon into some nice fish.....
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.....so it was goodbye to tony and goodbye to another season as the frosts cut in and the tackle was packed up ready for the winter rest....despite a pretty mild winter I stuck to the informal arrangement I have with her indoors, which is that December-March is the close season and I had better get on with some boy's work around the house....
...so it was the end of March before I looked once more to the lakes and rivers and figured it was time to chase away the mice and the spiders and get ready for some more angling....
..end of March, change in the weather and so it was off to a new swim, unfished by me at least, with a nice marginal shelf dropping to 12 feet at two rod lengths out with a nice hard bottom.....the feel was good and so another batch of blueberry clams were pressed into service....
...result of an afternoon session was one run resulting in the first of the season and a twenty at that....
......a good start, so more substantial plans were set....
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.....this fish remained the best of the session....
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....with the best being a fat, solid beastie that I was sure would topple the pb...coming on a traffic like type rig with two bottom baits and a single pop-up. Most fish fell to this arrangement....however, beastie went 27-0 on the scales and nothing could be done to add even an ounce!....a lovely fish in any case...I tihnk this one might even make an appearance in tony's new film, out any time now....
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rightly so, with a string of nice fish from teens into the twenties came to the rods of the globe and myself......heres a midnight special, low twenties, I think...
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Time to add some meat to this interesting story....and a good excuse to show some pictures and waffle a bit.....lets first go back to last october, with an assault on the then current pb, which had stood at 27lb even for a good year or more. It was also an occasion to thaw out a batch of Boilie Shop blueberry clam in 20mm. These had been made specially for the WCC and well....enough said about that, eh?
Some prefer the straight clam but frankly they are so evil the slight fruity tint at least means you don't stink so much at the end of a session.
Fairly atrocious conditions, constant drizzle for days, but confidence was high....
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Thanks guys,
I've been dealing with a sick daughter since I came back from the session, and wanted to post something that did it justice, since I am still over the moon....great that the old telegraph is working, thanks Bill! I think Scott also spotted that my signature had changed
And indeed both fish (along with another five twenties, I think) fell to the awesome Boilie Shop blueberry clam, fished snowman style (one bottom, one popup).
For those interested, these made-to-order baits have been held frozen for several months and were used to great effect up on Lake Alice (Oak Orchard River) with Tony D-P. back last October (numerous twenties on a "traffic light" - two bottoms and a single pop) and have already accounted for I think 13 twenties in three sessions for me so far this Spring....so they are clearly effective in what is still pretty cold water...
The 29.11 was the first fish of the session at 7.30pm and the 30 came at 1.30am and was a sight to behold in the clear water swinging by in the beam of the headlamp...
I'm sure you all know what that's like!Back soon with the gory details and a pic or two....
Cheers
Steve
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a very nice read sean.......of course jerome turned it down, its about bl**dy tench!
seriously....I would second sean's enthusiasm for waterlog - I've had a subscription for a couple of years now and have collected back issues via Ebay. Great to take with you when you fish and expect some long quiet periods....
S
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Very nice story guys.....supremely entertaining...!!
S
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ooooh, you lucky lucky .....
just kidding, top top angling, bet you were shaking like a leaf...!!
S
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Well done Steve, very inspirational that you actually went out at all. I remember when I did all-nighters on my own that I would listen to radio 4 for as long as possible (till the shipping forecast), then something called "you and the night and the music". This was for snotties on the broads, so it got a bit lonely....
S
ps maybe we should start a thread on bivvy tables? What do you put on yours?
Another brace of PBs
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oh yes, this is gonna be good...lets start with the 29....
...here she comes....