We chucked a couple of rods out and pressed record. Some local kids came by with their lure rods and told us what they'd been catching. One of them had just had a cracking pike, well over 10lb, on a ten inch soft lure. A swimbait I think he called it. It was great to see young kids on their bikes and out on the bank getting into their fishing.
We heard tawny owls, saw a barn owl and surprise surprise, an otter, working the far bank.
We saw a couple of decent fish splash, rather than roll, just as it got dark. Chub, I said. TCG was not convinced.
After we'd finished the pod, TCG cast a lump of his new prawn based paste out and ten minutes later, the quiver pulled over and he was in.
He hustled it into the net and we gazed down at an absolutely massive chub.
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It went 6lb 12oz and TCG was like dog with two dicks. Understandably so !
Today, I headed to see Baz on his local river.
No sign of him, so I had a cast on a big bend, with a raft and adjacent slack water. Couple of swan shot cast upstream , right next to a raft and a bit of flake on the hook. No free offerings.
After a minute a drop back. I whacked it and the rod bent double. It felt very heavy and was jagging viscously. I had a horrible premonition of losing it and that's exactly what happened.
I was gutted. I knew it was a very big chub.
Two swims further downstream were baited with dead maggots and sweetcorn and left for a couple of hours to settle.
The first swim produced nothing, but in the second the tip was showing indications, probably liners, from the minute the feeder went in. The tip eventually went round and this time all went solid. Stuck on the bottom? No, it was moving, very slowly. It was very, very heavy and the 12 foot IM8 Quiver groaned.
Bazza scooped it up first time, 21lb 5oz of pristine river carp.
That'll do nicely, even if it wasn't a 6lb chub.
I saw several fish roll, but no further bites were forthcoming and as the fog came down I walked back to the car reflecting on an eventful and productive day.
