What got into the carp at Evesbatch Bottom Lake yesterday (Friday June 8)? They performed such amazing runs against the clutch and fought every inch of the way to the net. I was fishing Evesbatch again with my nephew Steven, who is passionate about angling.
Rain had fallen quite heavily in the night: perhaps raising the oxygen levels in the pool and giving the carp an incredible boost of energy. Another factor was the fact that we were mainly fishing the shallows, so the carp could only run when hooked, not dive deep and hunker low. We both suffered one or two hook pulls - with Steven losing a particularly large fish which he had fooled on floating crust by a lily bed. As it transpired, we caught no really big fish - Steven caught six, a nice mix of mirrors and commons, to around 6.5lbs, and I managed eight to 7lbs 14oz - also a nice mix of mirrors and commons, with the commons, I'm pleased to say, being the larger fish.
Aside from Steven's excellent company, what really pleased me yesterday was the fact that we caught fish off the top, and we caught fish on the float - my two favourite methods. For the float I used a sight-bob, of course - and eventually I found that fairly large hunks of roughly torn meat - enough to cover a size 7 hook, was the way to go. The bites when they came were simply unmistakable - with the sight bob vanishing from the surface at a rate of knots. I had about six inches of line on the bottom, in about 2.5ft of water, and I fished close in.
Special mention must be made of Steven's perch - which was a PB at 2lbs, and which fell to float-fished luncheon meat. I understand they go even bigger there - the lake record currently standing at 3.5lbs, which is something to dream about. Happy Days!