Yesterday was certainly a game of two halves at the Other Pool, to use football parlance, (now the World Cup is once again upon us). The first half, in the cool of the morning, was
the pond at its best, with rod-bending action to match.
I was fishing from the overgrown island, because the two Canada Geese and their offspring have disappeared. It was lovely
to sit among - and behind- the nettles and other tall weeds, and to see the carp bubbling close in and close by, near the dark shelter of the overhanging willow.
The pool is
quite deep here: six feet quickly shelving to eight or nine. The water was a lovely canal green, thanks to recent heavy rains, and the level was at its peak.
I decided to sight-bob
where the slightly shallower water shelves away, and I was soon amazed by the fighting prowess of the carp I was battling. They were only about average size for the pool; but time and time again I had to hold hard and thrust my rod tip under the surface as
commons did their level best to get under those tree branches or among the snaking sub-surface roots, to my right and left. In the winter, and the autumn, larger fish have given me little trouble in this swim; but yesterday, on a day of rising heat, their
temper was certainly up! I caught five like this – four on prawns and another on a prawn/flake cocktail. The best, and a most superb carp in terms of looks, was the common shown above, - a wonderful cross, it seemed to me, of wildie and Leney lines;
- and my goodness it knew how to fight!
The sun rose high, and from then on I only caught very small carp – either carp that have been stocked or, as the bailiff assures
me, fish that are the offspring of a highly successful spawning in 2012.
My carp tally for the day was 20 carp – but, as I say, only five of those really bent the rod.
Perhaps the tiny carp are less active in the cool of the early morning, and that’s the time I should concentrate on in the future, - instead of experiencing the frustration of take
after take from very active, and hungry, small fish, throughout those long and lonely summer afternoons?