"Silty Mere" pt 2

The following weekend could not come round quick enough, I knew where the common was feeding and I just had to get back up there. With a little re-organisation at home I managed to get back on the silty mere by the Wednesday morning just 50 or so hours after leaving. On arriving I found I had the place to myself. Elated I crept down to tench corner and proceeded to set up way back from the swim, whilst doing this I saw a few fish cruising at range, it was going to go off I thought. I was here till Sunday, it just had to go off !

Two rods out on the clear spots at 70 yards and one for the common as usual in the margin to my right, saw me settling in anticipation, suddenly a screamer developed within twenty minutes of casting. I hit the rod and it arced over, the fish stripped line and took some stopping, eventually turning it and guiding it towards the bank and a waiting net, onto the mat it went, again a mirror with few scales, at first glance, I thought I had caught Ricks first mirror but soon realised that there was no black eye I had caught a similar but different fish. At 24lb 3oz she went into a sack whilst I got myself sorted. I had recently purchased a digital camera and this was to be the first capture since doing so. Once all the kit was ready, the sack was brought in from the margin and the fish went up in my arms. A couple of clicks later and the shots were done, a quick check of the photos, perfect, and away she went, not the common that was plaguing my thoughts, but what the hell, a lovely looking fish. This I later found out was another of the originals at a good weight, but to be fair she was carrying a good amount of spawn in her. 

24lb+ mirror

As the day wore on it became obvious that most of the smaller fish seemed preoccupied with the yearly rituals of spawning, I was a little gutted as I thought that was going to be it.  Many fish were starting to show in the little bay on the back wall. That was enough for me, I quickly reeled in, grabbed my surface fishing kit and marched around. This area is where nearly all the mosquitoes and midges in the world seem to like to live. Within minutes I was being eaten alive. I got up on my feet and started to have a good mooch round the margins, trying to find the fish. Whilst doing so I started to scatter surface baits all round this end of the lake, with this breeze and heat wave, I was sure a take would be coming off the top, if only I could persevere with it. Onto the boards I went armed with a rod, mat, dog biscuits and net. 

          
All day I continued to feed baits in with only the occasional fish showing interest in them, (but lots of mozzies taking a serious interest in my head, face and arms,) slurping down one after the other, but not the hook bait. This was going to be harder than I thought. There were a lot of fish too busy cavorting with each other to show a great deal of interest, but nevertheless I slogged away in the heat of the afternoon sun. Hours later, dejected, I made my way off the boards and back to my kit. With the arrival of Chris soon after asking if anything was showing, I told him of my capture and showed him the pictures on the camera, but kept my surface fishing knowledge to myself. Having seen so many fish on the far bank I decided to give up tench corner to him and haul my ass over to the back wall, for the night, sure I was going to catch.

The moment i rounded the corner and started the short walk along the bank I saw that what must have been the entire carp population were now in the bay with many of the smaller fish spawning heavily. I persevered with the surface baits but could not get a take.

All evening they kept it up, right in front of my nose, even during the hours of darkness I could here them thrashing the water to a foam further into the bay to my left. After putting up with a large shoal of ‘tinca’s’ all night, I was knackered and in serious need of sleep and at first light I wandered into the bay to see that all the fish were still at it. Out went a few pouches of dog biscuits and up came a few fish, slurping away at the baits. I overcast the fish and excitedly drew my hook bait into the area, they ignored it. Shortly after this, a chap arrived who my mate had gone to France with the winter before, he saw what was happening and instantly set up a surface rod. Within minutes he had had a take and landed a fish just over 19 lbs she was bursting with spawn, and therefore handled with extra special care, quickly photographed and back she went to be immediately courted by some smaller stock fish. Again within no time this bloke had another fish on the bank, an ‘ocean’ fish, at around 15lbs. I was made up to see they were having it, but when was it going to be my turn. These felt like they were my fish, I had got them going on the baits and now he was catching them all. I moved tighter into the bay near the drain point and cast my bait tight to the overhanging trees, in no time at all a fish rose and slurped the dog biscuit in, I struck, the line parted and out bolted the fish into the main body of the lake, followed by its companions. I could have cried, instead, a smoke and a brew was in order.

By late morning I was as sunburned as you could possibly get, two days in this strong sun, with little or no sleep, and I was exhausted. I heard a crash to my left and saw that this bloke was into another, this time it was the first fish I had banked earlier in the year at again a weight of 22lbs exactly. That is it! I was frustrated so back to it I went. I swung my baited hook towards the tree, where I had lost the other fish and crouched into the long grass. With the lilies alongside me on the right I knew if I did have a take I would not be letting it go anywhere near them. Slurp, away went the bait into a rather large mouth, up went the rod and I was finally in! Off it went steaming away, trying to get into the trees, not a big fish I thought, till it changed direction and steamed into the pads, there was little I could do to stop it. I locked up my clutch to stop it taking line and let the rod take all the strain, the fish wallowed and I caught a glimpse of scales, yes I thought I’ve caught the smaller common, known to be about 17lbs, I felt a little disappointed even though this was still a good common. The bloke was alongside me with the net waiting as I turned the fish again and again all the while it tried to gain cover under the trees or the pads but to no avail, I wasn’t going to let it get under either. She rolled onto my line and with a grating feeling gradually came over the front of the net. “It’s the big common” he said, I went to pieces, dropping the rod and dancing round in circles. Elation wasn’t the word.

Photographs done, the common weighed in at a staggering 27lbs 4oz! She was mine at last. Away she swam out of the bay to the sanctuary of the sunken snags. I collapsed on my bed and gave up. Job jobbed. All my life I had so badly wanted to catch a really big common. Now I had just smashed my personal best common by about 10lbs. If another fish was never to grace my net I would not have cared at that time.

The greatest reward i could have hoped for and
off the top made it so much more special

Phone calls had to be made, Rick was the first and rightly so, he had been there with me all the way, and I just wished he could have been there at the time. As I spoke to him over the phone I was looking at the camera images in my hand with a grin on my face that would have made the Cheshire cat proud. Phone calls home and then texts to a few mates before the kettle and a smoke went on. The phone would not stop beeping with messages of congratulations coming in. Physically and mentally, i was in a mess.

With the afternoon sun bearing down on me I cleaned myself up and lay back trying to sleep. It was impossible. That night I put all my rods onto the rests with the rigs in the eyes. Confident the carp wouldn’t be feeding yet, as most of them were still spawning, I wasn’t prepared to put baits out for the tench tonight. I needed sleep.

Since the battle with, and the capture of the common, most of the fish had moved along the reed bed towards tench corner. Chris had seen this and moved his baits accordingly. Good angling. I slept most of the night but awoke to the sound of a text coming through off Chris. It stated that the fish were all over the place in front of him and to come and get a piece of it! I don’t think I’ve ever wrapped up so quickly. I was with him in about 20 minutes looking and watching fish crash and roll all over the rafts of hornwort. A big mirror rolled about 15 yards out, that was it for me, out went some biscuits and up came some fish. A baited hook was flicked out, but again they didn’t really show any interest in the hook bait but would feed on the freebies. I changed down in hook size and fitted a buoyant imitation mixer on the hook and recast. Immediately the mirror came up surrounded by half a dozen smaller fish, she slurped and away went the bait into the cavernous mouth.

Up went the rod and round went the spool, she took off on a very short run. The weed beds helped to control it as there was nowhere for it to get up speed, the issue was going to be getting it back to the bank over the rafts of  weed. The fish battled hard once in the clear margins and was instantly recognised to be the big mirror, flapping due to knowing i was attached to the big girl i steadied myself and relaxed into the fight and in no time she was under control and banked within a few minutes, this due to her probably being worn out, from the last few days cavorting.

            If she hadn’t looked so much bigger than the last time I had banked her a month or so earlier, I would not have weighed her in her condition, but very carefully we unhooked her and I was ecstatic, could she go 30lb?  Not quite as it happens just short at a weight of 29lb 12 oz but i didn't care, what a brace.

a personal best mirror less than 20 hours after a personal best common,
it doesn't get better than that !

I went to phone Rick, but thought better of it, he would be here in a few hours anyway and knowing how badly he wanted this fish, I didn’t want to do his head in while he was stuck in work, I had just caught two out of three of both our target fish in just under 20 hours.

Chris and I both slogged away at the remaining fish that were showing but neither of us could buy a take. Rick arrived and I spilled the beans to him, he was made up for me, that was obvious, but I could tell he was a little gutted as the odds of him catching these fish now grew even less, certainly for this weekend. Chris wrapped and said his goodbyes, leaving us with a handful of fish still in the area taking the occasional dog biscuit off the top. It would be early evening when Rick had a nice mid double fish off the top. I followed this with a grey speckled fish of 17lb 3oz at about 8 o’clock and then a smaller mirror of 15lb 2oz with an hour of light left before dark. What an amazing weekend. I fished through till Saturday evening with nothing other than a few tench to around 5lbs for my troubles. Even though I had 24 hours of my session left I called it a day. Enough’s enough, I was wasted, burnt to a crisp and eaten alive. I wonder what the mozzies eat when I’m not there?