The Night of the White Mirror

Around a decade ago, i was in an angling club that had a couple of waters, one of which i had been concentrating on for some time. Over the course of the summer holidays, the lake had become really busy, there was often few or no swims available by Thursday evening and Friday morning would see any spare areas taken up, the lake was under a lot of pressure with lines stretching out from every conceivable angle and the fish were held up in areas of the lake that were virtually impossible to reach and even those that could get baits out to these areas were having fish show little or no interest. At the end of the last busy session i had wrapped up early and gone to have a look at another water on the club ticket, a 3 acre pool with a low stock of carp but rumoured to contain plenty of bream to some size.

On first sighting the lake looked splendid and really caught my attention, a beautiful place to spend a few weekends in pursuit of a few unknown carp.

The lake begins as a very long, narrow stretch of water, no more than 40 yards wide, choked with ancient beds of Lilly pads rising out of the water in huge rafts and joining up with the next set to provide a dense cover for the fish to hide among. The lake then opens up into a pool of an acre and a half with a tree covered island and a narrow gully behind, a quick viewing of this are made me realise it would be impossible to fish , the water was barely 6 inches deep and was full of dead fall and snags everywhere, I'm sure the fish could find there way in here, but extracting them was another matter.
This bay was clear of Lilly's and looked realistically the only place to fish on the venue, although it could be reached from 2 banks, i opted to settle into the comfy flat grass bank for a 48 hour session.

The edge of the pads were no more than 30 yards to my left and this received a rod and a smattering of pellet, as i prepared the 2nd rod to go out towards the island the first rod went off on a series of bleeps, lifting into a fish i soon realised this was a bream, and at around 4lbs was duly sent back into the lake, with a curse. The rod was dropped back into place and settled on the rests while the 2nd rod was flicked out to the island, The 3rd rod was flicked out along the margin to the right and again a small amount of pellet distributed around it. By mid afternoon i was completely covered in bream slime, frustrated and rather sun burnt, id had copious amounts of bream up to around 7lb and i was fed up of them, it didn't matter where i cast to, within 20 minutes the bream had come across the bait and cleaned me out. Obviously open water was going to impossible to fish and i dreaded how the bream would feed once darkness fell !

During that afternoon i had spent a little time watching the pads and had seen a small common carp cruising among the Lilly's apparently sucking snails from the underside of them, i considered surface fishing but i doubted i could land the fish safely through the underwater vegetation. As i was crouching in a little hollow area, i noticed the back end of a very pale carp peeping out from under some pads, in time it manoeuvred itself about and i soon saw a pretty hefty frame on the fish, it was certainly the biggest fish i had seen in the lake. I kept an eye on it for some time, watching it glide off under the roots, disappear for 10 minutes or so then suddenly appear again back in the exact same spot. I spent a few hours watching the fish perform the same pattern of behaviour over and over again. Between having to scamper back to the rods for yet another bream occasionally, and over the course of the late afternoon i hatched a plan to have that fish out.

Taking more than an hour i managed to sneak the kit into the area, get set up completely, have a brew and then lower 3 baits into and around the area where the fish was patrolling, while it was absent.. Evening was drawing in and as it did so i saw less and less of the very pale fish, but at least here i was getting no hassle from the bream, they appear to prefer the open water to the root choked Lilly pads. In no time at all it was pitch black under the low canopy of the oaks and i settled back to enjoy the last noises of the environment.

I woke to a couple of indications on my middle rod, and in no time landed a bream, the rod  just flicked back onto the spot. Again i woke to another bream, this was taking its toll, through the early hours of darkness, i had landed a dozen big dark olive slabs to around 8lb but i was fed up of them, i upped the bait sizes on the rigs, fitting 2 16mm Maple8s onto the hairs of all rods and went back to sleep. Silence descended on the rods, i had not baited up but just sent the rods out on the hook baits, no pellets and no free offerings, and hopefully no more bream.

Again i woke to a couple of bleeps, slipping into my boots i crouched next to the rods, the left rod then gave a few bleeps, i paused with my hand hovering over the rod when suddenly the right hand rod exploded into life, screeching away until i managed to bend the rod into a hefty fish, i knew i could give no line and would just have to hold on, praying for the tackle to hold out, keeping the rod low and under pressure, the fish rolled on the surface a yard short of the pad line, it kited out to my left and dived, all the time trying to bully its way to the sanctuary of the pads. Again it turned, this time to the right trying to find cover or a root to snag me up in, i felt like i was winning when suddenly it all went slack, then bang the tip was wrenched around, it was still on, the fight was now under my feet and the fish was nearly beaten, with just a few more punishing dives along the tree lined margin left in the fish, it was soon over the net and mine. All this had taken place in total and utter darkness. Looking into the net i still couldn't make out the fish, but as i lifted it i knew it was a good fish, it was long and thick across its back. Once on the mat the net was removed to reveal the pale mirror i had watched and pursued throughout the daylight hours. The fishes flanks were white and it was nearly scale-less, as close to a leather as you can get. With pics taken and the fish weighed in, at  little over 21lb, treated and returned, i felt like i had completed my objective, the rods were left out the water, i really couldn't face, and refused to catch another bream.

Waking soon after sunrise, it promised to be another hot day, i was content and cut the session short, never to visit the venue again.