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Currently carping

ouchthathurt said:
So the boy and I were planning to do a night last night on our new mystery water (pics in the post above) so once I’d woken up from a string of nights piloting on of the NHS’s finest ambulances around Sussex, we boiled up some hemp, rolled a few kg of boilies, loaded the jalopy with enough carp gear to sink the ark royal and topped with a smattering of food, I forced the door closed (important point that, as will soon come clear) and set off for the lake.

Just before pulling out from the family home, I thought I’d give the lake owner a quick call to check the lakes ok after all this rain. Chatting to the owner, I mention I’m on my with my son, to which he replies that my boy can’t do nights there until he’s 16! As we have a few months before this landmark, that buggered that lake!

A quick rethink was needed, the river is still high and chocolate coloured, so that was out. So swapping out one club book for another, we spun Kent bound and headed to zombie sheep lake instead.

Now my son has mentioned maybe once or two thousand times that he wants to catch his first 30, as his current PB is 29lb 11oz. This has been his all consuming goal for the last season, so once we’d arrived and I’d hurried to get the marker rod out and the spod warmed up, we idly discussed his chances. There are approximately 50 carp in this lake, with maybe 2 30s, so he had a 1/25 chance of catching his target. (Check me out, simplifying fractions!!)

The marker out and hot spot found, i spodded out the hemp, with maybe 3-4 spods left to go, my 50lb braid cracked off at the clip! Unfortunate, annoying, but not the end of the world. Spod retrieved and we get the rods out the bag.

Sons first rod goes out no problem, as he gets his second rod set up, we discover that my forcing the boot door closed was probably a poor move on my part
View attachment 72653I’d snapped the tip off his rod!!

As we were losing the light, I quickly threw my 2 rods out and set about sorting out my spare rods for him before it got completely dark. I have 4 fox torque 12ft 3lb tc carp rods that are always in my rod bag, 3 ready rigged and good to go, so I’ll just whip his reels off his rods, take my reel off my 3rd rigged rod, then get the spare rod, stick his reels on the rods, rig up both and we will be back in business!

That was plan anyway… as usual, reality was patiently awaiting to bite me in the arse…

I’ve carried my spare carp rod for the best part of 5yrs, and it’s never come out the bag, but it’s always been there, biding it’s time for the day that I snap a main rod and it can be brought into the light, my saviour to rescue me from the nightmare of splintered carbon. So scurrying to my rod bag, I look to get my spare rod out, only to find I’ve left it at home!! I took it out the other day and forgot to put it back in!!

It’s a 20min drive home, so refusing to be defeated, I leave the boy setting up our Bedouin camp and fishing on with my rods, sprinting around the lake (ok, I’m not in the army any more and am not as fit as I once was so i lumbered around) to the car, I took off home like the car boot was on fire! Arriving home in a cloud of brake dust and tyre smoke I ran through the house, startling the wife as I did so, grabbed that pesky spare rod and bolted back to the lake.

An hour later, I was finally rigging the boys rods so he could get his baits in the water, I threw up my brolly, completed camp and by 10pm, we were sitting side by side, eating pasta and talking on what a nightmare the start of this session had been! First lake a no go, snapping the spod off, losing the light so casting to the hemp bed being more problematic than it should have been and snapping his rod!

With all the excitement, I was ready for bed, so we were both soon curled up catching zzzzz’s. Now last time, I fished on the right and the boy fished the left, and I had 3 20s to his 2 low doubles so this time he chose the right towards the island and I went on the left. At 11pm, I had a twitchy take, on hitting it I soon landed a 22lb common. View attachment 72654That rod was soon chucked back out and I went back to sleep.

At 2am, the rod absolutely exploded into life and a hard fought fight produced a 21lb common View attachment 72655now the boy was pretty put out, as I was having the action and he was blanking! It was pretty cold by now, so we dived back into the bags and got back to sleep.

At 8am, my son finally got the take he was after, a pathetic slow creep of a bobbin to the alarm saw me getting out to inspect his rod, the boy didn’t even stir! I let out more line, thinking it was a liner when the line tightened back up to the rod blank again, where it stayed. I called to my son to come and hit it, which he did. His rod took on a healthy curve, and he started gaining line, the fish obligingly swam straight from the spot to the net without deviating 2ft either side and swam straight into the back of the net!

As soon as I saw it I knew it was a lump, it was very familiar too… I rolled up the net and my son went to pick it up, and found it harder than he imagined…
View attachment 72656View attachment 72657At 38lb 2oz it was his new personal best, the same football common i caught last month. He was absolutely ecstatic! It looked in better condition than I had it last month too, which is better.

View attachment 72658The scene of his triumph
View attachment 72659My set up View attachment 72660home

As we started packing away, my boy had another screaming take, which produced a 19lb 14oz common which rounded his session off nicely. View attachment 72661For once, he was happy to wrap it up and we were soon heading off home.
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Excellent report and fishing well done guys
 
Lakes going tits up all across the country with lack of oxygen, aerators are going out on the lake i look after tomorrow, 2 lakes in Shropshire have had big fish kills in the last 2 days and others going the same way :(
 
J Richards said:
Sure its not KHV? Thats doing the rounds, oxygen should be OK this time of year, no heat or weed growth.
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Yes its oxygen, im part of a fisheries management group and oxygen levels in lakes are all way down, theres 4 lakes in shropshire where oxygen levels have dropped below 2.5 ppm so less than 25% saturation.
 
richtic said:
Yes its oxygen, im part of a fisheries management group and oxygen levels in lakes are all way down, theres 4 lakes in shropshire where oxygen levels have dropped below 2.5 ppm so less than 25% saturation.
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2.5 ppm is shocking. Will test my pond in the morning out of interest
 
J Richards said:
WOW….. I am very surprised. Any idea’s whats causing the crash? My guess would be the rain?
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Its lack of rain, wind, sunlight, alot of algae dying off which takes oxygen out of the water, alot of decaying matter this time of year which is taking oxygen, lack of sunlight so no photosynthesis to create oxygen, been no wind and no rain to help oxygenate the water, water temps are still quite high so they dont hold oxygen aswell, my lake is still 12 degrees. Its an oxygen eating time of year with everything dying off.
 

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