Perfect day.....Carp

Well after 4pm that is......

It was just too nice not to be on the boat so I finished work a little early and took the bike to the boat. I intended fitting two new switches for the bilge and headlight - they are the paddle type and keep getting knocked on by crews bums, so I have brought some pull to make types. Anyhow when I got to Waterlilly I remembered I had taken the switches home last time -for what reason I do not know.

So fishing was the only option.

When I had boarded the boat there was an large splash between the armco and the bow fender of Mable, initially I thought it was a duck but nothing surfaced so it must have been a large fish - Carp or Pike

I had taken a couple of slices of bread so I started with bread plugs fished under a float. No action for the first hour. I thought I saw a swirl as a fish came to the surface so I threw in a couple of 1" square bread flakes - to my amazement a few minutes later a large carp came up and sucked the bread down. My float was on a couple of rubbers so I took it off and removed the weights and put a flake of bread on a free line and dropped it where the carp had just taken the bread. It came again and took my bait and it was game on.....

I only had a 16 hook on a 3.2LB line so it took it very steady, also I had not got my landing net made up........aaargh Luckily the owner from "Such as Life" saw the rod bending and came over. He made my landing net up and after about another 10 minutes she came to the net. A fantastic fish of 14-15LB caught on really light tackle. I have seen John Wilson and others catch carp like this so it was very exciting and satisfying to catch such a fine fish.



The was a small audience watching me land the fish so a little pressure.

I have fished my mooring a few times now and caught next to nothing - this beauty certainly made up for that...... the evening drew in and Fradley was , as ever, a perfect place to be. Shame I had to leave the boat as I have to be in Cardiff in the morning.......

Perfect day