I'm nearing the end of the bulk of the freshwater fishing now for this part of the year and looking forward to a season in the brine, but recent events have provided me with a last flurry of activity with which to conclude my fishing in the freshwater. For the next three weekends I have access to a very special water, not something I ever thought would happen, and the opportunuity came as a bolt out of the blue. The fishery owner is making some changes to how this exclusive water is going to be run, after a somewhat chequered syndicate history. Access will be open to anyone, but very limited in the amount of people that will be allowed to fish at any one time. To this end, my friend who is a long time friend of the owner has secured us exclusive access for three weekend day sessions on this water, which contains Carp to a top weight of 50lb!! The back up stock is rumoured to be impressive with a number of fourties and thirties plus twenties and doubles. There is only a small overall stock of fish numbering around an estimated 40 fish, but the water is only relatively small. The fish have grown from modest proportions having been stocked many years ago, to what they are now, and have been for a lot of that time relatively unpressured, compared to some waters. Being a small water, it lends itself well to a stalking approach, something which I love doing, and so this is how we intend to fish this lake.
Being a little rusty on this side of things I decided some practise was in order so I will know exactly what I am doing on this lake when the time comes, so today, as the sun was out, and it has been nice and mild the last few days I knew there would be a good chance of one of my other local club lakes being eminently stalkable for it's resident population of Carp, and would provide me with the necessary practise I needed. I needn't have worried, as with all my fishing I have ever done, it is just like riding a bike, you don't really forget. The only slightly different thing is that I am now using a centrepin reel for stalking instead of a fixed spool reel, so I am still getting used to that at the moment, but the fishing went well and I managed to bank 5 double figure fish from close in margin spots using a float on the lift method. I may try and have a couple more rehearsals this week before we fish the other water next weekend, just so that it all feels familiar and that I have honed my stalking senses as much as possible! Obviously I want to make the very best of the time we have been offered on the big fish water as we may not get such an opportunity again any time soon....
A nice mid double figure Common Carp falls to my stalking skills.
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