July 2011 - Tough Times On The CP by John Elmer
Well its been a while since I done a diary piece, and as the title suggests things haven’t gone to plan to say the least. At this point though I hope you have enjoyed our guest diary pieces from Colin Walford and Dan Chart. Next month I’m hoping to get young Ryan Boyda to do a piece.
Now where has it all gone wrong on The Car Park? to tell you the truth I don’t know. I would like to think people that know me or have read any of my articles in magazines know I’m not one to pretty things up. If I’m struggling or blanking then that’s how I want to tell it. In my eyes there is no shame in that and on somewhere like The CP, you have to take it being I’m still only a weekend angler. I’m going to go back to July where at that time I was doing quite a bit of times in The Islands. Now this swim last year done all three of the originals that are left in The CP. My thinking behind it was why chase them round the lake when there is a good chance one of them will come from the Islands.
It was while I was fishing in The Islands that I was catching Tench after Tench. Its not that I mind catching Tench because at least you know that your rigs and the area you are fishing are right. But due to where the hook bait was positioned, up on the marginal shelf the rod was not the easiest to re-position when it got dark. At this point I must admit I was starting to get a bit fed up. The Tench bites where coming all hours and I felt that the rig and the bait was not getting enough time to settle down due to having to keep re-doing the rod. As I said this was July time and what I had been doing at this point was fishing how I use to fish Sutton.
I had been arriving at The CP for four in the morning, with a flask of coffee made I would sit in a swim that I could see the whole lake in case the fish decided to show and give themselves away. On one of these mornings I noticed two fish show in Des’s water, but me being stubborn or stupid went back into The Islands because I still thought one of them old girls was coming from there. My stupidity ended in another weekends blank, bar the three Tench I had all through the night again. When I returned the next week I sat there again with my flask at four in the morning watching the water and two fish showed in Des’s again.
Now I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice, I unloaded the van and pushed my kit round to Des’s to get set up. The two fish had shown bang on the spot out in front of Des’s. I opted for a critical balanced Tiger Nut for the hook bait and a small amount of hemp and maples as freebies. I had to clear a bit of a channel through the weed to get my line down correctly. I was that happy with the rod that I thought that it could stay there for the full 48 hours unless I got a bite? As I sat on my bed chair taking in the July sunshine (and we haven’t had much of that) the fish were more than happy cruseing about with their backs out in the hot sunshine. The night past away with nothing much doing, but I had set the alarm for five in the morning. The alarm went off and as I awoke from my slumber, I turned the alarm off and just laid on the bed chair watching the water.
Almost an hour had passed when I noticed a depression in the water right over the spot. With that two fish bolted one to the left and one to the right. Then all of a sudden the rod just ripped with such a force that the reel smashed into The Neville. I ran down to the rod and picked the rod up and was not to sure which fish I had hooked? When the rod took up the test curve it was the fish that had gone left that I was in contact with. I watched the other fish Bo wave across the lake straight to the Gate Snags, the fish I was playing was going mental. I some how managed to play the fish straight down the channel in the weed I had cleared the day before. It was like leading a dog on a lead The fish came straight in under the rod tip and then the fight began again. The fight went on for about another ten minutes before I had the upper hand on the fish and it rolled over the net cord well and truly beaten.
As I cleared the weed in the net to look at my prize, I could see it was a Common although not one of the originals I was well happy with it. All the hard work and effort was paid back with me looking at that carp in the bottom of my net. The net was pegged out securely and I walked up to get Gareth to help with the weigh in and photo’s. When we got back to my swim the fish that I thought looked about a mid twenty grew in size when I went to lift it. We put her up on the scales and the needle swung round to 31lb exactly. You can tell by the photo’s a proper stunner, nice, lean and dark to.
For the next two to three weeks I continued to fish Des’s, but apart from a few Tench and a Bream the swim seemed to dry up. I would like to say that I capitalized on things but it just went from bad to worse. Fishing didn’t seem to matter as much because my mum was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. I’m not using this as an excuse but my head was really all over the place. Although my mum went in and had it removed and we are still waiting to see the rest of the out come from the operation. You really put things into place when this happens and chasing a carp around a lake doesn’t seem that important. My family means everything to me as does it to a lot of people, my wife has been brilliant and I don’t know where I would be with out her.
As I sit here writing this piece, fishing should be enjoyed and to tell you the truth I haven’t enjoyed it to much. I’m still fishing The CP but I just can’t seem to get into a groove up there at all. Arfur has been out once and The Big Orange four times and fair play to the lads that have caught them. Is it simply not my turn in life to catch one of them yet? I don’t know? But one thing is for sure I won’t give up, anyone who knows me will know that. Well that’s it for this month and as I said earlier on in the piece we’ve got young Ryan Boyda doing his first diary piece next month, not to be missed I can assure you. Until next time enjoy your fishing and I hope you have a few.
Good luck and tight lines...
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