Flat Batteries, Inadequate Scales & The Biggest Fish I've Ever Caught !

It was a beautiful Summers afternoon, warm but not too warm, hazy but not too bright and ideal for fishing, so we went fishing!
As quite it quite often works out Thursday afternoon suited both my dad and I for our regular piscatorial effort, we set off more in hope than expectation with recent trips having produced less than spectacular results culminating in the rain soaked, ant bitten, dismal, blank of last week.

We dabbled with fishing Jubilee Pools early season, it was still quite cold at the time and results were less than encouraging, but that was then and this is now and it seemed like a different place altogether, fish were moving in the surface layers all around the lakes and prospects looked wholly encouraging.
We opted to fish the same pegs we fished on our last visit, at the far end of Horseshoe. Dad was in the furthest corner, a swim situated between two sets of overhanging trees, I was one peg to his right, a more open peg with a bed of dwarf lilies to my right.
Choice of methods on a water you don't know well is a very hit and miss affair, to my mind, based on what we already knew, it was a straight call between floatfishing shallow and spraying maggots or fishing an open end feeder with a variety of hookbaits, having discussed it on the drive over we both went with feeder tactics.

I decided to fish at about 30 yards with sweetcorn hookbait, dad was on maggot, while I was only getting the occasional line bite dad managed to winkle out a couple of small fish. Fish were still very active all around the lake and we both encountered big carp cruising past us in the margins, this activity continued to manifest itself in the form of line bites. Receiving a more positive pull on the tip I struck, only for the margins to erupt as I spooked a large fish close in.

During my next cast I fed a handful of corn close to the lilies but deliberately in the area bisected by my line, within minutes my quivertip was dancing continually as unseen fish buffeted my line.
Off came the feeder and I clipped on the smallest bomb I could find, It landed some two feet to the left of the bank of lilies with a satisfying plop and I set the tip, I didn't have to wait long..... Whack! The tip hammered round and a sizable carp screamed towards the centre of the lake, the fight was frantic and exhilarating.

Now I am someone who has never seriously bothered with carp fishing and the main reason for that, at the risk of being controversial, is that I find mirror carp particularly ugly creatures and I have always in the past placed them on a par with eels. However, what lay in my net now was a world apart, a common carp of about ten pounds and a breathtakingly stunning fish.
Dad and I both had cameras with us in readiness for such an occasion, unfortunately we both had cameras with flat batteries, bloody typical !!!
Topping the swim up with corn I got back to the fishing and shortly had a smallish tench on the bank, then I lost another carp as it made for the trees to my left, next cast I pulled out of another carp as it bid for freedom in the centre of the lake. Quickfire stuff.

Short range quivertipping for big fish is a hair raising experience, a motionless tip often being wrenched to it's limits, rod bucking and reel churning without any prior warning at all, a fantastic, hair-raising experience.

My next fish was a common of around six pounds which nearly got away having at one time made it into the lilies, then came the big one.
A typical express train bite then heavy, sullen resistance marked the arrival of a serious carp, plodding and determined as opposed to the breakneck runs of smaller fish, an arm aching battle ensued which could easily have gone either way, fortunately it was a battle that I finally won.

Scale perfect with huge bronze flanks, broad shoulders and vivid orange fins, this common carp was a stunner, we both agreed that she would certainly weigh somewhere between twenty and twenty five pounds but unfortunately (similar to the camera fiasco) I didn't have scales suitable for weighing such a fish. So with no photos and no accurate record of weight I reluctantly slipped her back.
I will happily settle for a weight of 20lb as my previous best was a stumpy mirror carp of 12lb some years ago.

Back to the fishing and shortly after dad was snapped up by a carp I hooked another which fought like a demon and turned out to be a very lean eight pounder which looked to be a wildie. That fish was followed by another immaculate common of around twelve pounds, another fantastic looking fish.

To round off dad took a turn with my rod and was quickly into a fish which, after a spirited fight, was soon on the unhooking mat, a mirror carp (leather carp?) with only a few small scales at the base of the tail, about seven pounds.

So after a few short hours, a big shot of adrenaline and a clutch of wonderful looking fish including a big personal best, we were on our way home at 6pm with the fish still feeding hard.

Jubilee Pools see you soon!!!