THE LONG MIRROR
The syndicate has a closed season from 1/5-16/6 every year which I dread if I’m being truthful. For me it means being away from the solitude, peacefulness, tranquil sounds of a lake literally in the middle of nowhere. It means I am then back in the fast paced rat race of modern day carp angling. Noise everywhere, people hammering pegs in, the ‘zero f*cks given’ attitude, little courtesy, almost no etiquette for the next 6 weeks. FML!
HOWEVER, I managed to wangle the last three nights of the season away from the family to have one final push & to do something different whereas usually I’m doing a few hours here and there or an overnighter a week which is quite difficult to get anything going with any consistency but alas I had three nights ahead…
I’d recently had three fish from two 4 hour sessions and these were on the end of the wind. I knew these fish in the main like to be on the end of a wind so that’s where I started. There was quite a few fish where I thought so I set out my plan, got the rods and bait on spots and sat back really confident. It was a really quiet night one and not heard or seem much at all from around the lake. The first morning came and went too but as the sun got bright on the sky, a large shoal came back in and were cruising around my rigs but in the upper layers not dropping despite the edge liquid in my feed trying to drag them down. As zigs and floaters are banned on the syndicate, being patient was my chosen path. I stayed put, didn’t move the rigs and waited for night two to explode into action. If nothing happened by 7am, I’m moving…
There was no explosion of action. There was no action at all! I had however heard activity towards a peg on the back of the wind where I’d been baiting since October every other day without fishing it (I like to have options at my disposal should the lake be busy!). With my mind made up, I moved across at the earliest opportunity and thought now is the time to get on the spots I’d been baiting. With closed season the following day I was in be in peace of mind I’m not going to blow them should some miracle mega session ensue.
I had no idea where those fish I’d heard boshing were exactly located so I stuck to my areas. I gave them a a fair bit of bait and rested the swim for the late morning and afternoon. Around 16:30pm I saw my first signs of carp and they were around the dance floor! Three bags went out lovely on a smallish spot the size of a small sofa and at midnight my right hander tore off. A solid bag filled with crumbed Baitworks Atlantic heat covered in C-stim & crustacean powder with a few pellets doused in Impulse solution tore off. I knew straight away it was a big fish. Big slow nods on the rod tip and what felt like a bag of cement! A 15 minute battle took place and managed to slip her in the net. I thought it was a fish called Charlie but on closer inspection it was a fish I’d had twice before which also has a ‘c’ on its right flank. Almost Charlie’s twin but at a top weight of 37.9. One of the A team and a PB - Buzzing!
With a freshly tied bag back out on the spot and 10 more spombs topping it up I settled down for some well earned shut-eye. A 8lb tench woke me at first light which I was a little disgruntled with (although I do like tench). I slipped it back and with hours to go, I got the rod back out again first time, a few more spombs and then no more than 20 mins later I saw the slack line rise through the water and drop. It rose again and a couple of beeps from the alarms I thought it was another tench. I lifted into it and what was a nice and calm fight then two rod lengths out I saw my tubing wrapped around the circumference of a big slate gray block of a fish. That’s the reason for such a calm fight then eh?! I slid the net under the fish, pushed the handle into the lake bed and made the last brew of the season. Rig removed and fish in the sling for transportation to the mat. The Canon was clicking away every two seconds via the intervelometer and weighing it the digital scales read 35.1. What fish is this? It must be a known one surely? The lake had started producing some real crackers which had been hammering the weight on so I thought it may have been an emerging fish as I hadn’t yet checked it in detail. Unzipping the sling and looking at the ‘ai’ scale on its right flank, straight away I knew! “F*ck it’s the long mirror!” It’s been uncaught for two years but looked amazing at it’s top weight. Brilliant way to end the session and the season on a stunning venue 🔥👍🏽
