The return of an old Friend on SSRR

22/04/2010

The end of 2009

In October 2009 I decided to stop fishing in preparation of an oncoming Belgian championship air rifle shooting. This meant that I wasn’t able to fish until half November.

Now November the competition was over and the time to return to the water was there. But seeing what the weather had in store for us, I had to make the tough decision to stop until the winter was over. The hard cold of 2009 made it impossible to go carping. All the lakes froze over and stayed that way till February 2010. So I had a large period to evaluate my tactics of 2009 and make changes for 2010, Also I had a little more time for my air rifle training.

 

Back at the lake

Finally the winter of 2009-2010 was over, the temperature where still too low to make a good chance for some decent carp. So I waited until the end of March to get started on my old lake. 3 sessions in of the new year I saw it was going to be an epic achievement to get some decent carp on the bank before the closure of the lake (15 april-1 June). On the surface of the lake we didn’t saw any carp for months.

The return to my lake was a little disappointing for me. I had good hopes for this spring but the carp god’s decided it otherwise. So the tactic for this spring was in my eye’s to start moving and locating the carp. The 3 earlier session where every time on a different swim of the lake, but no luck.

 

The fourth session

In the mean time it was 11/04/2010, I chose to fish a swim that I didn’t fished in about a 2 year period. I thought this is the swim where I had the most chance considering the cold weather and the low water temperature. I have the option here to fish deeper and shallow water at the same time. So arriving at the swim at 4.30 in the morning the rods went in at the deeper end of the swim and also on a shallow part. After installing everything I started waiting for a take. It was still very cold and we saw a little bit of frost on the grass surrounding the swim. This made my hope plummeting of catching a carp. I thought that redoing a spring session of 2009 where I got 5 takes and 4 on the bank whit the largest being small bull at 50lbs was going to be impossible for 2010.

 

The return of a friend

The evening was falling and still not one carp on the bank and not even one that broke the surface. My hope of catching one was at an all-time low. But at 21.30pm everything chanced for the first time this year I heard a carp breaking the surface. It was far from my swim but the hope of catching one was growing. 15´ later for the second time I heard one breaking the surface, this time a little bit closer. This meant it was just a matter of time before the carp where getting in the aria of my swim. This is the mean problem here time was running out for me because the rules on the lake state that 2 hours after sundown we need to leave the lake, and the carp know this damn well.

The time for leaving was getting damn close and still no take. This made me do something that I normally never do. I decided to place the rod on the ground and put everything else in its bags and leave the rod in until the last min. everything was stored away and the time for the rods was there. I took the rod in the deep end first like I knew something was going to happen with the other rod. As I was going to pick up the second rod I saw that there was line started to be taken off of the spool. I stroked the rod and I felt a carp on the other end of the line. I felt like being blest by the god’s my first carp of the year 2010. The fight didn’t take very long. And I was able to place the net under her. On the bank I saw a nice common and wondered how much she weighted also I had the feeling that this wasn’t the first time I saw this common. After weighing I saw she was 15kg (33.1lbs) heavy. But still I had the feeling that I banked this carp once before. I started thinking and took my album and started looking around. And yes I banked this carp last year on the 12-4-2010 at a weight of 13.2 kg (28lbs). and now just as I am writing this article I see that it is the third time that I was blessed to held her in my hands I bank her for the first time 3 years ago also in April.

 

 

 

12-04-2009 28lbs	11-04-2010 33 lbs

 

I am very pleased whit this recapture seeing that she gained 5lbs in weight. I hope this is a good start of the New Year and hope to bank more of these beauty’s.

 

 

Thanks Leigh for the good baits. By the way she was caught on a SSRR pink snowman presentation.

 

Jeroen De Meyer