UK Carp & Coarse Fishing

Out with Spotted Fin for 4 night’s on Embryo North Bank lake near Peterborough.

Its going to be a great few day’s and the weather is looking good and we should catch a few carp along the way.

Richard

As it was World Mental Health Day

I thought I would share how I believe fishing has helped me get through all the years of suffering and into many more.

My depression started, way back when I had no idea what was going on.  It is only in the past twenty years when the illness has been brought out into the open and less of a stigma attached to it.

Unfortunately, there is still a vast gap between people who suffer and people who don’t.  There is just no real way to explain that one second I can be perfectly ok and the next unbelievably sad and wishing I could burst out crying.  Which in a nutshell, is how I have lived my life for decades, there is no trigger that I can spot.

I was prescribed medication a good number of years ago and took them for about a year when things were really bad.  But after reading lots about the long time side effect, I discided this was not the way forward for me and I just have to deal with this down moments in time my own way.

What I (and my wife) noticed it never happened when I was fishing.  In some ways, I thought was odd, as I generally fish alone and have done for many years.  I think we fish better like this; don’t get me wrong, you can see from my blogs over the years I have started to fish more, with other people.  I often wondered whether it was due to having fewer things going on.  Which can’t really be the case, when you consider how much time I have spent by myself before I took redundancy.  Work was so full-on, over 12 hrs a day and my mind was occupied with work 24/7, it still would kick in but a lot less.  However, over the past 4 winters, since finishing my shipping days and doing gardening now, the Winter months have become less active for both work and fishing.  There is a clear difference between the weeks where I can fish and the weeks I can’t.  I have come to realize that fishing is definitely my happy place or it could be just getting out into the countryside and the freedom of it all.  For me it’s the best therapy there is and I’m not sure where I would be without fishing.  There has been the odd time where I just could not get out of bed, but I found that I just had to go and tell myself, just go for a walk around the lake.  Inevitably, I would stay and fish, probably not to the best of my ability, however, I was out there.  It also goes without saying that my wife & family have been so understanding and letting me out in the bank all these years.

I have also found that it’s a great satisfaction for seeing my friends catch carp – it must be the emotion of the moment which rubs off on me.  I get a great sense of well being.

I do hope this helps people and maybe, it’s worth taking up fishing of some sort.  It may just turn out to be the best therapy you can ever get.

Richard

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After rearranging my gardening jobs for the beginning of this week, a number of disasters on the technology front (my laptop hard drive giving up with a horrible clicking noise, the printer refusing to print black, the DAB radio at home also stopping and then discovering that the drive saving my work decided it was a good idea to stop saving stuff after the middle of June this year), this week has been some what of a challenge and I need some bank time before a lot of family goings on at the weekend.

I headed to the same area as last week for two reasons; 1 – I really needed some quiet time and 2 – The wind was due to pick up again and push down this end of the lake. I was a bit apprehensive at first as the lake was flat calm. But, as I drove down the track, I spotted some bubblers out there, which I thought were in front of the swim I fished last session. I grabbed my bucket and headed off, only to find that they were directly in front of the first swim. So, I headed back to the car, grabbed the kit I needed, flicked 2 rods out, put them on the floor and sat back and ate my lunch. I heard a couple of fish in the bay behind me, I snuck through the brambles only to find a couple of carp.

Their heads were down feeding and then a couple crashed out, one by the island and the other by the reeds. My choice was definitely decided now, once 2 pm arrived and I was sure the morning feeding spell was over, I got the marker float to confirm the location of a couple of spots and how shallow the surrounding humps where. One was particularly bad and I was going have to stay away from that one and fish shorter, with heavier line, in order to avoid any chance of the line parting, when playing a fish. Ian had had this issue last week and had ordered some new line, hopefully to combat this problem.

With a couple of spots sorted out, I set about spombing some 15mm Classic Corn boilies out there and a few spombs of Sf Sf Coarse pellets soaked in some GO2 Naturals Coriander and Fenugreek Bait Sauce, this is just a awesome combination. With that all sorted, it was definitely time for a drink and watching the evening come to a close.

The night was a non event, this is starting to become a bit more common on here, hopefully the morning feeding spell will get me the result I’m after, but the wind has died away and we have a lovely misty morning.

It was incredible to watching the morning develop, as the sun rose over the new forest.

My first take finally arrived (nearly 24 hours since I arrived) on the left hand rod, it ripped off out to the middle of the lake and broke the surface as it went over a bar. I stayed on the bank and held the rod as high as possible to avoid any boulders that were out there. I gained control and gently coaxed the carp back to the bank, desperately trying to avoid it kiting right, as there was so much line out, if it went that way I would be in trouble with the dead tree down the right hand margin. It stuck to open water and slowly headed to my left, which has its own boulder issue and shallow bars, it finally arrived in front of me and I was very happy. I slowly played the carp out, it rolled on the surface and it was a mirror, this was a nice surprise and put the pressure on a bit. With a few more attempts to get back out into the open water a couple of times, but it was soon over and safely in my Nsr50.

It was another middle of the day take, which was nice to see and there is definitely a feeding pattern building up over the last few seasons on there.

I got the rod back out on the spot and as I had now stopped thinking about moving swim, but with the wind picking up and the cloud cover coming back, this swim was feeling like the right place to be. Unfortunately, with this lake, there are no trees to climb up and look for the carp. Also, with the water colour being very murky, the carp just don’t show anymore and I’m sure when they did, they were on the move, not your usual way you would like to fish.

I was awoken by my second take at about 7 am, this was a lovely slow take with the line ticking off the reel. I picked the rod up and pulled into the fish as the line tighten up. It woke up then and belted off to my left, I walked back a bit to get my height, as I see it was heading to the right. I started to pump the carp in, ping it found that boulder that’s out there and the hook was out. I had that sinking feeling you get when it turns into what could of been.

Its now 8 am, the rod is back out there and hopefully another chance will come my way this morning before back up time.

With everything done and packed up, with the exception of the rods by 1130. I was still hopefully for that 1230 take, is happening quite a bit these days. Its going to be a 1 pm reel in, head home and out for a BBQ by 3 pm, pushing it to the limit, as we anglers do.

Until next time

Richard