Page #4

 I was awoken at first light to a violent sound. Absolutely shattered, I saw  four men right in front of me hammering, what looked to be, a drain pipe into the ground.

 "What the bloody hell are you doing!" I yelled.

Four very 'foreign looking' older gentlemen looked at me dumbfounded and started to converse in their native tongue. Ignoring me they carried on with their hammering. Before I knew it there were eight rods to my immediate right, not 6 feet from my rods, all cast into my baited swim. They packed in between Karl and I like sardines.

In the midst of my cursing to Karl and Dave about the situation my right hand rod went off. I half heartedly picked up the rod and hit into something quite large. Now this was definitely not a catfish as it slowly swam to my right and methodically lunged and pulled line from my reel. Sidestrain was useless and my 1 3/4 test curves were doubled over yet it kept going.

Now I know it's December , and I'm all for the Christmas spirit but when those foreign rods next to me that all have 'Bell' indicators on started ringing 'jingle bells' I cursed the Christmas season. I heard Karl swear as the inevitable happened. The hook pulled due to the mass of lines that were pulling at the line. I dropped my rod. I was gutted. That was my twenty - at the least. Karl came over and tried to explain to deaf ears that they were very close to taking an early morning dip if they didn't sort themselves out.

I was miserable. Not because of the lost fish so much but because from that point on that day my fishing was ruined. I had eight rods to the right of me and another five to the left as two more of the foreign fellows had moved in. Unless I hooked a fish that ran directly out into the lake in a straight line and returned following the same path I was SOL.. These people had no regard whatsoever for the other Anglers let alone the environment dropping litter all around them and discarding line in the bushes.

 I reeled in and started to talk to Dave and Karl about leaving. We were all thoroughly pissed off. It was freezing during the night due to the illogical 'No camping' scenario. I figured if I left before 10am I could get over to Malibu and hit a new spot there that I had found access to. It was a gorgeous setting and even if I blanked it would finish the year on a positive note. Well, we all sat around and contemplated our next move as we always did - with a cup of tea. It was decided that it was miserably cold in the night due to the fact that we could not 'camp' by the waters edge and there was also the uncertainty of the 'Foreign Factor'. I walked up to one of the foreigners and asked if he could speak English.

"A little" came his reply.

"Are you guys fishing all night or just the day?" I asked fearing the worst.

"We leave at four" he said. 

That was the first thing that felt good for the day. I thanked him and informed the rest of the crew of the situation.

We all decided that it was a gorgeous day and as we had baited up and spent the time to get to the lake we should sit it out for one more night. Now I did find this encouraging. We could of all decided to pack it in there and then but decided against it. For some reason I felt really good about the situation. I remember now that the reason for my change of heart had more than a little to do with the fish that I had lost earlier. This was a different ball game. Having felt what was definitely something of substantial size on the end - I was determined to get that ' 20 '.

We all sat around in the sunshine throughout the day having a laugh and joke with each other. I can tell you , I haven't met a better bunch of people to spend time with. Although I was shattered I started to feel good as we exchanged stories and both Karl and Dave helped me with some different rig ideas. I eventually fell asleep around noon and awoke to Karl telling me that he had just lost a good fish.

"Things are looking up then" I said as I went for the kettle and the obligatory cup of tea.

"Sean" came a shout from Karl's wife, "Debbie is into a fish !"

I jumped up from the bedchair and ran over to see Aussie Dave's wife, Debbie, battling with a good size fish. 

"It's a lump" said Dave and by the swirl from just under the surface it was definitely a decent size fish. Debbie eventually subdued a beautiful 26lb common. I took off my shoes and socks and waded in to help land the fish. I figured it was the least that I could do as Dave 'The fish' had ventured quite a bit further the previous week to help out Keith Thompson at the CAG fish in.

Pictures were taken and the fish was released back into the water. 'Shock' and 'horror' were written all over the other Anglers faces when we explained that we were not going to eat it and no we wouldn't be hitting it on the head and leaving  it on the bank for the Raccoons.

As I walked back to my swim thinking that this was a good sign, my right hand rod screamed off. I ran towards the rods and struck into what felt like a big fish. The rod arced over then the line immediately went slack. I reeled in and noticed the link where I had tried a new Knot had separated from the line. I didn't think more of it until the same thing happened later on that day.

'I do not feel good about this' I thought to myself as I sat in my chair . I then got another shout from Carol, Karl's wife, who informed me that once again Debbie was onto a good fish.

'Bloody hell' I thought ' This woman has got the magic touch !!' Debbie had also caught the largest fish at the CAG fish in the previous week.

I ran over and saw Debbie putting up a valiant struggle against what was obviously a large fish that kept boring deep. She eventually got it to the surface and both Karl and I said the same thing at the same time.

"That's a thirty."

As this perfectly scaled common came towards the net it made me realize what magnificent fish they were. The fish was placed in the weigh sling as we peered at the dial.............29 pounds 8 oz . What a fish and a PB for Debbie. Well done !!!!!!

The site of such a large fish made me even more determined to catch my PB. As I sat down to make a bacon sandwich I heard Karl's alarm go screaming off. The fish were definitely on the feed. He hit into a large fish which took a tremendous amount of line on the first run. The bacon sandwich could wait - my mate was into a fish.

"Are you in mate? " I asked as I walked over.

"Oh yes" said Karl smiling as the line tore off his reel. Watching Karl playing the Carp I could see where all his years of professional Angling were being put to good use. The rod was like a wand in his hands, I kid you not !! Watching him play the fish was a pleasure to behold. It also made me feel  better of the method that I use to 'feel' the fish through the rod while being 'coached' with the left hand high above the butt of the rod as, Karl played his fish the same way.

"Christ, she's going some" I said as again the fish changed direction and tore off more line from the reel. This fish would not give an inch we were both sure that it was a 30+.

"Maybe I've foul - hooked it" said Karl, as again the fish took off to the horizon. This continued to go on for a while ....run after run with the rod bent double until the fish was eventually netted.

We weighed the fish which came in at 24lbs. I had to agree with Karl that this particular fish had fought like there was no tomorrow. On closer examination Karl realized that it was the same fish that he had lost earlier on in the day !!