Choose life. Choose a lake. Choose a swim. Choose a bait. Choose a rig. Choose sleepless nights under the stars. Choose the nocturnal music of branches creaking in the wind, leaves whispering, and the eerie night-calls of owls and wildfowl. Choose bright moons shattered in the rippling surface of lakes, and purple skies at sunset perfectly mirrored. Choose silent mist-shrouded pools at dawn. Choose visions of white-flowering waterlilies turning green-gold in the half-light. Choose the flashing bronze flanks of carp, twisting below the surface, on the edge of visibility. Choose a heightened heart-rate. Choose an emotional rollercoaster. Choose the psychological assault-course of planning, watching, locating, preparing, casting and waiting. Choose the endless hours of strung-out anticipation. Choose the rush of striking, hooking, fighting, and landing (or losing) the fish. Choose to walk the tightrope between desperate failure and the adrenaline-inducing, life-enhancing triumphant high of success. Choose life. Choose obsession. Choose Carp Fishing.
"Greg Freestone, Carpspotting 2011"

Sunday 22 April 2012

Cat fishing

The long awaited return to the lake, fishing the small lake for the “big cats”.
keen as mustard and desperate to get my first “whiskers” under my belt. And not in a small way either, I sets my sights high, “I want too break the 50lb mark"

I knew it was going to be hard as i only had 24 hours to track these cats down.
with the weather a bit cooler than yesterday and rain forecast for later that afternoon i soon got setup and ready for the night ahead.

I baited my swim with 1kg of halibut pellets then placed my rig over the top of it, i was using a halibut pellet tipped off with a 20mm pink white choc pop up.

The night came with no bites so i got my head down ready for an early morning fish.
6:30am i was awoke by a screamer, i struck into my rod and new it was a bigun as it started to put a bend in the rod straight away and was ripping line off my reel.

After a good 25 min fight i managed to pull the cat into the net which wasn't easy as it was about 4 foot long
I was over the moon to catch one as the weekend before i was so ill i didn't get the chance to fish for them.
It wasn't the one i was after but still 38lb isn't bad, it was the best fight i have had this year and i will defiantly be after these again some time.





A few hours later my carp rod took off with a nice little 20lb mirror
Happy days
Caught on a chod rig - Which im starting to love using
20mm white Rainbow White choc pop up