Earith (11)
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Arrival time: 09.00
Weather: Bright with increasing cloud and windy.
Tackle: Hardy 11' 6" Marksman Specimen Avon, Allcocks 4" centrepin, preloaded waggler, 6lb line direct to 14 eyed hook.
Baits: Worms & sweet corn.
Fish: One small rudd and a small tench with a nice Koi carp later in the session.
After quite limited success on the rivers I decided to go to a favourite small lake at Earith. It was also an opportunity to try out a different filming technique after my headcam failed on the previous trip. It's fair to say that it didn't work that well. And the fishing wasn't great either.
I caught a small rudd on the first cast using worm from bait left over from my previous outing. This was quickly followed by a small perfectly conditioned tench, also on worm.
Following this initial limited success things became much more challenging. I continued to get bites on worm but they were tentative and I didn't hook any. It was quite windy and although my corner of the lake was sheltered the wind was causing flow and counter flow, which started to make float fishing difficult. I therefore decided to change to a light leger with a small bomb.
The swim - fishing between the lilies
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The 'first cast' rudd
The tench - small but beautiful
The battling Koi
I waited a while but when I got a bite on the leger it was very positive. I was using a cork bobbin that first dropped about an inch and then went up in a single positive motion. But I didn't connect.
The next bite was an even more positive affair, the bobbin literally crashing into the rod. I decided at this point to change my sitting position so as to place the rod closer to my hand while also avoiding the overhead tree on the strike.
Having not done too well on worms I had by this stage changed to sweetcorn, and another bold bite resulted in hooking a good fish that immediately went into the lilies. I managed to get it out although was restricted by the tree overhead. A young lad fishing the next swim came to help but after a real tussle, as he was about to net the fish, one of his carp rods had a take. It was left to me to net the fish, which wasn't a problem, although a young girl with the lad passed me the landing net handle that he had dropped on the floor.
The fish was a beautiful Koi carp that fought like a demon. Even on the bank it was still struggling and it went off strongly as I returned it to the water.
That was to be my last fish and more than made up for a very quiet day. Unfortunately my new filming technique, while capturing the lake quite well, didn't record the capture of the Koi very well at all. So I will be trying something else!