We set out late, after all, Monday is Steve's
only day off and he wanted to sleep in. So did I. By the time we'd
been to the tackle shop and the grocery ... well WE have to eat too... it was
past noon. This didn't concern us though as we know that the fishing is
best at Thorpe Lea late in the day.
Steve went off to scout out a good peg for us
and I stayed at the car, eating one of my sandwiches and photographing
flowers.
Steve returned, having found a good spot on a
little bay. The place was literally boiling with carp, they were
motoring in and out of the bay like Steamboat Willy, feeding on the surface and
down in the mud. No sooner had we started setting up than we were visited
by a family of coots. Coot chicks are really quite homely. I wish I
could have gotten a close up of one, they have bare red faces and heads which,
combined with their baby fuzz gives them a somewhat monkey-ish
appearance.
Steve had a strike, early on, but lost it.
The bottom of the bay consists of ridges and troughs with dense mats of weed in
places. Carp, being the smart critters they are, take you through all
kinds of obstacles when hooked.
Pretty soon a flock of Mallard ducklings
appeared, bunched together and squeaking away for Mom. Without Mom around
they moved as a unit. They were really tiny, probably no more than a few
days old.
I was about to call out Social Services on
Mother Duck for leaving her children home alone when she finally appeared, much
to the delight of those ducklings.
Steve went back to the car for another bottle of
water and sure enough, one of my rods went off. I played the fish for all
of two minutes before my line went slack and I reeled in a snag of weed and a
branch the carp had run through. Sigh.
Steve decided to have a go with floating
bait. Carp love bread. Unfortunately water birds love floating
baits, too. Last year we caught a Canada Goose on a piece of floating dog
kibble. We looked around, there were no ducks or geese in
sight. We started tossing bits of bread to lure the
carp in. They were sucking the bread off the
surface; carp make a very distinctive "slurp" when they do this.
After a half hour or so we decided now was the time to add a hook and line to
one of the bits of bread. Big mistake. There seems to be a
telepathic connection between large water birds and floating bait with hooks in
it, cos no sooner did we set the hook when here comes a family of
swans.
Swans are very pretty. You DO
NOT, however, want to catch a swan. They have been known to break a
man's arm with their wings. These are big, powerful birds.
So we reeled in the floating bait, and reset
that line on the bottom with the others. Even so, the swans were still a
pain in the butt. Whereas geese and ducks see fishing line and swim along
it til they can safely go under or over it, swans just plow into it
and drag it along until they get annoyed with it. At that point
you pray they don't entangle themselves. They seem to have an
uncanny ability to find your line, if you look at the photo below you can see
where the rod is pointing, they are right over our line.
The guy fishing along the bank a hundred
yards from us had snagged a duck earlier in the day... so when the
swans headed toward his line he threw a stone to scare them and hit one of
the adults in the head. Fortunately no harm was done, but he was a bit
upset. Most, if not all of the swans in England belong to the Queen,
and they are protected. Hurt a swan and you are in deep you know
what.
Finally, on our third strike Steve landed a
nice carp. It was foul hooked just above it's eye... don't ask me how it
did that.. or how Steve managed not to lose it. We put some antiseptic
(specially made for fish) on it, weighed it (14 lbs), photographed it and turned
it loose.
It was getting late in the day and the lighting
was nice so I took a few more pics of the ducklings. Below is one that
turned out nice, with the ducking backlit by the setting sun.
As we were packing up to go, I turned to look up
the hill and saw rabbits... rabbits everywhere.... lol... one rabbit became two
rabbits.
and two rabbits became four rabbits and a
thrush....
... and looking in the other direction four
rabbits became a whole bunch of rabbits !
We had one more strike after that. Fish
took the line and ran with it... just under the surface, a black shadow rushing
like a freight train.... and then... it spit out the bait and we were left with
a slack line for the third time. Ah well, it was a good day, the sun was
below the tree line...
... and it was time to pack up and go
home. Once Steve is off for the summer we will be able to do
overnighters... then those carp had better watch out,
lol.