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ROB KAVANAGH.
The inside line on fishing.
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I'm Rob Kavanagh, your Artful Angler artist and dedicated angler.
My fishing blog is here to share my fishing adventures, ideas, stories, tips, anecdotes, techniques etc.. tight lines!
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05/05/2008
March
The beginning of the month saw me put my back out again so fishing had to take a back seat. I couldn't bring myself to not go fishing on the last day of the season so I spent an uncomfortable couple of hours on a cold, wet day rolling meat cheese or bread down on the Frome. No significant bites were forthcoming, although I missed one tentative rattle on bread. The trip wasn't completely wasted as I took the opportunity to cut some reeds for floatmaking. That and working on a couple of tackle designs kept me occupied for a few weeks, and towards the end of the month my thoughts started drifting towards targeting the carp at Tortworth.
Thursday 27th March
Wednesday was a completely different day to the past couple of weeks of cold winds and rain. It was pleasantly mild in the sunshine and I determined to take advantage if it held. Happily Thursday was the same, and although not quite t-shirt and shorts weather, it wasn't far off! I couldn't get to Tortworth before 2pm but on arrival I found only one other angler present, fishing off the dam. We chatted for a while before I headed around the lake for to look for signs of carp. I found them behind the island taking advantage of the warmer, shallower water and counted over a dozen individuals ranging in size from about 8lb to 15lb+. I catapulted out some hemp to see if I could distract them from their sunbathing and get them interested in feeding and settled back to watch. I took my time setting up and was in no hurry to get fishing, the last thing I wanted was to rush things and spook the carp.
After an hour the fish became more active and I could clearly see patches of cloudy water where the carp were getting their heads down. They were having a wonderful time and occasionally a fish would launch itself from the water, one mirror of about 16lb did so half-a-dozen times in a row, almost tailwaking twice, before re-entering the lake with a resounding WALLOP!
Geese threatened to upset things by splashing about in the swim, so off I wandered away from the peg, tossing bread and gradually drawing them down to the other end of the lake. Here I broke up a few slices and left them to gorge themselves, hoping they wouldn't follow me back associating me with a free feed!
It was time to get a bait in the water.
I had set up a light running rig, a 3/8oz bomb gave me the range I wanted and wouldn't cause too much disturbance, with a 3 foot long 8lb hooklength and a size 8 hook. Bait was a nice big piece of fluffy breadflake. It was 4pm as I cast to the edge of the carp activity, set the bobbin on a slack line and sat back with bated breath. They were solidly on the feed and I had the feeling that would get a run at any moment......
The bait had been in the water for no more than 10 minutes before the bobbin hopped and twitched on the deck a couple of times before steadily raising upwards. Line began clicking off the freespool, and a second later I struck into a solid resistance. YES!!
The fish charged towards me at first causing me to wind the reel like mad, before it kited off to the right towards a sunken lily-bed. It soon became apparent that it wasn't one of the bigger fish, and the rod absorbed its efforts with ease. Still, it was a chunky fish which put up a good scrap, and it was several minutes before he seemed ready for the net. On seeing it, the plucky common had other ideas and led me a merry dance around the roots of marginal trees for a further couple of minutes before he was safely netted.
On the bank my prize looked just shy of double figures and went 9lb10oz on the scales. An immaculate common carp with rich buttery flanks, a real beauty!
Rob, 05/05/2008
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Comments
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| 1. On 07/05/2008 01:29:42, matt wrote: |
Rob, great photos of Tortworth and a lovely clean common carp. Sounds like they are feeding well!. Hows the lake looking in general ?. Plenty of water ? ... must admit, makes me a little homesick seeing these photos. Looking forward to our next session!!. Summer coming and those nice warm evenings ... so plenty of fishing ahead.
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| 2. On 16/08/2009 00:51:11, ukcoarsefishingreviews.co.uk wrote: |
Looks like a cracking day to go fishing love the pics good clear quality http://ukcoarsefishingreviews.blogspot.com
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