Waterlog weekend

I (and my brother) had the honor and pleasure to attend this years prestigious Waterlog Midsummer Madness angling weekend. The weekend of angling took place on the Severn at Waterlog Angling Club stretch. We were accommodated at The Grange at Ellesmere, which is also the headquarters of Medlar Press.

To cut the story in short, the people were more than hospitable and the weekend was just about the best midsummer ever. And no MOSQUITOES! Although I was bitten by a dung beetle, no serious harm was made. We had a good weekend with good company, good food and ale & wine. What can you ask more? Well - I asked for some cricket, and we got some. It was about 30 Celsius and sunny, but we Finns wanted to have some batting. Good hosts, didn't let us down.

We did catch some good fish. In total there were 3 barbel caught in the weekend, one by me (6 lbs) and one by my brother (A DOUBLE FIGURE).... I have to admit that the fish were caught on dodgy tackle (carbon rods) and some magic pellets (embraced by the man Martin Bowler himself). I also caught a minnow, a dace and a chub. The photo is of the minnow (looking like a chub)...

A grumpy ol' chub.

My first carp ever

There isn't an experience like catching your first carp. It is really something, especially when you have never seen one before.

My first carp was on the first day of August 2007. I prebaited the swim earlier that day, and somehow I decided to go night fishing. It was already getting dark when I arrived.

I set my cheap wannabe-rodpod on the bank and cast the first rod out. The rod was actually a light/medium action match rod, which had absolutely nothing to do with carp tackle. The reel was 1500-sized fixed-spool reel. It held about 80 m of 0,28 mm monofilament. A real treat for handling hard fighting big carp!

But what happened next was a bit of a mystery. After casting the first rod out, I started to assemble my carp landing net. It was my new 52" net, so I wouldn't have any problems in fitting the possible carp in the net. (How wrong was I then...) I tried to put the pieces together in the landing net, when suddenly all the world just flashed. I mean, a sudden bright flash just amazed me in the night. I really don't know what that was.

After regaining my focus, I tried to put the landing net together. Again, I was interrupted...by my bite alarm! It just went totally crazy, bleep after bleep. The rush was so fast. I jumped on to my rod and lifted it up and hooked the fish. My reels drag was set really loose, so I tightened it. The fish went on with the long rush. I tightened the drag even more. Suddenly I realized that something was wrong with my reel. The drag knob was broken, as I couldn't put on more drag force. Just a couple of seconds later, I realized the drag force was on full and the fish just went on.

A couple of meters later and with a bit loosened drag force, I started to do a tug-of-war with the fish. I had no idea what species the fish was. At last, after a lot of minutes, I gained the upper hand in the fight. When I got the fishes head up, I was in awe. The barbs of the carp were pointing up to the already starlit sky. It looked like an ancient creature, a dragon from another world. Carp! It was a carp! My knees went wobbly, and I really needed to land this fish.

Too bad the landing net wasn't set up. I had to keep the net open with my fingers, so getting the fish to the bank was easier said than done. Luckily after a few attempts I managed to get the carp into the net.

I took a few photos (weight was 7,5 kg which is about 16½ lbs), and released the fish. I hadn't caught the fish, it had caught me.