The Toadless Leather Carp Part 2
My good fortune and some random thoughts-Part Two
On my first return visit, I fished the Leather pit for old times sake and caught a tench of about 5lb within half an hour of the first chuck, tight to the island. Next morning I moved to Pole POsition and made a few casts with a lead and found a small patch of very clean stones, took a bearing and clipped up so that I had the distance. How significant that March morning proved to be. Over the following twelve months I fished 38 weekends on the island, and another four (one in each session) on the leather pit, mostly in 'Pole Position'.
The bait I had chosen for the Island pit was just too tempting for the crays and so it stayed in the freezer, and I adopted a different approach which caught consistently around the lake. From mid-summer onwards, I trickled the 4.5kg from the freezer into the leather pit, 25 baits at a time on to the clean patch from 'Pole' or singles dotted along the far bank if I wasn't alone. Just in case I wanted to change.
As the year wore on, the Island lake filled up with small stockies and my challenge to get through to the originals was verging on pointless, and so, at the end of March I decided to transfer to the Leather pit and shorten the odds of a proper fish.
That first weekend of April I arrived at midday, found Pole Position free and was happy. I set up home and spent a couple of hours looking. After finding the patch of clean stones first chuck with the marker and clipping up, I also clipped up the spod rod to same measure in preparation. Late afternoon, before anyone else had arrived I recast the marker and emptied 25-30 baits by spod right on the float and the hookbait just past and almost too close to the line of the marker. Then two mini spods of small mixed particle again on top of the float. trap set, I fired single baits about a meter apart along the margins either side and was feeling confident. The second rod I fished close in. A tiger and fake corn over mixed particles. Not so confident but it had worked well on 'The Island'.
I had several visits that evening, most were welcome. Mr Speers prevailed upon me to allow him to thrash the water with my marker rod in preparation for his visit the following morning, and Martin reminded me, as he was leaving, that I'd never catch anything with the tackle I use. Then he returned and placed a small square of yellow glass paper in my hand and told me to use it wisely. I told him I would and he left.
Now I want to make it clear at this point, that my decision to switch to the Leather Pit was driven by my frustrations next door, and yes of course I knew she was due out and wasn't being caught but I genuinely went on there to catch some of the original fish that had been there since I was a lad, not specifically for the leather. I have seldom targeted specific fish because I know I don't have the single-mindedness needed to be a Dave Lane or a Terry Hearn. Few anglers have in truth. Disappointments in the past had taught me to just fish for carp because unless you can present a bait to a specific fish that you can see feeding, you have no control over what fish picks up your hookbait. In fact I said to Martin on that evening, that in some ways I hoped I wouldn't catch her that night, even though I was confident of catching. We all wanted Tony to be the one.
Anyway, I set my alarm for 05:30 and turned in. Next thing I knew I was swinging my legs off the bed and fumbling for my warbling phone became aware that I felt like a sack of s**t! Sore throat and headache was all I needed and I set to rumaging through my rucksack. After what seemed like an hour, I pulled out a single sachet of Lemsip and poured the now hot water over it and laid back on the bed. I must have gone straight out because the next I knew the alarm was screaming and the sun was bright in the sky.
In true style, I flew from the bivvy in my socks, straight into a puddle and pulled into the fish. Keith was in the next swim and asked if I needed any help. Footwear was what I needed, and something to slow my heart rate down. Keith duly obliged and found my cheap imitation Crocs. By now the fish had charged along the far margin and I managed to turn it before it reached the corner. It made its way back past the pick up point and then rolled, and then Keith's running commentary started. "It's too dark to be the leather" he said and I began to relax a little. Then she made for the bottom and chugged about for a minute before topping again. This time the scar was clearly visible and I knew before Keith uttered "It's her, It's the leather"! Then back to the bottom and a powerful run in the direction of Summer bay. Backwinding, I felt her ease off for a moment and I seized the opportunity to try and get her head up and as I did the reel handle came adrift from the spindle and started flapping around like a stick in a bucket! Keith already had the net in the foam and I hauled her up through the water, two or three turns at a time trying to keep the handle square to the reel. Thankfully, Keiths method of thrashing the water to aid buoyancy in the netting procedure worked a treat and she went in cleanly first hit. Cheers mate!
What followed is still blurry 12 months later. My elation lasted no more than a minute or two, the time it took Tony and young Lewis to get through the small crowd that had formed around my swim. Now, I'm NOT trying to play the martyr card, but as soon as I saw them my heart sank to see their obvious disappointment. They will both have my upmost respect for the dignified way they helped with the weighing and photos and the genuine congratulations they offered. To then see them on the far bank sitting so dejectedly was hard to bear and prevented me from celebrating in any sense.
After a few phone calls to good mates, I sat in my bivvy all day trying to reconcile what had happened and was visited by many well wishers. Sadly, amongst the calls I was made aware of what had kicked off on the forum. I was disappointed rather than surprised. Had any of my detractors crawled away from their computer screens and come down to the lake where they knew I was, I dare say the vitriol would have been avoided because they'd have seen that I wasn't even fishing, but just trying to come to terms with what most of them had yet to experience. In fact, Martin at one point shouted at me to be happy and celebrate.
Toadless
It was two weeks and a private chat with Tony before I was able to punch the air and talk about it with a proper smile.
In fairness, one of the younger lads did try to apologise about a fortnight later whilst I was fishing, back on the Island pit and I wasn't having any of it because by then I had been rubbished on several other national carp forums by people who had not even met me! That said, Tom and I have since made our peace and he has my respect for having the balls to put his hands up, acknowledge his error of judgement and make the effort to get to know me, which is not difficult. As for the rest, including a previous captor of The Leather, most have never spoken one word to me, yet one or two are still trading in bullshit, a whole year later.
I mention all of this to forewarn those of you who have yet to land a notable fish, that it is not always the joyous event it should be. Simply, because there are many small minded anglers out there who are just playing the numbers game and don't understand the Old School mentality. Petty jealousies come to the fore, letting the clutch out on their mouths before their brains are in gear and now they commit their views to virtual print via the many web forums. In my experience, never retract them even when they find out that they are wrong. Dangerous territory when they don't actually know who they are talking about, as was the case on one or two forums that I chanced to read. So, if like me you are the quiet type that doesn't court publicity, be warned! Incidentally, my capture was posted on the website whilst I was still at the waters edge and beyond my control. But was done with every good intent even though it was without my knowledge.
Just for the record, in case any of of the detractors happen to read this, I didn't catch her on a double tiger with a manky old rig with a loop in it!!!
Yes, I was fishing with rods that cost £12 on Hemel market (good cheap blanks though), but the bait I use has been catching whackers all over the country on rock hard waters, and abroad for over 10 years now and is not available through the tackle trade. I first met the angler who developed it, at Smallford in the early '80s, since then he has gone on to become quietly well known. I've been using his bait since the early 90's and have never felt the need to change for my serious fishing. A truly good bait will always be a good bait, its how you apply it. The rig I used was simple and discrete but I do consciously try to fish differently to everyone else if I can. No lead core, red mono straight through, running leads, flying backleads and sharp hooks. Works for Me!
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