On the angling front things have gone to plan. I’ll tell you a funny story: I had been fishing a tench lake that holds a good few carp, one being a very long 43lb common. I’d got off to a good start catching a few with the best fish being an old looking 26lb common. I was down on an over nighter and had caught a 21lb common when a mate Lee called me up and asked if I was near Cleverly Mere. I told him I was just packing up and asked him why he'd asked? He said he just needed a quick photo of a nice 20. 'No problem', I replied.
Around 20 minutes later I was pulling through the gates of Cleverly. As I drove along the road that runs parallel to the lake I saw four carp come swimming out from under a small tree. I did no more than pull over and get the rods out the boot of the car. I pushed the alarms in to the ground and then lowered a bait in to the edge. It was a little white pop-up on a chod and it sat lovely in about two feet of water. The lake bed was full of that green silk weed that sticks to everything. I walked around to my mate Lee and did a few photos of his carp and he put the kettle on. We’d been chatting about five minutes and all of a sudden an alarm broke out. 'What’s that?' Lee asked.... 'My bloody alarm!' I shouted as I legged it off to the rod.
I bent in to the carp and saw a good common roll on the top. It was trying its best to get in to some reeds but I put more pressure on and the carp rolled over and I bundled it in to my net. We weighed her at 32lb and that was the best ten minutes angling I’d done in a while. Lee called me a few names before then saying 'Well-done mate'. This all lead on to me getting my act back together on the Mere. And now six weeks on things have just got better and after three years of fishing the mere on and off I landed the carp I’ve been dreaming of catching from there; Hendrix at 42lb 6oz along with four 20's and two 30's. Keep an eye out for the bumper summer issue of Carp Talk for the low down. It’s a bit of a heart on my sleeve story.
Right, as this is a Trakker blog what I’ll do is talk a little bit about a product I’ve use each month. This isn’t a plug but a user review. With all the rain we’ve been having this summer I asked Dave Mills if he could recommend a good jacket that wasn’t too warm but needed to keep me dry. Dave sent out the new Aphex jacket. This jacket doesn’t only look good, it’s also totally waterproof. I stood out in the pouring rain while fishing in one of the BCAC matches spodding and playing fish for a good hour. On getting back in to the bivvy for a rest I took off the Aphex jacket and was ‘bone dry’ as they say! This is now a ‘must have’ bit of kit for me and means I can dump the big warm winter coat for now. It also has a bit of padding and this is just enough keep that summer night chill off. So that’s my best product for this month.
Till next time
Dave Levy
