Mike and his 27lb Common
With no one on Molyneux during the week 14th to 21st July it gave Helen and I a chance to catch up on those jobs that we are always having to put off due to anglers being here and other jobs taking priority.
Soon enough though the weekend loomed large on the horizon and we set about preparing bait for the forthcoming week. Once again we only had the one angler Mike on the lake, and with his girlfriend Janine and who had booked into the cabin and its swim.
Saturday morning they arrived bright and early and as always keen to see the lake. We wandered round and then showed them the cabin. They were both very pleased with the cabin and facilities it offered, and remarked on how surprised they were as it was bigger than they had expected.
Mike set himself up during the course of the day, and after the evening meal, got himself cast out and ready for action. At 2am he was woken by the sound of an alarm and lifted into a hard fighting Molyneux carp. He brought the fish to the waiting net without too much ado and after netting it, shone his torch down to see a nice common laying there. It was unhooked and weighed at 27lb exactly and held up for a photo or two before being released back into the lake.
There was to be no more action that night, although at breakfast the following morning Mike was pleased to be off the mark and with a new pb.
Monday Mike and I discussed tactics and with weather conditions warm with high pressure and very little sign of movement from the carp he decided he would concentrate his efforts on the catfish, having never caught one before.
To that end I baited up a couple of spots along the front of the island and it was here he fished to that night. At around 2am I had a knock on the door. It was Janine “Mike needs a hand” she said, so I got dressed and jogged along to cabin. There was Mike rod in hand, with the tip bent round rather worryingly toward the snag tree. Apparently he had had a take from the cat rod which had ran away from him, almost stripping all of his line off, finally he managed to slow and turn it , and brought it back toward him. This had taken over 40 minutes, so it could well be assumed that a large cat was on the other end of the line. Once he got it close to the swim he was in it made one last uncontrollable lunge for freedom, and managed to get itself through the snag tree and out the other side. This resulted in Mike being able to bring it back to the tree and no further. I went out in the boat but sadly it was too far down for me to be able to do much, finally trying to free the line took its toll and it parted. I was gutted for Mike and could do nothing other than assure him it wasn’t tethered and that he couldn’t have done that much differently.
Tuesday night was quiet with no action for Mike, though there was a lot of activity further down the lake, in front of the island, so Mike decided to move down and fish from the double swim for Wednesday night.
At just before midnight he had a one toner and after an almighty scrap slid the net under another catfish. They were certainly active this week, much more so than the carp it seemed. It was weighed at 28lb’s and photos were taken before it was returned safely.
The following night at around 9pm he caught another cat, this time at 19lb’s, then in the early hours of Friday morning had another belting run, and after an epic battle landed his third and largest of the week at 38lb’s. He was absolutely delighted.
Friday night sadly proved to be fruitless and after a slow pack down and a hearty breakfast we said our farewells and they left for home, promising to come back next year to hopefully meet a few more of the carp.
French Carp Lakes – Molyneux
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