IN THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT
25th August 2020
After a long stint of plenty of work but no time on the bank I was eager to get the rods back out, it had been a long time coming.
Even though the weather conditions were far from ideal, with scorching temperatures reaching in excess of 35 degrees, and high pressure, nothing was stopping me. After work in the late afternoon, I headed down to Berners Hall. A couple of laps later I noticed a few fish down the far end sunning themselves. With this end being much quieter and no other angling pressure, it was a better place than any to start, considering it had only done 2 bites in the last few days.
I proceeded to spomb out around 2kg of 12mm Manilla Active, coated in Calanus Liquid, onto the spot.
After getting all the gear round to the swim, I set about leading around in the swim to find myself a clearer area in amongst the dense weed beds which had come up through the last couple of months. After around 15 minutes of carefully leading around close to the main weed bed in the swim, I finally pinpointed a small clearing in the weed which was big enough to accurately present 2 rods on with confidence.
I proceeded to spomb out around 2kg of 12mm Manilla Active, coated in Calanus Liquid, onto the spot. The 3rd rod I used to cast around at any signs or showing fish throughout the session. After a hot and very quiet opening night, it was apparent there was a few fish in the upper layers out in front of the swim. After relentlessly trying to nab one off the surface and casting a zig around the swim to no avail, before I knew it, it was time to settle down for the second night.
I decided to stick with the original spot from the first night, once again placing 2 rods close together on the area. A lovely warm evening sat round the BBQ quickly passed. Another uneventful night led to a warm morning under the sunrise. Around 7am I received a savage bite on my middle rod, stripping line on a tight clutch, this fish was heading straight for that weed bed!
Hitting in the fish, it instantly managed to bury itself in the dense weed in front of the swim about 70 yards out. After keeping steady pressure on, whilst walking down the bank to change the line angle, it finally broke its way free. A nerving surface battle followed as the fish looked to have almost given up, however coming close to the marginal band of weed it had other ideas! Once again stripping line and kiting across the swim from side to side, I finally managed to carefully coast the fish through the first band and into a large clearing. This is when I first realised I was onto something of a decent size!
Finally, it decided to give itself up and went over the net cord. After peering down, I could see a wide, dark mirror resting in the bottom of my net. Hoisting it up onto the scales, it spun them round to 35lb 4oz! A new PB and my first fish over 30lb from The Res!
