Fishing can mean so many different things to us all, from a casual hobby to a full time obsession. I think it’s fair to say most of the time I take my fishing fairly seriously, and definitely fall into the second category. However I also enjoy the social side when taking time to chill out, meet with friends, share ideas and have a brew is as important as actually catching fish. As we don’t live too far from each other, from time to time Jules and I get together for trip, and one recent social session was a bit special.

We arrived late afternoon to a local “Northern Stillwater”. The area we opted to fish had extensive weed in front of us and it took us a while to find clear areas and get organised etc. As usual Jules was fishing far quicker than I was. He’s much better organised for overnighters than I am, plus if I take it easy, I get the first brew made for me!

With tea in hand we sat and watched the lake. We had fish in front of us, over the beds of bait we had put in… prospects looked good.

Late evening, and Jules was into a fish, with extensive weed beds in the area the fight was far from straight forward, but the Infinity Magnum and Basia combination was up to the job and eventually a load of weed and a nice mirror found its way into the net. On the scales it turned out to be 25lb 8oz, a great start. With fish continuing to show in the area we felt confident of more takes.

My first take came at approx 3-00am, but it weeded me up and eventually made its escape. All I ended up with, for my frantic scramble out of the sleeping bag, was a very large ball of weed resting on the front of the peg. With not long to first light I opted to leave sorting out the mess and recasting till first light. This plan didn’t quite work out, as I made the mistake of laying back on the bed chair, fell back asleep, and next awoke at about 5-30am well after first light!

Jules was already up and getting packed up, ready to go to work. I put the kettle on, to make us both a brew.

I had intended to recast to the clear spot from where I had had the take but as we stood with our drinks we both commented on a large patch of bubbles close in to the left of my swim… tench or carp? We couldn’t make our mind up.

Jules went off to work, and I got ready to re-cast. I had decided to cast back to the spot from the night before, but just as I lined up the cast, I glanced to my left as another large patch of bubbles appeared… the same question again… tench or carp? Worth an hour or so to find out and so a gentle underhand swing, replaced the intended cast to the clear spot.

An hour or so past, and the bubbling faded away, but it was a nice morning, I was feeling lazy, so I left it where it was. Another hour passed, and I started to think about packing away, when a single bleep, focussed my attention, and the left hand ‘tench or carp’ rod slowly curved sideways.

What followed was manic! A lot of weed, some frantic clearing of jammed rod rings, a lot of swearing, a fair bit of panic, a lot more panic when I saw the size of the fish, and finally that sense of elation that we all go fishing for.

35lb 8oz of immaculate common… magic! 

I could get to like this social fishing!