Disaster into Triumph

Alan Bell related this story to me as I was on the train back down from a heavy night in London. So I hope I have got it right Alan as we did have a couple of interruptions due to tunnels.

Alan rejoined the club on Wednesday morning, Alan comes from Woking but likes to fish with a friend who lives down our way. Having made the trip down he decided that they should give the match pond at Storrington a go. Alan fancied fishing light with the pole on bread punch to see if he could get a decent net of silver fish. Alan selected a swim round the back of the lake and his companion decided to try the reeds on the riverbank for carp.

With almost his first put in on the pole Alan was faced with something that sailed away and in an effort to control the fish (obviously not a roach) Alan broke his pole in three places disaster!

A change of tackle was obviously needed and Alan opted for a rod and line with a center pin. He had been told that to catch the carp on this pond you had to be close to the island but his earlier experience had been closer to the inside, therefore Alan decided to fish the inside margin. Having connected using bread before he also decided to carry on with the simplest of baits and not to complicate matters with the likes of boilies or pellets.

The carp came think and fast and Alan had a final tally of 12 carp to double figures. He described all the fish as being in absolutely tip top condition and obviously very ready to feed. The fish were mainly deep wine coloured linear mirrors and fighting fit. With the fish being so lively he is not sure how he managed to get them out, although he felt that the control that can be exerted using a good rod and center pin paid dividends and didn’t think he would have been as successful with a carp pole – Triumph!

Not to be outdone Alan’s companion was wrestling with some very good carp on the reeds and managed to get at least one double out but lost something that he felt was much bigger. All in all they had a wonderful days fishing and can’t wait for another go on the match pond. Alan reckons he is going to be a bit more tooled up next time round and is going to dig out a spool of heavier line to put on his center pin!

Well done Alan and look forward to hearing about your next visit and if you do have a camera with you a few pictures would be really good.

Steve Simmonds – Secretary