Over The Moon

James salmons relates the capture of a surface-caught lump.

- James Salmons

Coming up to the autumn I had a decision to make; things had been going well on the place I was fishing and the carp I wanted the most was due out. In the end I planned to stay on the pit until it was caught and then move over to my other syndicate, which was close by, and fish it through the winter. Just a couple of weeks later a good friend of mine, Kasie, called me to say he’d got some good and bad news. Straight away I knew which fish was in his net! I was made up for him and as I came off the phone I knew my next session was going to be spent on the other lake.

By the time I got in to the car park for my first trip I was buzzing with excitement! The lake holds some stunning fish and I couldn’t wait to get going. On my first lap round I found fish in one of the corners straight away. I climbed up an overhanging tree and could see that there were a fair few fish around and, what’s more, I could clearly see that three of the A-team were also in attendance.

Tackle was quickly retrieved from the car and I was back in the corner in no time. I climbed another tree overlooking the swim and could see a small spot in the marginal weed which looked prime for a hookbait. The only worrying thing was that the fish were not interested in dropping down at all and spent most of their time mid water, just slowly swimming around. I could see a spot further up the margins that the fish were clearly avoiding which had another angler’s bait on it. This didn’t exactly do my confidence any good!