At last the weather is changing from non-stop heatwave, to a more tolerable temperate climate, where in the South of England, we have even experienced moderate rainfall. No thunder storms and flash floods, as predicted by the technically aided weathermen, but moderate rain. Not too far in the distant past, the weather was predicted using a lump of seaweed and a piece of wet string. At least then, we did not expect too much from our weathermen. Many people still remember the now notorious BBC forecaster Michael Fish, who in 1987, jokingly referred to a viewer’s concerns of a Hurrican approaching the British shores as wrong, answering ” Well if you are watching, don’t worry there isn’t.” that reply did not go down well in the UK, after 115 mph winds caused devastation, hundreds of thousands of homes without power and 18 people killed. So it was this week, that after a wet afternoon was forecast, a hot dry afternoon followed.

Having completed my outside jobs in the morning, I was now at a loose end in the afternoon. I only had time for a couple of hours of fishing and took five minutes to drive to my nearest water, Savernake, where the exposed mud of a few weeks ago was now covered by water.

The lake looked refreshed by the recent rain and I soon set about mixing up a light groundbait of liquidised bread, ground hemp and fishmeal. The bottom here is very fine black mud, washed down from the pine forest upstream, heavy groundbait would sink through away from the fish. The depth is impossible to measure with a plummet, due to the silt, but fishing here has proved that a light bait, like bread punch will sit on the silt. Unlike last month, there were no signs of feeding fish, such as bursts of black mud rising to the surface, but once a few small balls of groundbait were catapulted over the middle, like black ghosts, the mud began appearing. Putting up my pole to ten meters, I flicked my 4 x 14 antenna float out over the fed area with just 18 inches under the float, with just two No 8 shot equally down the line to the size 14 barbless hook. The bread was attracting interest within seconds, with the antenna dipping, then slowly moving away. A gentle strike saw the elastic pull out about two feet, as a small carp resisted and a hand over hand pull back to the top two sections, revealed the fish. A chunky little common carp.

This was just the start of the session. It was 3:15 pm and I was due back home by 5:30 and I wanted to see what I could catch before packing up at 5. All went well for the next 30 minutes, until the wind got up, a strong gust blowing the pole round dragging the float across the suface, hooking another small common in the process. Despite there being about a dozen fish in the keepnet by then, this too was dragged round. I was frantically grabbing packets of hooks, disgorgers  and other items in my tackle tray. The wind settled down again, but I reduced the pole down to 8 metres in an effort to control the float, more feed closer in saw thc carp follow the ground bait, keeping up the catch rate.

Like the carp above, they were getting bigger, running for longer and needing the landing net. The bites were very fussy, heavier tackle would not have indicated the bites, or the carp would have been scared off.

Every now and then I caught a small mirror carp

A surprise fish was a small orange and black koy carp. These koy and other exotic species often end up being caught in these urban ponds, due to out growing a tank, or new owners wanting to fill in a garden pond. In this case, it has been added to my garden pond. A call to my wife about the koy, saw her collect up a strong polyphene bag and a couple of litres of clean water, then carry the lot to Savenake. The walk is shorter than the road way, so she was there sooner than I expected. When she arrived, I was trying to attract the attention to my bread, of several 2 lb commons swimming in a circle of black mud, but the bites brought more smaller brethren.

The punched soft bread  was ideal for these small carp, they were just sucking on the bread, most being hooked in the outer lip, not requiring the disgorger.

The rate that these carp are growing at will see them giving a better acount of themselves later in the year. Some of them have already migrated downstream to my other local pond at Allsmoor, as I am catching them there now. As it was, the net below was taken in under two hours.