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University challenge

Having just settled back in to our second year of university we both thought that a social and a night of fishing was in order. After a bit of thought we decided that Manor Farm at Linear Fisheries would be a suitable venue for a few sessions, as it is a lake with good winter form, and contains some large carp to angle for.

It was the second week of November and due to the recent temperature drop we went armed with some maggots as we expected the fishing to be a bit slow.

Harry is at university in Exeter, and I am at Bristol so we figured that car sharing was the best plan halving the petrol costs. Harry picked me up at 5am on Saturday 7th and after we munched the bacon sarnies I had just cooked up we were Oxford bound, with Harry’s car loaded up to the max.

We pulled into the Manor car park soon after the gates opened and noticed a thin layer of frost, winter was definitely on its way.

Manor was quite busy, with just a few swims on the road bank free. On the way up we had been discussing were we wanted to fish and we both fancied the road bank area. The water out in front is a bit deeper which we thought would be a benefit with the falling temperatures.

With Harry taking the second road bank swim and me jumping in the third we set about finding suitable spots. This side of the lake was noticeably less weedy, and it wasn’t long before we both found nice clear areas about 90 yards out.

Our game plan was very similar, we wanted to fish a small spodded area of maggots with small pop-ups over the top, keeping everything as tight as possible. We soon had our rods clipped up and 15-20 spods put out on the spot. We had seen a few carp show during the day so we were happy that we were in the right area.

We were both using critically balanced little pop ups, but as I had a recast before it got dark I had a change in heart. Typical of me when I am fishing with Harry I decided to steal a few of his baits, this time around his lovingly rolled Tutti specials!

As is got dark we could hear the crackles and bangs of nearby firework displays. Deciding that we were not to be out done we cracked out the sparklers that I had brought with me and had our own little display. Feeling in a creative mood we had a go at doing some long exposures on the camera, and as you can probably see from the photos we had a lot of fun in the process! In fact I think we went a bit overboard with the photos, completely draining the batteries on my camera. It had been a long day, and despite our chain drinking of tea we were both really tired and decided to hit the sack pretty early.

Appreciating the comfort of my sleeping bag I slept undisturbed until the sound of my left hand rod melting off had me scrambling out in a bit of a daze.

I was in the process of experimenting with braided mainline and have not fully got used to playing fish without the stretch that you get with mono. The whole fight was a bit of a nervous affair but eventually I got the fish close in, where it then got in a tangle with my other rod. It was a bit of a nightmare but after getting braid all over the swim I finally netted the fish and breathed a great sigh of relief. I had no functioning head-torch but could see it was a decent fish so I ran next door to grab Harry for some assistance. Being infinitely more prepared than myself Harry had recently invested in a new torch, and with the situation illuminated by Harry’s new pride and joy we could make out the linear scales of the carp sulking in the net. Thoughts that it could be the little linear entered my mind, but it turned out to be a different,t more dumpy one. Pulling the scales around to 28lb 10oz it was still a good fish though, and incredibly welcome.

With some photos done it was time for a brew and then I had a braided nightmare to contend with. Eventually two rods were back out on the spot and I was able to get back in the bag.

We had been warned that the temperatures were going to plummet, but it was obvious that some cloud cover had come in, saving us from a frost. I overslept my alarm and was woken by Harry the following morning. Harry said how he thought he had been ‘done’ in the night, after receiving a few mysterious bleeps, I put this down to his dubious choice of rigs!

Sat in Harry’s swim we drank tea and looked for carpy signs. It was looking good but despite watching hard we didn’t see any shows. Over the next few hours we made plans for our return, both of us fancying Manor as a winter water. We were only up for the Saturday night and all too soon it was time to pack up.

We are both looking forward to a return in a couple of weeks, although Harry has told me there is now going to be a ‘pop up tax’, so I am going to have to roll up a few of my own specials…

Cheers,
Alexei Bygrave and Harry Charrington

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