The 16th on The Serpentine by Daniel Goddard

After reluctantly deciding to finish fishing the Serpentine in late 2002, (due to the fact i'd caught most of it's carpy residents), I was a little disappointed this year to find I had nowhere to go on the 16th June. After a good think I decided that a one off session on the Serpe was on the cards to relive some of my best fishing memories. So, the plan was to start introducing a little amount of bait in late May gradually increasing the amount up until the 16th June. I gambled and only picked one swim which was peg 14 on the dam. I baited two areas with mainly hemp and boilies steadily increasing the amounts until I was sure a good number of carp were using the area. The only problem was, I had competition from two other anglers who had more bait available to put in. These anglers concentrated on peg 19 (the snags). As the 16th drew closer, it was clear that the fish were split, right between my area and theirs with the weather conditions in their favour. So the morning of the 16th was finally here. It was just coming light as I set my rods up at about 3.30am.

I managed to get both rods out by 4.00am when I heard a tone of a bite alarm coming from the other end of the lake. The other angler, Chris had a run but lost the fish. The thought of 'what if they are up there' went through my mind but before I could start worry too much, my right hand rod dropped back. I was in. After a good fight with the fish kiting right, I landed one of the leathers at 17lb 8oz. I was well chuffed that at least i'd caught one plus it being the first fish of the season.

An hour passed before yet again hearing calls from the far bank, Chris had landed one. Within a few minutes, Chris appeared running around the pool. Just as I wondered if he'd had the 'big lin' my right rod burst into action again. As Chris reached the dam, he shouted across to lend my camera, to which I replied, 'I kind of need it mate' as Chris realised I was in. Luckily though, I had some spare batteries for Chris's camera which he helped himself too while I landed my fish. I already knew who I'd caught before I scooped her up in the net. It was the 'little linear' which was actually the first fish i'd caught from the Serpe 6 years earlier. On the scales she went 24lb, which was 3lb heavier than when I caught here last. As consequence, Chris had caught 'the chunky common' at 17lb.

By this time, it was only 6.30am in the morning but fish were already starting to show in the now warm sunshine. Apart from Chris losing another one, my rods went really quiet so I made the decision to have a go on top. However, they weren't feeding, just trying to imitate sharks shooting all over the place.

The rest of the session turned out to be very quiet with a couple of missed drop-backs which i'm sure were bream due to the slime on the mangled bait. I stayed there till 5pm but had too finally leave due to a family BBQ that was not possible to escape from. I have to admit though, I really miss that place, just the feeling of being there knowing the history of the fish that are swimming around just in front of you. Hopefully, we will see a re-stocking of the carp in the lake and maybe then, i'll return to my all time favourite water.

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