My year so far!
Hi everyone I would like to welcome you to a monthly Enterprise blog I am starting, I will be telling you about interesting snippets I have found in my personal fishing and letting you know what ive been up to recently in fact it could be about anything I think you guys might be interested in.
For me this year so far like for many of us has been a year to forget in many ways yet memorable in other ways.
Let me explain, in February I attended Carp Italy at Parma the big Italian carp show I was there with Sonik and Vital baits companies I also work closely with, at the time I obviously knew that Italy was potentially a time bomb with the fresh Covid 19 outbreak there which at the time was thought to be modest in numbers, I wasn’t so sure and felt vulnerable, especially as 20,000 anglers were expected to visit the show, my fears were confirmed 3 days after my return to England when I came down with flu like symptoms but much worse with no sense of taste and some breathing discomfort a sure sign I had the dreaded bloody thing.
For 3 weeks I was really rough and despite me ringing the help line which was new I was told to self isolate as the authorities had no units set up to deal with Covid properly in Manchester where I live.
Eventually I recovered and we had lockdown, I occupied myself by doing carp drawings for fellow anglers which helped pay the bills a little, until at the end of April I had a potentially life changing event which happened to me, I had a stroke, basically there is a very sinister after effect of covid 19 that is caused by blood clots as this virus causes thickening of the blood and affects blood vessels.
I had a blood clot get to my brain and cause a blockage, which in turn starved a small part of my brain to be damaged, this was a disaster as I lost all feeling on the left side of my body, I could still move as normal I just couldn’t feel my left arm and leg truly terrifying and mentally difficult to deal with, I had very poor help from the hospital which was worrying as you like to think in a crisis you can rely on them, but I was all but ignored and sent on my way with blood thinning medication and very little else.
3 months on I have made a very reasonable recovery and am back fishing again and have e renewed enthusiasm that only a person that’s had a brush with death can truly appreciate.
I gained membership to a fantastic syndicate only 20 miles from my home in Cheshire which has provided some of the most enjoyable carp fishing I have had for many years, in fact it couldn’t have come at a better time, the members are a lovely bunch of guys and I have made some great new friends on there so that’s a huge added bonus.
My inaugural trip to the syndicate was an exciting affair as the lake has big areas of lilly pads with many varied features on it, but predictably the edge of the pads is the place many carp are tripped up and that was my opening gambit, I had a gut feeling the fish were up for a feed so I fed liberally over each rod consisting of chopped Vital baits boilies, 3 sizes of mixed pellets, and good old sweetcorn dosed liberally with my favourite liquid foods mostly fish liquid hydroslates.
Hook baits were boilies tipped with my all time favourite Pineapple and n butyric acid plastic corn, I use this as my go to presentation on all new waters, it always seems to do me proud.
On this water it was required to step up the gear and fish locked up solid with goal post set ups butt rings behind the buzzers and clutches on the reels screwed down solid so as to not give one inch of line on the take.
Exciting fishing indeed no warning bleeps just the rod bucking in the rests in an instant where I would then in good old shit or bust fashion walk backwards pumping the carp as I did so.
3 takes 3 fish landed was very satisfying with the added bonus that my first fish of the session was a 31.12 common in mint condition closely followed (minutes later) by a 26.8 common and finished off with a 19lber.
The fishing has continued to be very kind to me on the new syndicate on subsequent trips and strangely on each 48 hour session I have had 3 runs on all except one trip where I managed 2 bites.
On one such trip I had what is possibly one of the best looking commons I have ever set eyes upon never mind caught, it weighed 36.4 and is my biggest ever common carp ive ever caught from Cheshire my home county.
I was also invited to be a guest on the Thinking Tackle podcast down in Essex which will be on Youtube shortly and lasted an eye watering 4 hours
I also had the pleasure of making a fishing film with my friend Simon Mc cabe whos an incredibly artistic film maker of some repute. You may well have seen some of his recent work documenting his return to carp fishing called “The Res” and another called “The Rise” we went to another of my favourite waters near Shrewsbury in Shropshire where we had a wonderful time that also is out on Youtube very shortly so keep an eye out for those.
Until next time tight lines
Frank
