The Late Bloomer

Entry posted by Osma11 June 3, 2018

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The Late Bloomer

So, as you can tell it’s been a while, that’s due to the arrival of my second future fishing buddy my little baby girl in April. But I am back in action with two trips under my belt since her arrival and three more planned, so hopefully have plenty to show and tell in the coming couple of months (thanks to a very understanding and awesome wife, I swear I wasn’t made to write that to). However back to the trip at hand.

So this is the second trip after my baby girl the first trip was myself, the hippy and the hobbit, however I was so busy at the time I barely had a chance to do the fishing itself let alone write it up. Let this be said though, it was an awesome runs session, plenty of carpies and a lot fun having a wee match between the three of us (for the record I won, but the hippy almost had me at the end, it was real close, not going to lie I was saved by a little carp in the last 5 minutes, so close).

This session however was just myself and the hobbit, the hippy was all caught up with girlfriendy things for the day and sweaty flaps, well he hasn’t managed to get out with us for a while but for our next 4-day session he will be there, thank God as well because I really can’t be bothered to cook at the lake anymore haha. So this trip was at Oakridge carp lake just outside Goonhavern in Cornwall, myself and the Hobbit have been here numerous times and had some great sessions, in-fact the hobbit caught his PB carp here at just over 17lb (bless him he is so desperate for that 20lb I can feel the hatred burning from his eyes whenever I catch one haha). We started the day as normal it was a beautiful morning at the beginning of May and it was set to be a scorcher. We set off in the Car at about 7am after packing our gear into the hobbits ridiculous, only two doors working car (however news is its all fixed but we will see how long it lasts 😉).

Now somehow by some unknown parallel universe, crossing dimensions weirdness we got lost on the way to the lake, we drove down two different roads swearing we were on the right track to no success. We checked google maps and saw it flagged in the weirdest location, we said to ourselves no way is it there, its on the wrong side of the main road, way to close to the village definitely not that one, must be another camp site nearby named a similar thing. So we kept looking for another 15 minutes driving around like a couple of idiots playing Donkeykong, then just said ‘right screw it we will go to where it said on the map’, even though we were sure that was the wrong one but behold, somehow, there it was. I cannot explain it, neither can the Hobbit we have no idea how we were getting to it before but must have been some weird back way or something.

Now this is a beautiful little 1 ½ - 2-acre lake and a great little runs water but the banks aren’t the best looked after, the swims are a bit overgrown and the path around the lake, well when you are carrying all your gear and rod bag and having to duck under a massive branch only 4ft off the ground, gets a little challenging. But this is part of the charm of the lake and it does give you the sense of fishing a bit more naturally so ‘swings and roundabouts’.

So we get to the lake and its already a little busy and the swim we really want is taken so we settle in a nice looking little corner. We get the gear and the rods out and away we go, I was a bit cheeky and brought my bed chair along for the day, ultimate put your feet up and laze in the sun action. Well it would have been if it wasn’t for the fact that if I wasn’t catching fish I had to revise for a biology exam, but at least I was at the lake. While sitting in our little corner the lake in front of us was fizzing away like a can of soda, we looked to be set for a good one. But by 11am we had only had one fish between us on the hobbits rod which managed to bounce off the hook just a foot from the net, which needless to say he was a little gutted about haha. But neither of us were to bothered at this point to be honest, it was an absolutely baking day, first real one of the year, the carp were basking in the sun and so were we but by 2pm we were getting a little twitchy as we had nothing else and from the looks of it everyone else on the lake was struggling as-well.

I got up and had a scout around and noticed the swim we originally wanted was empty, the guy had moved around the corner. A quick chat with the guy on the opposite bank to check we wouldn’t be interrupting his fishing if we moved there and away we go, get all the gear there in minutes with rods in the water. The hobbit was casting to an island only 10 – 15 feet from the bank with some lovely overhanging tree’s. I was casting one to the opposite bank and another about 5 feet from where I was sitting right under a snaggy tree on the bank we were fishing on.

Dam did we make the right call, by 3pm the hobbit had his first carp out around 6lb and then it just went on from there. I hooked one out from the rod nearest me soon after that and they just kept coming. The hobbit had a right rod bender, almost had his rod in the lake, he pretty much dived on it from about 4 feet away and just got it, he brought it in and bearing in mind it was probably around the 6lb mark again, it really did fight, got a great pic of it on the bank as the fish flips out of the hobbits hands into the landing mat, I don’t know who is more shocked the fish or him. These fish were really fighting well, all that energy they had built up by relaxing on the surface for the morning, they were really letting it out now. I had out a 10lb common which honestly fought like a fish double its size, ran me around for about 10 minutes. On looking around the lake it looked like it was just myself and the hobbit who were producing, I bet the guy who moved from that swim was kicking himself a bit by now but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

All in all this was some day, beautiful weather, plenty of fishies (eventually) and cannot wait until our next trip out which hopefully isn’t to far away.