Jake continues his assault on the tree line swim at Gigantica, revealing the knots he was shown, and some stunning Gigantica carp to finish with. You can read Part 1 here.
Five More Carp, One Lost Fish, Two Nights Left!
By Jake Langley-Hobbs
Good Afternoon.
I finished off yesterday’s post with a tempting footnote….I had caught another five carp from the Tree Line swim. Here are the details of those caught carp!
It was Dan’s 36th birthday on the 15th so he cooked a huge BBQ and a few people came over to help him celebrate the occasion. I wandered back to my swim at around 7.30pm keen to get the rods out. I have a feeling that giving the swim a rest is not a bad thing in the Tree Line. Carp always like to stack up in the area when it is hot, and I am sure the lack of lines in the water for a few hours helps to ease their suspicions! It certainly seemed to do the trick and over the next 12 hours I had five takes. Four from the close range rod and one from the middle rod. All the fish were caught on the plastic corn and tiger combo and although none of the fish were huge, they were all pretty fish. The biggest was a 30lb mirror, very heavily scaled, and a real hard fighter. The other carp were all in the 18-25lb bracket.
Gigantica contains some monster sized carp, but there are also plenty of other carp swimming around, that are some of the prettiest fish that I have come across on my European carpy travels. Many of the fish look like they should be in a well known UK water, going by the name of Frimley!! Fully scaled fish, linears, and other heavily scaled specimens. In fact there are so many of these wonderfully scaled carp in Gigantica, you almost start to take their looks for granted. I have started to wonder just how many waters there are in France that hold such a wide variety of good looking Carp? I think Mr Fairbrass has a goldmine in his hands with this water, and it can only get better with age.
By the evening time the weather had cooled a little and it looked like we were in for a storm. I got the rods back out and settled down for the night. I had a funny feeling it wasn’t going to happen last night, but then you never know? A storm is sometimes great for big fish, and I hoped someone would catch one. Also on the lake at the moment is a Dutch couple; Rene and Jacqui, and obviously the ‘Turtle’! Rene caught a lovely 43lb common on his first night and Jacqui lost one, from The Alamo swim, but neither of them have receieved any more action since moving on the wind to a swim called the Alcatraz.
I was sticking to two rods fished with tiger nut boilies, and one rod on a snowman boilie set up. This was the third night I have fished this rod to the same spot along the tree line, and last night I put about 150 boilies accurately along the overhanging bushes in the water, where the rod was cast too. I fell asleep as the storm built; flashes of lightning lit up the sky, and heavy rumbles of thunder echoed in the distance. At 1.30am whilst dreaming, a few bleeps alerted me to a take. It was my rod and the snowman rod too. I srambled off my bedchair in the dark and picked the rod up. I went into autopilot and hooped the rod to my right. The fish felt so strong and it almost wrenched the rod from my grasp. It felt like a bull on the other end, and it was crashing through every plate in the china shop!! The hook quickly pulled as I held on for dear life. It was all over as soon as it had begun. I propped the rod against the bivvy and climbed back into bed. Giving line was not an option, the loss is just par the course of this kind of snag fishing. Surprisingly I was not even disappointed as I knew I did my best and when it goes your way, it goes your way. When it doesn’t what can you do, but try again!
In the morning I wandered up to see how the others had faired. Jacqui caught her first Gigantica carp. A lovely 27.5lb mirror. She was so happy. Jacqui has only just started carp fishing! Dan caught a 42lb mirror, but unfortunately he also lost a ‘very big carp’. He claims it is the biggest fish he has hooked since he has been here…..??!
I have two nights left to try to get the fish I am after, that’s two more nights of tense carping. I will leave you with the two knots I promised to show you and see you all tomorrow.
To tie a loop in your Hybrid Stiff hooklink
This knot is incredibly simple. Just tie two overhand knots and gently pull tight, preferably over the steam from a kettle, or underwater to keep maximum knot strength.
Tying to a ring swivel.
This is the other simple knot, that Co showed me for tying the Hybrid Stiff to a ring swivel. It works on grip and tension on the actual hook link material. It is very important to lay the tag end to the side when you gently pull it all tight.
As with all knots, practise first! Only use them once you are confident you are tying them correctly and they look right. If in doubt, cut it off and start again.
And finally, if you missed the previous post you can read Part 1 here
for some more lovely looking Gigantica carp, including a 43lb common.
Gigantica can be booked through Angling Lines.
Cheers.
Jake & the dogs.
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