november-2026-free-line-part-2 - Flipbook - Page 72
FREE LINE / FIELD JOURNAL
KEVIN HASKINS
FIELD NOTES
It went 33lb on the nose, and on later inspection turned out to be an
old original one called the Two Tone Fish. I popped it back in the water,
secured it, got a fresh bait on, popped it back on the spot and topped up
with another twenty or so Fruit and Nut boilies.
I already had the chest waders on from the previous fish, so I could bend
into it and then walk out almost to the edge of the overhanging trees either
side of me to fight it from there. If the first fish didn t fight much, this one
more than made up for it, going on numerous heart-stopping runs and
trying its hardest to get into the overhanging trees to my left. The tackle
did its job and held firm, and after about 15 minutes, I had a lovely long
Dinton linear in the net. I now had a bit of a dilemma, as I only had the
one retention sling with me, which that was already full, so it looked like
it would need to be an immediate self-take with this one and then sort the
other one out afterwards. However, luckily, Paul, who was fishing on the
opposite side in the Woods, had seen what was going on and appeared in
my swim. With his help we weighed the linear, which went 35lb on the
nose and photographed and returned both the fish I was buzzing. Just
one more thing to do while Paul was there: sort the rod out that was still
in the snags from the take in the night.
With Paul holding the rod, I stripped down to my underpants and went for
a fresh morning dip. I managed to get everything back, but whatever was
the culprit was gone. Thinking about it, however, it was probably a tench,
as it did the same as the other one while both the carp ran straight out into
the lake. That s what I m convincing myself of anyway! Interestingly, the
quality Fruit and Nut food bait did all four of the bites while the carp sweet
just a couple of rod lengths away did nothing bait, rig, spot? Food for
thought! I missed out on my birthday and St. George s Day carp by about
seven hours, but who cares after a result like that?
FREE LINE
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