I had an enjoyable session yesterday, but had a very annoying end to the day – so please forgive me for letting off some steam. On the plus side I managed one low double and two 15’s off the surface, so was pleased (one of the 15’s did a great ‘Stingray’ impression when I hooked it and I was attached to a flying carp - quality!).
However, as I was packing up it all went awry. I got a few bleeps and pulls on a bottom bait rod cast about 30 yards. I lifted into the rod and it all went odd, as I was immediately playing a fish in my own margins?!!? I thought I had maybe got tangled up in a fish trailing some gear. However, I was actually attached to a jack pike of about 4Ib that had bitten into my line, or possibly even tried to eat my back-lead
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Knowing that my main line wouldn’t last too long I tried my hardest to get the pike in ASAP. However, I had it right on the edge of the bank when the inevitable happened and it bit through my main line and swam off. I had a poke around with the net handle in the margins for a while to see if I could snare the snapped line, but no luck
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So, I now know that I’ve left a baited rig and about 25m of line in my local pond and I’m absolutely gutted to have done this, even though it was down to a freak incident. I hate the idea of leaving any sort of litter, especially that which could damage fish or wildlife. The rig was a helicopter set up and I’m confident it is as safe as any rig could possibly be and that any fish that gets hooked
should end up attached to nothing other than a 5 inch hooklength. However, with 25m of line involved that the rig has to pass along to become free there is always the niggling doubt that the line could get tangled or tethered and the rig may not free itself so I’m not a happy chappy right now
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I know I get annoyed when I hook debris or catch fish trailing rigs. If, anyone should ever hook this bundle of line, or catch a fish trailing anything in this venue then my sincere apologies. It sounds lame - but it really wasn't my fault.
Mike.