2 Lakes in 1 day

It was a long day Friday 24th of November 2006. I fished two waters in 1 day. We arrived at the second lake at 11pm but I had previously been getting soaked on El Vellon.

It was my first session on El Vellon , and it was never going to be easy. It’s a big water and the rain had been pumping in all day which meant the road to the swims we wanted to fish were inaccessible by car; so we did what we had to do, we grabbed the kit and took the hike. We fished El Vellon from 12pm to 6.30pm (just after dark). We had limited time so I put a signal of 20 very tasty Method balls in. These balls were loaded with a mix of things and a specially prepared ingredient Chitin. At the back of my mind I kept saying a run, a Tench or a small Carp would be the biz, needless to say none of them were to come!

We did spot a large fish near the right margin to which I responded by putting a bait on its head, but for all our 1st session of the day efforts – we blanked! Looking back I think the core of fish were probably holding up at the other end of the water where the river was coming in at speed due to the rain and churning / clouding up the water. Either way this trip re-confirmed that even when you blank you gain (in this case information), and El Vellon needs a good coat of looking at.

After the session, Raul dropped me off at my home, we said our fair-well then I began the task of cleaning and drying my gear, after that I ate some food, then my mate Angel (above left) arrived.

He was ready to go fish on our second water. At about 10pm we loaded up his car and headed off for my 2nd session of the day. It had been raining all day and it wasn’t going to stop. When we arrived (11pm), a strong S.W wind 30-40kph was pushing in. We opted to fish the mouth of the narrow stretch, where the wind was pushing in, it looked good, real good. We knew that this stretch was the shallow end of the lake (3m) and figured that the waters turbulence would be at maximum in the shallow which could trigger a feed. I was on the narrow with water up to 3.5m; Angel was fishing to the left of me, with the wide and deeper water to his left. About 100 x 15mm Pellets and 40 x Nash Monster Crab Boilies went in, as a sparse pre-bait. I was surprised when my rod went at 1.20am. I had dropped this rod in what I thought was a most unlikely spot, the middle of the narrow in the deepest water available to me, the PVA bag with a 20mm Monster Crab Boilie ripped off. When I hit the rod, I got another surprise, the rod doubled over as the fish stormed to my right, I was impressed by the power and could do nothing but give line. At the time my physical position on the bank was obscured due to a tree that was in front of me, as I was looking for a better place to locate myself the fish heaved hard, it was really giving it some. Just as I relocated myself to a better spot on the bank the hook pulled outl. It was one of those moments when you knew that what-ever was on the other end would have split a smile across my face, but this time it wasn’t meant to be!

I checked the gear/hook then put the rod back out to the same channel, but just a few feet left of the previuos cast, that rod remained dead for the rest of the night. At 2am my middle Method rod on the right sprung into action. The 15mm Pellet yielded a grumpy, thump, thump, thump 11lb plus common. It had taken much time to see a fish today, what with a blank, hard, wet session earlier, so this grumpy fish was a welcome.

Later at 3am my mate Angel had a screamer which came off, then at 4am another, after a 15min. battle a warrior of a fish was on the mat 20.06lb, nice work. At 5.20am I had another run on my left rod fished tight to a margin, the Dynamite Monster Crab had done the biz. After another good scrap for a lovely 18.08lbs Common, that’ll do!

I put the rod back exactly where it had been previously, and later (6.50am), it was off again. The fight was the strangest I have ever had, my line was caught in Angels, and all the time it felt like a snag, I could feel the fish on the end of the line but my line was grinding, bumping and grating. It took us a moment to realize what was going on and when we did I asked Angel to retriev his line; it was one of those tangles that no-matter what I did, if he had not retrieved his line – we would not have been able to get the fish nearer the bank! After what seemed a lifetime we landed another Spanish Common Carp of about 12lbs. I quickly unhooked the fish and returned it, then dealt with the maze and tangle which had somehow occurred with our lines.

An hour more passed then it was time to pack up, it had been chucking it down all day and night and now it was flat calm with no wind, mental. The day had been really long for me, two lakes in one day, I was ready to go home. As we drove back to Madrid “African Bambaatta’s – Looking for the perfect beat”, came on, it reminded me of the past and I thought about the times, things were pretty good. We talked about our session the 20.08lbs Common Carp for Angel and my 3 Carp to 18.08lbs. and my bad style in the photos, I looked like an Arab or Sultan, oh and the other thing, that fish that got away, maybe that mysterious legend of a fish “The Grandad”, really does exsist.

Until the next time.