Return of the Taff !!! And Scruffy !!!

Hiya All

Mark (Scruffy) Walters and I fished the Long and the Sleuce for a change (!!) last night. Quick overnighter, with rods getting chucked in at about 7pm last night. After some light refreshment, Mark and I hit respective chariots, and the land of nod beckoned.

At 1am, I woke up to a ripper of a take on my middle rod, and was on it quickly. After 2 or 3 minutes of my fight, I heard a splash over at Mark's swim, looked over, and saw that he was in, too. WOW !!! That's never happened to me, or Mark, in the 6 years we've been fishing Tarde. DOUBLE HOOK UP !!!!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, Mark netted his, and started attending to it, and after a further 5 minutes of serious scrapping, I netted mine. We now had a problem - photos - with two fish in nets.

This is where the cutting of the main line comes into it's own - I cut my main line, and unhooked my fish in the net, in the water. I then secured my net with a bank stick and strong back rest, and was then able to go and help Mark, in the knowledge that my fish was safe, and if it did jump out of the net (unlikely, but possible), it had nothing attached to it.

Anyway, we weighed and photo'd Scruff's, and it turned the scales around to 23lb 8ozs of beautifully scaled mirror carp. Nice one matey !!!

We then went over to mine, once we'd put Mark's back, and took the fish to the matt/awaiting sling. Mine went 26lb 8ozs, and was a fish I've secretly hankered to catch, as it's one of the "known fish" that I've not had........ it was the Mosaic, making another visit to the bank, after Si Deaks had it last weeekend, at a very similar weight. Either way, I was well chuffed. Here are the pictures...................






After a cuppa at Mark's bivvy, I went back to mine to re-chuck/bait etc. Got the rod back out, and retired to the bivvy, a happy man. Anyway - at 3am, I had another slower take on my left hand rod, and this time, there was no scrap. From picking up the rod, to netting, I reckon it was no longer than 90 seconds. Again - I cut my mainline, and unhooked the fish in the net, secured the net, and then rang Scruff to come and give me a hand. Again, Mark did a great job on the graphs. This wasn't a new capture for me, it was an old friend. A common I've had 4 times now, the first time was 4 years ago, when I had him out of the Gulley at 15lb. Mike "Lucky 13" Wilkes nicknamed this fish "Jurassic", as it's dorsal fin is very spiky. However, after much laughter at what a fat little bugger it is, Mark nicknamed it "Billy Bunter", which personally, I like !!! Here he is........he needs to get on the slim fast diet, or, get a gastric band fitted !!!!





After putting a bit if clinic on him (a scale had lifted slightly), and watching him, quite literally, waddle off, we went back to Mark's bivvy for another cuppa. I commented to Mark about how the fish had come straight at me, and all I had to do is keep pace with him, and then plop him in the net. Mark cracked me up, when he said "well, the fat twat knows when he's hooked, so just wants to get to the bank as quickly as possible, so he can get back in the water and back on the boilies" !!!" Jim heard me laughing at that one, so sorry if I disturbed anyone. I couldn't help laughing at that.

Unbelieveably, "Billy" was out last weekend, too - I think Luke had him.

Anyway, a top night all round, and made up for the loss of a big fish on Tuesday night.

Tight lines everyone.

Keith

nice 1 fellas a few to the good now mate er what was the weight of the little pig???

Billy Bunter was 22ln 6/7ozs. Real charachter of the Resser.

Billy is not fat just under tall................ Great bit of angling both!

Hi Taff

Just a bit worried about ''billy'' I've just had him out last weekend from the caravan weighing in at only 20lb I will double check my scales to see if I'm doing the fish some unjustice with their weight's but maybe this fish has a problem. It seem's from what I have been told talking with people on the bank that it is coming out a hell of a lot resently and is obviously having a serious munch on the boilies and possibly loosing weight??
Is this something that we talked about at the last meeting that this is a fish that would benifit from a period the other side of the net now that hopefully the net has been repaired?
What would the format be for deciding which fish need to be moved for their own benifit and what's the best way of recognising these fish and how best to move them? Could you and the baliff's put up a post so that the right people are notified and the fish moved as safely as possible.
By the way top angling.

Hiya Jim

Hope you're well.

Good question, and at the moment, I don't know what the answer is. I'll have a word with John/Russ etc, and post up the decision we come to.

I think we need to come up with a process for this. The problem we'll have is that newer members won't recognise the fish that may fall into the "needs some R&R" category. However, I will raise your point with the guys, and see what they say.

See you on the bank, soon.

Cheers

Keith

jim are you sure the fish just hasn't lost some spawn and thats the reason for the loss of weight???

Not sure would they still be carrying spawn at this time of the year?

yes mate defo would some fish some years carry it all year its not a good thing if they dont spawn but it does happen lets just hope it was too busy eating and not shagging....