Guido Richard: start of the season (2)

At the end of the last blog I reported on the few ice-cold nights where I caught the pretty zeiler, luckily at the end of this week it slowly got warmer, no more frost overnight and even the occasional T-shirt weather in the afternoon when the wind blew fell silent.

It was the end of March at the time and I was on the water almost every night and regularly caught fish. To tell all this in detail would be too long and uninteresting for me in the long run. That's why I chose a story for this blog that was a little highlight for me from the first weeks of April.

At the beginning of April it got a little colder here again, the cold north wind was back with rain and low pressure, the beautiful spring weather was just a memory. As always, I was at the water at that time, in a place where I had seen a lot of fish in the sun the week before, but unfortunately couldn't catch them. In my opinion, the high air pressure was to blame. This time I didn't see any more fish there, but I was able to catch them, the first night I had three small fish.

It continued like this for the next three nights, with the little puppies biting at the same time as on the first night. On the fourth morning I got a bite when it was getting light, which had not happened before. I hurried to jump into the boat and head towards the fish. When I was drilling I immediately noticed that it was a fish of a different category, the pressure in the rod was much heavier and the fish was slower. When the fish came up for the first time, my suspicions were confirmed, it was a really massive and wide scale carp, like the one I had wanted from the water for so long. I was starting to get nervous and the fish just didn't want to calm down, every time I got it to the surface it swam straight back at full speed, my adrenaline got higher and higher as it slowly came to the landing net, it was almost in, maximum 20 Inches away as the pressure released from my rod. The fish was slotted right in front of the landing net. I was devastated, angry, sad, I would have never wanted to see the fish…. Last night I was able to console myself with two little puppies...

When I packed up and drove home, I was still sad and angry with myself, plus everything was wet and it was going to freeze at night again for the next few days. My chance of getting a dream fish was completely gone at that moment.

I had messed up the one bite that I couldn't miss. I had been very active on the water for almost a month, I had already put a lot of energy into it and now something like this happened.

Over the next few days the weather turned crappy for fishing, as expected. Cold north wind, frosty nights and endless high pressure... But the fishing didn't leave me alone, I had to go back to the water to continue hunting, in the hope that I would be lucky enough to catch an exceptional fish if I didn't would lose again... Hahaha

It was almost uncomfortable to be outside. With cold fingers rowing out the rods, I tried the first night back at the spot where I had lost the big one the week before. I didn't have a good feeling, the water had already gotten three degrees colder, and I didn't hear a single fish jump the whole evening. When I woke up in the morning and stared at the frozen carp mat, I wasn't at all surprised that nothing had moved. After breakfast I wanted to pack up, look for fish and find a sunny spot protected from the wind. Because the current location was fully exposed to the cold north wind and was in the shade almost all day. As I slowly started to pack up, I heard the sound of a carp rolling, I launched onto the water and just saw it roll a second time. I immediately felt warmer and the courage for the cold place was back. Nothing happened during the day. I drank tea and re-laid the rods in the evening. Carp fishing can be really boring sometimes. The evening remained quiet, the night too and particularly cold, I turned over in my sleeping bag several times, it was almost uncomfortable for April...

When I woke up in the morning I saw the frozen carp mat again and the rods that had remained still. Now I've had enough! A quick coffee and I wanted to pack up. I could still drink the coffee, but I couldn't pack anymore. The right rod fired, the fish was slowly played from the boat without showing much resistance and luckily it made it into the net. From a distance it wasn't as wide as the lost scale, but it was beautiful, with its scars you could imagine the brutality of the last flood, its few scales made it a real gem. At that moment I completely forgot about the cold and the wind; it's precisely these moments that I always come back to the water for.

With this fish, the lost Schuppi disappeared a little deeper into the memory.

See you soon for new adventures

Guido