Justin Grapes - Making The Most Of My Time

This entry was posted on 19th June, 2018

Finally after a few months of counting the weeks and days, we were on the plane and on our way to Cyprus for a week of sun sea and beer . As Darryn and his better half were joining my better half and myself, we were planning to take a bit of fishing gear for a play in the afternoons.I wasn’t going to take much tackle with me as I’d been there before and hadn’t caught much at all.

On the second afternoon we waited for the sun to move away from the sun beds, then we went back to the rooms to sort the bits out that we had brought .

We had kept back some bread from lunch time to give a go on float tactics; with not much happening Darryn went over to free lining the bread under the ledge at our feet, which was successful straight away, with some sort of wrasse, and then another species with teeth.



This went on for a while ,then a Russian guy turned up and started fishing next to us but he was casting lures about. As we were about to go back to the rooms, the Russian guy hooked into something bigger, so Darryn was over to him straight away to see what he had caught, and what he was using.

It turned out to be a rabbit fish, and he was using lures. I hadn’t brought that many lures as I didn’t catch with them last time, but Darryn had a few shads with him and I had some jig heads so we botched together a couple of rigs and gave it a few more casts and hay presto Darryn was into a rabbit fish within a few casts, and it was a good sized one as well; at around 8lb it gave him the run about.

Landing it, which was a bit of a feat with the rocks and the small waves, but we managed it in the end.

After that I had a shad bitten in half by a rabbit fish, and we called it a day. Over the next few evenings it went pretty much the same, with both of us catching a couple of rabbit fish each evening. By the last evening we had run out of lures so packed the gear away for the trip home.

On arriving back the next weekend, it was the Tench Fishers' fish in on Bawburgh lake, but with my new job I wasn’t going to get much fishing done over the weekend; however, I'd go anyway, as I'd be meeting up with a great bunch of guys.

I arrived late on the Friday evening and by this time there were only a couple of swims left, so I plotted up and gave it a go. I had to work the next morning, but got back for the BBQ, which was the main thing, and a good social.

Nothing happened on the fish front, and as I was feeling a bit rough the next morning, I packed up early and went home.

The next weekend I had a 24hour session sorted for the Saturday night so after leaving work I arrived at the lakes just after lunch time; the swim I fancied was free, so I went and stood in the swim for a bit to see if there were any signs of tench . After about 10 minutes of standing there a tench rolled to my right in the weed, so I went back to the van to get the Deeper to see what the weed growth was like. There was a bit of eel grass, but not enough to worry about, so I got the rest of my kit and got fishing ASAP.

There was a few fish rolling that evening, so I was hopeful of some action the next morning.



Nothing much happened in the hours of darkness, but at 4.30am one of my rods was away, and after a short, tough fight my first tench of the spring was in the net, and, at 7lb, it was very welcome. Over the next few hours I had a steady stream of bites and ended up catching 6 tench, with one of them weighing 8lb13oz, so I was over the moon with my efforts.



With working silly hours at work, I wasn't expecting to go fishing at all until the Bank Holiday Monday, for the day, but at the last minute I was given a day off to recoup, and I had booked the Tuesday off work, so I ended up with a 3 day session which I was really looking forward to. With there being a few tench coming out of one of the tougher lakes, I decided to give that a go.

One of the better swims came free that evening, so I pitched up and got sorted out for the night and following morning.

I put out a pint of casters, a couple of pints of red maggots, a kg of mixed particle, and a match pack of chopped worm. I had to pop out for a meal that evening, but on arriving back and casting out I started to get line bites straight away and within a hour I had my first bite.

And what a start, at 9lb on the nose. Over the next 3hours I had 3 more tench, and lost one. Two of those three tench were 9lb and 9lb9oz, which I was so chuffed with.

As it started to get light the action slowed right up until 9.30am, when I had my next bite, and between then and 4.30pm I had six tench, which included two 7lb+, three 8lb+, and another nine pounder at 9lb3oz. I was so chuffed with my start, and to have four 9lb+ tench and ten fish; I was hoping things would continue. Darryn was due down for a social for a couple of days that evening and that’s when things kicked off in the swim ( mostly for Darryn ), and the next morning the swim went into melt down, with fish coming out everywhere for a few hours. My swim went dead, but I was kept busy by Darryn going on a catching spree, and one that just kept getting better for him.



I ended up on the Tuesday afternoon with seventeen tench in all, including five 8lb+ to 8lb15oz and four 9lb+ to 9lb9oz. I was over the moon, and also getting to watch Darryn catch one of the best hauls of big tench ever. It was a great few days off.

The next weekend I was planning to do the Saturday night and Sunday again; after work Saturday and I was going for a social again with Darryn . As he had been there all week he had moved onto another lake for a change, so I met up with him in the afternoon. The swim I ended up in I hasn’t done very well in in the past, but I was going to give it a go and hope that they turned up.



Well, to cut a long story short, they didn’t , but they did in Darryn's swim, and he started catching tench after tench. After watching him catching loads, after a couple of hours he asked if I wanted to join him in his swim and cast to the other side of the swim. With nothing happening in my swim, I jumped in beside him and started again. Well, surprise surprise, I ended up being nets man for Darryn until he left at 2pm. I did give it another hour after he left, but to no avail. I did catch a small perch, but I still classed that as a blank session. With it being near to the tench spawning time I’m not sure how many more sessions I’ll get in but I’m hoping for another couple of weekends of tench fishing yet, so fingers crossed for a few more fish ,but if not at least I will enjoy my time on the bank . Until next time tight lines and I hope you're catching.