December at Cassien - Part 2 - By Steve Briggs

Cassien has always been my favourite carp water and it’s always a joy to be there. But when it’s fishing well then it is something really special. The session had already been going well but there was a lot more to come…

We were in a very fortunate position. It isn’t very often that Cassien is quiet these days. It is one of the worlds most popular carp fishing destinations and is busy for much of the time. But now it was different. For some reason the people weren’t arriving, perhaps put off by the low water levels of recent times or tough previous sessions. Either way it was brilliant to look out every morning and not see any bivvies or boats anywhere else. This of course was also having a very positive effect on the fishing and we’d experienced some consistent action from a good stamp of fish after a fairly slow start. Gary had landed fish to64lb and I’d taken a few up to 49 ½ lb within the second week of our stint.

What was becoming apparent about my fish was that they were nearly all coming during the day, whereas Gary’s were virtually all coming in the hours of darkness. That suited me as I’d rather have a good sleep and then catch fish during the day when I can see what I’m doing. It was a little strange why we should catch fish at different times though as even two fish that Gary had caught from my swim earlier in the trip had both come at night. As long as they kept coming I wasn’t going to worry too much though.

Constant action
Over the next couple of days I landed three fish all around 31lb. These came between midday and early evening. The pleasing thing was that I’d only lost one fish in a snag that I could do nothing about, otherwise every fish had been landed ok. It was good because I’d been trying out the new long shank hooks from Solar Tackle. As soon as I saw the hooks I knew they had good potential, being needle sharp but also strong, but you never know how things will work in practice until you try them, but they had proved themselves to me and will be my first choice of hook from now on.

One quiet day followed for me, although Gary caught one in that time. The next morning a group of canoeists arrived with their tutors using motor boats. They raced up and down the lake causing a bit of disturbance, but as the ripples lapped the shore one of my alarms bleeped a couple of times and the tip just bent over a little and stayed there. I knew it was another fish and immediately took to the boat. The fish hadn’t gone anywhere and it felt really heavy. A long battle followed and I was really getting excited but eventually when it surfaced it wasn’t as big as I thought it would be, mind you at 43lb I could hardly complain but they do play tricks on you at times. I didn’t know it at the time but that was to be the start of a really consistent spell of action that would see me catch fish every day over quite a long period, something that is very difficult to do during the winter on Cassien. If anyone can remember the previous years session I actually fished for almost five weeks and caught just four carp in that time and Joan had one too. This time around it was like fishing a different water almost.

It gets light in the winter at around 7.45am but with the high surrounding hills the sun doesn’t actually appear until about 9.15am. If the nights are really cold, which they can be then the frost doesn’t melt until the sun is up. Fortunately we were experiencing a really mild spell – so mild that some nights I had to sleep out of my sleeping bag in just a tee shirt! That isn’t normal I can tell you but it was very pleasant. It was nice just to get up at around 8am and watch the day unfold while Joan put the coffee pot on and sorted breakfast out. Normally by the time we’d finished breakfast the sun was just appearing. However this time breakfast was interrupted at 8.30am by a screaming run. I must admit it’s my favourite time to get a run even though my coffee was left to get cold. With the mist rising from the calm water it was really atmospheric being dragged around by an angry carp. I’ve always liked rods that were meant for playing carp as opposed to casting ‘broom handles’ and the new Venture VXR-1 12” 6’ 3.25 TC are exactly what we aimed for in this style of rod. Playing fish on them is simply a real joy and what was even more of a joy was when I saw the fish go in to the landing net. I knew it was another good ‘un. The fish was placed in the weigh sling and the needle swung around and stopped on 52lb 4oz – a nicely-scaled dark brown fish and a really good start to the day. It was a nice social day with Gary cooking one of his special pasta dishes along with a couple of bottles of Chardonnay. He loves cooking on the bank and comes up with some real corkers, one day we had breaded scallops for starters followed by Nile Perch – no baked beans and fried sausages for us! The day was made complete when 6.15pm one of closer rods spluttered in to life. That particular rod had been quiet for a while but with a 42lb 4oz mirror on the end it came to life at the right time.

Gary’s move
Things were good for us and besides eating well we had one more wine afternoon to fit in, with a selection of Australian reds from the D’Arenberg producers. These are my real favourites and I’d looked forward to that day – if you like full-flavoured red wines the look out for one called ‘Dead Arm’ that’s my personal favourite. The following two days produced a common of 27lb and a mirror of 36lb 8oz for me, but the runs were drying up for Gary. He’d obviously done well from the swim after catching a superb 64lb mirror previously but after a few smaller fish in subsequent days little else had happened and with time running out for him, he was looking for one last throw of the dice and a move to another area. The water had continued to rise and was now not far off from full level. With that in mind he quite fancied the idea of the West Arm as often the fish will head for there when the water rises well. We were obviously staying put but it would be interesting to see how he got on for his remaining few days. He packed his boat and came over for a cup of tea before heading off to his new area.

Sometime during the evening a text message came through saying that he had found loads of fish and they were jumping constantly, even in the daylight and he was really confident of something happening. I was sure too that he was going to score quickly and was keen to put the phone on the following morning to see what he’d caught. In fact he’d caught two fish by breakfast time, a 35lb mirror and a fabulous common of 51lb. We always make the effort to go and photograph each others fish, but the West Arm was some distance away. I figured it best to walk around the tracks rather than go by boat, but just as I had set off Gary sent a text saying he was coming to us first for a coffee. I was pleased he did as 10 minutes later another fast run resulted in a good-looking common of 42lb 4oz for me.

Gary was very excited about his new swim but time was running out for him and he only had one night left. After coffee I walked back to his swim with him – although it was more of a trek than a walk, taking almost an hour. Back at his swim I could see fish jumping immediately but already someone had moved in close to him and while we were looking the guy had a run and landed a small fish from very close to where he had been fishing. This didn’t please him but we set about photographing the fish anyway. The 51lb common was a real beauty and turned out to be the fish that I’d caught during the making of the Cassien DVD at 44lb so it was good to see that fish again and at a higher weight.

I left Gary to get his rods out while I started the long walk back. Inevitably the call came through from Joan when I was about halfway that she’d caught a fish but this time it was a smaller specimen of 24lb. Gary arrived the next day all packed and ready to go. He’d only had one more fish and that was a small one so he’d done the pics himself. It was a real shame that he had to go but all good things do come to an end and as I always say you cannot stop time from marching on, all you can do is make the most of it while you are there.

Joan and I actually found ourselves to be the only people in the whole South Arm, which reminded us very much of the early days when it was about the only other time you could experience the lake like that. It was a very special feeling I can tell you and one I’ll remember for a long time. For some reason I didn’t get a daytime run that day but two in the night instead. I had changed my rigs and put different hooks on for some reason and when I went out to play the first fish the hook just popped out as soon as I was above it. Why I had changed hooks I don’t know but I immediately went back to the Solar Long Shanks and when the next rod went off a couple of hours later I had no worries and safely landed a 37lb mirror.

Baiting
The bait and baiting strategies were obviously working very well. A lot also depends on the conditions on the lake as I’ve already mentioned but the baiting has to be right all the same. I was using a combination of the BYT and Club Mix from Solar. I only used a single 22mm BYT as a hookbait throughout the trip though. I was confident enough in both baits to bait up with a mixture of both of them. The important thing was to use the right amount in the right areas. At the start of the session I was catching fish between 14 feet and 17 feet. It was the same areas that I was still catching the fish in but where the water had risen those depths were now between 21 feet and 25 feet. I’ve tried before to catch fish at other depths at the same time mainly without success, so I cannot see the point of baiting too far from those areas too. I don’t use a lot of bait – perhaps half a dozen right on top of the hook bait and then another 15 to 20 freebies around the general area. I only normally replace the hook baits every two days but I still bait up every day with a few freebies as I know that quite often fish can move through and clear you out with giving you any indication, so even if no fish have been through the swim, the small amounts that I put out wont harm my chances in any way.

It was certainly doing the job anyway when I landed another two fish up to 27lb 12oz to make it four carp inside of 12 hours. If everything could have stayed the same then I’m sure that I could have just kept on catching at the same rate. The following day it was back to normal with the daytime run at 2pm producing a 36lb 8oz mirror. That made it a 2pm run two days on the trot, so the following day at 2pm I was ready and sure enough bang on time off it went. It was difficult to tell the size of the fish other than it felt pretty good. The fight must have gone on for around 20 to 25 minutes before a big creamy flank broke the surface. I had just been enjoying the battle in the afternoon sun, but this was looking like a serious carp! Indeed at 52lb 2oz it was a serious carp and only a couple of ounces short of the best fish of the trip. It was a typical deep-bodied Cassien fish but one that I didn’t recognise at all?

The thing with Cassien is that you know sooner or later that the crowds are going to arrive and the next day it just happened. Boat loads of people started arriving from all directions and soon all of the points that had remained empty for so long were now filled with anglers. On top of that the water started to drop again – and quite rapidly. At one point we thought we would have to move the bivvy back but now we had plenty of space in front of us. It was still Cassien but it totally changed the atmosphere of the trip and I knew that it would change the habits of the fish too. I wasn’t unduly worried as we had little time left anyway and in a way it felt as if it was coming to a natural end, if the lake had only just started to fish well then I wouldn’t have wanted to leave.

The following morning I had a very nicely-scaled mirror of 34lb but for the first time the action was starting to spread out a little, I couldn’t see anyone else catching the fish just appeared to know what was happening and were slowing down a little. During the last couple of days I had one more fish, which was actually the smallest of the trip and although it is always a wrench to leave Cassien we knew that we’d had the best of it. You never know what you’ll get at this amazing lake but this time most people stayed away while the fish came out to play. Next year it might be completely the other way around. In a way that’s what makes Cassien so exciting and all the more rewarding when it does go right. All I know is that I’ll be back for more.

Steve