‘Two nights with my boys!’ – Lee Howard

Lee Howard has been really making an effort taking his young lads fishing this year. Judging by the photographs building in our inbox the lads have been having a blast, catching serious fish for their age. Over to Lee...

I took the boy's again this weekend for two nights this time instead of one. It was supposed to be one night but after the first they was still several fish in a weedbed a little left of Alfie's baits so we decided to stay which turned out to be a good call.
We got there Friday dinner and had the whole lake to our selves, the plan was to look around but after 10 mins of being there you could see most of the fish were around the mouth of the channel and just in a little bit around a big weed bed.
We got dug in and the boys got their rod out then they settled in with the waggler and feeder gear, in the end they ended up with 16lb of rudd and roach between them with the biggest being 1lb 4oz. Not long after Alfie had dropped a rod close to the Reed's on the other side of the channel it was away! He quickly grabbed it and I jumped into the chesties only to find he was locked up? I took hold of the rod and pulled and all came free and the fish was gone.
At this point I thought he had been done by a carp but he then had two tench that evening followed by another 3 through the night so I'm guessing it was a tench that got away. First light came and Alfie was flaked out being up and down all night, Charlie well he could sleep through hell and wake up fresh as a daisy lol. I was pretty baked too and was half asleep when Alfie's rod was away again, he was fishing locked up so only a few bleeps was heard from the takes so we were pretty sure it was a tench again.
The rod was bent right round to the left but as Alfie lifted the rod it came swimming towards us kind of confirming it was a tench until it got a couple of rod lengths out and I could see it was a mirror!

'We at first thought it was a tench, until a mirror popped up!'

She didn't put up much of a fight, once I'd seen her she tried to slowly swim out the channel to the right but Alfie pulled his rod to the left and she came in like a dog on a lead. I noticed straight away he had caught the same fish Charlie had two weeks ago but still a new one for Alfie and he was absolutely buzzing!!
After the pictures Alfie released her but she slipped under some mini pads, he was feeling about to see if he could touch her so I thought 'I'm going film this house if it bolts he's going to shite his self'! Instead the little bugger whipped him back out the water as if he's just trout tickled it. It was a banging moment that I'm so glad I caught on film. The rest of the day was spent fishing for silver's while watching the carp sit in the weedbed to our left sunbathing with out a care in the world. Knowing this place is renowned for morning bites if you're on them the night before and having enough supply's to last till the following morning we stayed on to push our luck. The little pit has around 25 carp in with 80% being nice dark or golden commons which had eluded us up to this point, not that we was complaining though but that morning me and Alfie was sat next to his rods watch fish moving all over his area.

Alfie returning his prize

We knew it was only a matter of time before something happens and I can remember saying to Alfie a nice low 20 common would be nice. I'd gone and made a brew and a hot chocolate for Alfie to try and calm the atmosphere but within moments it kicked off.
We rushed to the rod and you could see the big boils rolling on the surface next to the weedbed as it was trying to gain sanctuary but the tight clutch and his momentum just pulled his head down and cocked his tail up!!

What a fantastic common to catch at a young age!

This did Alfie a favour as it knackered itself out before he even picked the rod up, it also let the fish gather a small amount of weed over its head which calmed matters a little and the fish slowly got guided in as it made a steady zig zag to the net.
His first common of the summer holidays at 23lb 9oz with little withered fins and a finger print for a missing scale.
Really looking forward to getting back out soon as Alfie is on a roll and hopefully Charlie catches one 🤞
Best wishes
Lee

'His first common of the summer holidays at 23lb 9oz with little withered fins and a finger print for a missing scale'

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