I arrived at the fishery just before 6 am. There was one other car in the car park and the sun was shining. It couldn't have been a better start to the day.
I loaded up the trolley and headed down the lake to my favorite swim at the bottom. When I got there the lake was flat calm, the surface only broken by the bubbles caused by feeding fish.
Two rod attack was the plan for the day. A waggler by the reeds and a small leger about a third of the way across. For the first time this year I was going to use maize as a hook bait. I intended to use it on the feeder rod. For the waggler I was going to use corn to start with and then meat later.
With the swims fed I was ready to make my first casts of the season at 7:10 am.
The first hour proved I was right about the feeding fish as I had three good bites, two of them spat the hook but the third made the net. It was this 6.5 lb carp. I was off!
For the next hour I switched to meat. I only caught two fish, the first was a 3 lb 9 oz bream which I believe is a personal best for me. The second was a catfish weighing about 4 oz!
I stayed on meat for most of the next hour and was rewarded with a carp of 4 lb 3 oz. I did swop back to corn for a bit which attracted two hungry bream.
Between 10 and 11 am I blanked. I was not expecting that. The feeder rod had been motionless all the morning so far as well.
The next hour was going the way of the previous one when all of a sudden the float went away and I was into a carp of 6 lb 11 oz. That however led into the situation that ended my day but strangely improved my season.
About 13:00 the float dipped away and I struck into a fish. It ran away from the reeds and out into the center of the lake.As it ran I started to tighten the clutch however this had no real affect. I tightened it more and more until I thought something must give. Eventually it did, I looked down and saw that the fish had emptied the spool. I was gobsmacked, sickened and annoyed. My attention had so been on tightening the clutch I hadn't notice that the spool was getting empty. My spool only takes 100 meters of 6lb line.
Worried that it may happen again I reeled in the feeder rod and packed up. I left the fishery about 13:30 totally cheesed off. I had no one to blame but myself.
Postscript
On my return home I logged onto WWW.MAGGOTDROWNING.COM to seek advice as to how this situation could have been avoided.
The solution most offered was that I should have had the setting of the clutch much stiffer as a starting point than I had so that when I tightened it further if the fish didn't stop the hook length would have broken.
Also I think I lacked confidence in how much I could pull on the rod.
Since this incident I have taken the advice given and it has helped me out. I can now bully the fish away from the reeds and into the open water quite easily. As a generalization, the clutch will only release line when fish 8 lb or over run.
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