Somewhere under the rainbow

I had managed to find the time to squeeze in a late evening to night session... The thunder, lightning and inch or so of rain were shouting at me not to go, but I was undeterred, arriving at the pads at around 19:30. My first decision was whether to sit out the rest of the rain before getting the rods up, or just face the consequences, get the rods out, then retreat to the dry comfort of the car. I chose to get the rods straight out. the wrong choice as it happened... just as my well moistened self was ready to seek refuge, the rain stopped and the sun dropped below the angry clouds. A full rainbow arced through the leaden sky, and as I watched the water surface I saw a large caudal fin flop through the lily clad surface. Its an omen, I thought, tonight is the night that my carp drought shall end.

  For the umteenth time my optimism was misplaced, the only events of note through the night were the periodical outbreaks of rain that punctuated an otherwise pleasant evening. Two other lads had been fishing the stretch since much earlier in the day but none of us would see any sign of the carp. Well thats not strictly true.. at 2:15 am, as I was packing up, my clumping boots scared the wits out of a large fish in the shallows, no more than 1ft from the bank. Never mind scaring the fish, I nearly had a heart attack at the unexpected noise breaking the silence and the droplets of water spraying out of the blackness. It could of course have been any fish, but I like to think that it is evidence that the carp are in residence... even if I can't tempt them to pick up any of my baits.