Friday 23rd March – Sunday 25th March
Härlanda Tjärn – Monkeys in a cage
After a week of light prebaiting the time came for us (myself & Jeanette) to go to Härlanda Tjärn in Göteborg for our planned Carp Fishing premier of 2007.
We chose the big rock swim (stora stenen) as I thought that the shallow water might produce a fish due to it warming up first rather than the deeper areas.
I was fully aware that this swim can be a bit hectic at weekends with people walking dogs, jogging, bar-b-cueing and so on, but never thought that what was to happen that weekend would cut our session short!!
We arrived around 17.30hrs on Friday evening and dragged all the gear to the swim. After we set everything up and had the baits in position, it was time to relax and fire up the bar-b-cue for the evening meal.
Everything was great and we cracked open a tin of beer each and sat back to watch the lake for any signs of carp.
Nothing showed that evening and the alarms stayed silent on the first night.
The next day we awoke to the beautiful sunshine after quite a cold night in the bag.
Jeanette being the angel she is cooked breakfast and we sat there eating fried eggs and good old HP Baked Beans, washed down with a hot mug of coffee.
Then slowly but surely the car park filled up with vehicles and out came the morning joggers and other fitness fanatics.
We were laughing to ourselves as people were straining their necks as they went past trying to work out what all this space age equipment was (meaning our pods) and of course some people were wondering what we were doing.
Then right on cue, along came the families on a day out mixed with the old age pensioners taking a stroll due to the sudden warm weather.
There were far more people out that day than I had expected and I knew that something was going to happen.
I was in the bivvy sorting a few things out when I heard my alarm spew out a few uncarpy notes.
When I came out of the bivvy a young child had picked up my rods and threw them in the lake. I stared at the parents with disgust as they had done nothing to prevent their child from doing this and the child didn’t even get a telling off.
I placed my rods back on the pod, clipped up my indicators and shook my head in disbelief.
Biting my lip, I went back in the bivvy to pull my hair out in private.
I said to Jeanette that it’s going to get worse here this weekend and she said “Ohhhhh yeahhhhhh”
Apart from the staring and million’s of questions over the next couple of hours we hid in the bivvy out of the way, while trying to keep an eye on the pods.
Then all of a sudden a huge flock of seagulls bombarded the swim, followed shortly by Härlanda’s entire population of ducks and coots.
I poked my head out of the bivvy to see a little old lady stood next to my pod with a carrier bag full of bread. It was time to feed the birds and in went the entire contents of the bag, much to the delight of the screaming seagulls that were rioting in my swim over the free goodies.
Well, what can you do? Apart from thinking “what is it with these people”? There are plenty of places around the lake to feed the birds, but they have to do it where we are fishing.
I actually took a photo of the little old lady trashing our swim and here it is.
Nothing much else happened on Saturday apart from a few dogs bathing in our swim and kids throwing stones in the lake and at my rods.
Not to mention the same old question that is asked a thousand times “Har du fått nånting”.
As the sun went down the crowds faded away with just the odd jogger, cyclist or lovebirds going past.
We talked about the day and wondered what Sunday had in store for us.
Jeanette said, “we are like monkeys in a cage” with all the people who just stand and stare and I agreed.
I have always said to people that it’s not very wise to fish “The big rock” at weekends especially in the summer, but I never thought it would be so bad.
When it had all quietened down we lit the bar-b-cue again and grilled the kebabs that Jeanette had prepared on Thursday.
They were the best kebabs I had ever tasted and we had a couple of glasses of red wine with them and watched the fox guide to millennium carp fishing on the mini DVD player.
Sunday morning came without a beep from the alarms and already the people were out in force around the lake.
I kept thinking to myself “it can’t be as bad as yesterday, surely”
I stayed in the bivvy as much as I could to avoid any conversations with passers by. Believe me, it does get on your nerves after a while being asked the same questions over and over again.
Then I felt a tug on my boot and “oi you”.
I looked up and it was actually a face I knew. I said “hello Henrik (Berntsson), how’s it going mate?”
We chatted for about 30 mins and he left again.
Then about an hour later, I heard Jeanette talking to someone and came out for a bit of sunshine.
She told me later that this person had said that he and his friends have caught carp here (Härlanda Tjärn) and taken them home to eat them.
Jeanette told this person that it was forbidden to kill or remove the carp from Härlanda or any other water on the yellow card. (I don’t think he even knew what the yellow card was)
He said that he knew that but took them anyway because no one sees him do it.
And to add insult to injury his dog started digging a hole under my pod and inevitably knocked my rods off.
Enough was enough, so at lunchtime we packed up, went home and made a point never to fish the big rock swim ever again at the weekend.
Chris Thornhill