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Patience above all.

12 Sept 2009

Carp fishing needs patience, there's no doubt about that. It is equally certain that I lack the necessary qualities to wait for a week without a bite in the hope of tempting a monster. To be honest most carp are satisfyingly large and surprisingly powerful so even 'tiddlers' of six to ten pounds provide a bit of excitement. Yesterday I had an hour to spare before my dinner and Lilian suggested that I go to the nearby lakes for a spot of fishing. I need no second bidding so I grabbed the rod, hacked a chunk of white loaf into big cubes and set off.

It was a pleasant afternoon and the lakes was very sheltered from the north-east wind. I wandered round until I saw a few carp near the surface. This I decided, was a worthwhile spot to try. I impaled a large crust on my hook and gently flicked it across a low twig so that the line was about 50cm from the bank and hung vertically downwards to the bait. I laid the rod down on the bankside vegetation. I like to use a tough shiny bit of crust and I make sure that the hook is buried in it so it has a reasonable chance, even when soaked and soggy, of resisting the suck of a fish. I waited.

After about five minutes along came a carp. It sidled up to the bait and gave it a couple of gentle nudges with its lips before swirling away. Most of the bait was still in place so I relaxed again for another wait. Twice more in the next ten minutes or so (it seemed longer) carp came and did the same sort of thing. Each time my tough bit of crust stayed on the hook, although most of the crumb had, by now, been removed. A fourth carp simply looked at the bait and ignored it. For me the tension was almost unbearable. It must have been half-an-hour before I saw a fish approach from the left hand side. It opened its mouth and sucked. Down whanged the rod tip, I grabbed the butt and the battle was on. The carp tore away into the lake with the clutch screaming. Out into the reed bed it went so I clamped down on the spool and leaned back to halt it. It kited round into the reeds on the right so I took a couple of paces backwards and managed to haul it, flopping and squirming, across the brown stems. Now it was in open water and I was confident of success. Sure enough after a further couple of minutes it slid over the rim of my big net. I weighed it in the net, took a couple of pictures and rolled the fish back into the water. Just over 10.5kg (23lb), a cracker - patience was rewarded.

If you have any comments or questions about fish, methods, tactics or 'what have you.'get in touch with me by sending an E-MAIL to - docladle@hotmail.com

Got it!

Beauty!