I am not a die-hard Carp fisherman by any stretch of the imagination, the level of commitment and (dare I say it) madness involved in Specimen Carp angling is something that I can only admire in others. I will say for the record though that I think many Carp Angler's habit of calling large Tench & Bream nuisance fish gripes me a bit, but I'm a 'jack of all trades' angler so maybe that's just me.
The small farmer's lakes my Dad & I planned to fish have a good head of large carp, mainly Commons up to 30lb. The larger lake had the big fish in along with Pike to keep the small fish population down. The upper lake is smaller and has fish to under 20lb that had been transferred from the larger lake. Last year I had a stunning buttery Common from the smaller lake, not a massive fish, but at 14 and a half pounds it is my largest Carp so far and easily my prettiest. The larger lake is renowned as a difficult water so with only a day available I decided to fish the smaller one.
The day before I had the surprise of my sister Zoe arriving back from Australia unannounced and she was excited at the prospect of fishing with me and my dad. With my girlfriend Ellie also wanting to fish it became a family outing! I had slight concerns of boredom setting in with the girls since Carp fishing in March is not always hectic stuff, so I made sure we packed the Lure rods to target the Pike if the Carp wouldn't show. It's lucky I did because indeed the Carp were not interested. We fished for three hours with nothing to show for it. Luckily enough Spring had decided to announce it's arrival that day. With sunshine on our backs, the occasional Bee buzzing around our heads and good conversation we were in good spirits. I decided that the Pike in the other lake would probably be more receptive on such a day so we set up with the Lures. If you have read my other posts you will know that Ellie has been desperate to catch on her new Rod (she calls it 'Mitch' after the brand Mitchell it's made by), within five minutes she had a tiny little Jack on and was ecstatic. The lake is full of them as - due to a lack of regular food - they dont grow much bigger. I was extremely keen to catch on my LRF rod with a tiny Roach Fry swimbait. I didnt have to wait long. With a twitchy retrieve the lure flashed in the sunlight and another little jack aggresively lunged at the lure right by the bank. Unfortunately these tiny Pike arent known for their fighting abilities and I easily subdued him. But as I held him up in the Spring sunshine, his green and gold scales glinting majestically, I didnt care he was only about thirty centimetres long, he was my first Pike on my LRF rod, a special little fish. Zoe obviously then wanted a go and Ellie very generously let her use 'Mitch'. She then proceeded to catch three fish in quick succession! The largest only being just over a pound and a half but she obviously had the technique. I had a good fish of around seven pounds miss my lure at the bank - now that would have really tested my ultralight tackle! But it wasn't to be. We tried for the carp for another few hours but still they weren't biting. In the larger lake the big fish teased us by sunning themselves at the surface. There really are some giants in that lake that will certainly bring me back to try for again.
So a bit like the rest of this year & challenge so far, great fun but no real show-stopping fish to write about. Fishing to me though has a brilliant social aspect too, despite it's popular image as a game for lonely patient habit men trying to escape their wives on a weekend - though that's not without it's merits!
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