Carp
10-10-1999 The first time that I hooked a carp was a revelation. None of the small twitches and gentle movements of the monkey climber, that I had been used to with the tench, none of the single bleeps that came from the small silver fish in the lake. There I was with my barbel rod (used for all ledgering), eating my sandwich, when out of the blue, the buzzer shrilled and the rod leapt up in the rests and bent round in an alarming curve. No need to strike here, it was a matter of catch the rod if you were quick enough. It really was a good thing that I sit right next to my rods, as if I had been a few feet further away, then the rod would have disappeared into the lake in the blink of an eye. I was stunned. I grabbed the rod as it came up and out of the rod rest, making a wild grab for the butt. Having managed to apprehend the fast vanishing rod, I just held on as the unseen fish crashed to the surface. I saw in the bright sunlight a dark shape, but with a lot of orange about it. Having come to my senses, and engaged the brain, I slowly tightened up the clutch as the fish made straight for the lily pads. As the tension was increased the rod came under more pressure. By now everything was solid, as the fish struggled on the edge of the lily pads. Bits of the pads started to float away from the mayhem, as the churning continued. I dare not let him have another inch of line, as he would have burrowed deeper into the mass of underwater stems. The rod could bend no more, and I could not give an inch of line. I hung on for grim death, and just hoped that the fish would tire enough for me to be able to take some line back. At first the line was singing in the breeze, but as the pressure was increased, the line started to make an ominous creaking sound. Alas it was not to be, and with a loud crack the line parted. In the space of a few short seconds, I had the ferocious take, the frantic lunge to retain my rod, the feel of the immense power of the unseen fish, and finally the break. Truly it had taken my breath away, as I was conscious of my heavy breathing, not so much from the exertions, but more from the adrenaline rush. I just stood there in mild shock. Amazing, and I can appreciate why anglers get so involved with carp. I have never experienced anything like it before, and there and then I decided that I would try to catch some of these monsters.
The barbel rod at 1 pound 6 oz test curve was not up to the job of apprehending these demons, as it adopted its full curve far too early in the fight for control. With no rod action to help, and not being able to give any line, due to the close proximity of the water lilies. I would need something a bit more powerful , so I decided to invest in a couple of suitable rods, that would also serve me for pike fishing. Now armed with two 2 1/4 pound rods and two 6010GT baitrunner's, loaded with 12 pound line, I was more suitably tackled up to sally forth. I had decided to read as much as I could on the subject of carp and how to catch them. "Oh boy", if you are to believe half of what is written, then you will need to arm yourself with a vast arsenal of specialist gear. Go into any decent tackle shop, and look at the selection of carp tackle and bait. Seeing is believing. Obviously I would never be in a financial position to avail myself of even a fraction of what I was being told I would need to outwit these fish that were being credited with the mental ability of an Einstein. My feeble brain still thought that fish ate to live, and any decent bait, presented correctly would catch fish, assuming that the fish were available to catch in the first place. Where to start with all of this assimilated knowledge that I was acquiring. I decided that I would employ the old ruse of just being nosey. I talked to the fanatical carp anglers that fished the estate lake, and all without exception fished using a hair rig, and with various types of boilie's. For all of you who like me did not know what a hair rig was, then a quick description of its basic concept. Someone at some time had come to the conclusion that if a bait was tied to the hook using a very fine piece of line, then this would increase the chance of hooking a carp. The reasoning was that if a carp sucked at a bait and it moved realistically on a fine piece of line (hair), then the carp would be more likely to pick up the bait, rather than if the bait was hooked in the old fashioned manner, with the hook actually in the bait. Once the carp had the bait into its mouth, then the hook would be pulled in attached to the fine hair. If the fish become suspicious, and blew out the bait, then there was a good chance that the hook would prick the fish as the bait was ejected. Obviously there had been success using this method, and it is now standard practice to use a hair rig. The story does not stop there, as there are numerous types and designs of different hair rigs, each being able to do a slightly different and better job if all was to be believed. I decided that being as I had two rods, then I would fish one with a hair rigged bait, and the other in a more conventional manner. Another major contributing factor to the hair rig was to use a heavier lead, in fact in some cases a very heavy lead of 3 or 4 ounces. This was about the size of lead that I used to use when I was beach casting, and the thought that I would need such a weight for fresh water fishing seemed ridiculous. The heavy lead was to create a self hooking arrangement, i.e. a "bolt rig". The line was attached to the heavy lead, and if the fish did prick itself as it spat out the bait, then it would immediately make a dash from the scene. It would come up against the heavy lead, and virtually hook itself. Initially this practice did not seem to be very ethical, as if you are going to rely on a fish hooking itself, then why not go the whole hog and attach a line to half a house brick, throw the lot in, come back to following day and retrieve the brick, hopefully with the carp still attached?
Now to bait. If you ever go into somewhere like "Wooly's", and go to the sweet selection of "pick and mix", then that was what it was like when I went to my local tackle shop to enquire about carp baits. There are hundreds, ranging from the sweet to the fishy to the spicy, and all possible combinations, with new ones being invented on a daily basis. Depending on who you talk to and what angling publications you read, then everybody has a different favourite. I suppose the sensible thing to do initially is to follow the pack at the lake where you are going to fish. Me, I initially settled for Cream Cajouser from the Nutrabaits stable. When I opened the bag the smell was really pleasant, and I would not have minded eating them myself. Well back to the lake, and out went one rod to the left and the other to the right. I favour separate rod rests as opposed to a pod. The reason being that I think it is wise if the rod can point straight at the bait which you can achieve with separate rod rest set ups, but something that is not possible with a pod. Having said that I do not think that the carp in my lake worry about any form of resistance, the takes are staggering in their ferocity. Well the Cream Cajouser caught carp, as did luncheon meat, sweetcorn, bread, maggots, chick peas, maple peas and worms. I did catch more fish on boilie's than I did on the other baits, but that was probably down to using boilie's more often, rather than any short comings of the other baits. Boilie's do have some advantages over the other baits, firstly they stay on the hair almost indefinitely. That is the main reason why they evolved. Carp fishing can, and often is a slow game, and there is nothing worse than sitting for hours, waiting for a bite, only to find that when you reel in, the hook is bare, and could have been for hours. Boilie's are simply paste that has been boiled for a short time to give them a protective skin, that is impervious to the attention of small fish, and the action of the water. A second reason is that they are very convenient. And a third reason has to be that there is a lot of money to be made selling boilie's. Now whether we need such bait is always up for debate, but I am personally aware that good marketing sells products, and that boilie's are no different in that respect to any other manufactured article. As ever, it is very hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. Most angling writers are sponsored by one firm or another, some openly, but I suspect some not so openly. They receive free gifts of tackle to test, and free bait to assess. It is no wonder that they have slightly biased views. This situation is far from helpful to the end customer.
January 2006. The heaviest carp that I have caught so far was just under 25 pounds, but the fish that gave me the most pleasure was one that I caught in late 2005. This fish weighed 19 pounds and 14 ounces, and was caught on the Wychwood float rod using 8 pound reel line and 6 pound hook length
