So this is what carp fishing is all about ?

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In America you got carp, lots of them & big ones. I could see why you'd go for them & I think more people will find that out in the long term. Till then you guys are dead lucky, you got it all to yourselves & no-one gives a dam! Fishing is cheap the beer is good & you got lots of room. Almost no-one fishes carp & the carp are crawling up the rods, its carp nirvana & no-one knows it, you guys are so lucky! But where I come from its a different ball game. There's big carp too, but they dont come cheap .These carp are more like a mind test, they only bite when your not there, to counter this you have to be there all the time - - - just to be in with a chance. THE SECOND YOU PACK UP THE CARP WILL BE IN THERE & you know it. So you cant go home untill you catch one; which you never will. Not untill you grow old anyway ! What follows is an account of a GOOD days fishing on an easy water in England.

It's friday afternoon & the clock is ticking slowly, you know you cant stay much longer, the water is calling you & its getting much louder. On wednesday previous youv'e spent the whole evening making bait. You have to make it cause it's just too dam expensive to pile in readymade bait. With military precision the gear is already packed into your car.The bait is packed into the canteen's fridge at work, just hoping the boss wont find them. It's raining outside & the evenings are closer, since this is a November trip we are venturing on. It's dark at 5:00pm so we have to be at the lake by 4:00, to set-up in daylight. Eagerly I keep checking the window, my mate will be here anytime now. At 4:30 he arrives, I'm out the door in a flash. Nigel is cursing someone had pulled in with an emergency repair job, dont they know we have to be carping yet ! Still, the drive to the lake is not unpleasant . The rain is constant but not too heavy, at least there is no wind to deal with. To save some time we decided to park in the bottom parking lot , well actually its not a parking lot, more like a parking mud heap! Still Nigel says the van has good tyres & he's never been stuck yet . So we drive down this muddy lane, its still raining though. Quickly we unpack, but my pile of gear does not look right , I start to check; rucksack, bedchair, bait, bivvy, rod bag. Wait, - - - where is my rod bag? I ask Nigel but he says no, he never put it in . I, of course, thought he had it in & he had presumed I put it in. So it dont take Einstein to work out where it is . Where is it? well of course it's back in my shed thats where it is; 1.5 hrs away !

So now it's 5:15 already dark & I have a 1.5 hr trip to regain my rods & then I'm not even set-up yet. The drive back to my place is a nightmare, the defroster in the car is non operational which means I'm constantly trying to clear the windsheild. Someone is trying to swerve me off the road, & I dont even know where I'm going or how to get there since the highway has been re-routed & there are no road signs at the moment. By pure luck I end up on the right road home. Flying into my shed I half expected that the rods would not be there, but there they were, in all their glory. They were smiling at me, I know they were. I grabbed the holdall & sizzled down my driveway. Threw the rods in the back & in a flash I was back on the road. An hour & a half & I'm back where I started, things were not looking good. I kept thinking, I'll never live it down . The banter was ringing in my ears - -"Oh yeah, we were out fishing unpacking the gear, only Steve never had his Rods with him; he's trying this new technique, keeping dead quite about it !"

Eventually I'm back at the mud park, slideing down the track, I managed to park the van without getting bogged down in the mud. As I was driving (swerving really) down the track, the rain became torrential. Infact when I got out of the van I was already soaked just putting on my raingear. Heavily loaded up with the rest of my gear, I began the long treck around the lake to where Nigel was already fishing. The rain actually increased & then it turned to ice, yes ice! & the hailstorm which followed was so intense I could not see where I was going & had to shelter under the trees, since the wooden walkway became like a bobsled runway. I was wet & cold & had not even started fishing yet. Back at the swim, Nigel had it all sorted out, he had even heard a fish or two! Things were looking up, the hailstones had stopped & there was no wind , the lake was flat calm & like a mirror. There were definately fish out there, we could hear them crashing out. Slowly I tackled my rods & baited the swim in the darkness. I was even getting quietly confident . Eventually I had my 3 rods cast out & got into rythm with the throwing stick, baiting my far out swim. I could not see where the baits were landing, but they sounded like they were going into the right spot. We chatted a while & soon I was away on the LH rod. I tightened into the fish which promptly dropped off ! Oh well, I recast out once again, the fish were making the odd crash in the distance. Nigel had a fish, then I had another run ,which also dropped off. Eventually I was also dropping off; into the land of nod.

Next morning I was awakened by the whistling of a kettle & a cloud of steam. Nigel was rarely the early bird but with overcast weather he is awake at the crack of dawn. I was suddenly aware of a strange slideing noise followed by a noisy splash. I looked around to see my alarms & rods had collapsed into the water, almost becoming buried in the soft mud of the margins. The lake had actually risen several inches during the night & since the bank we were camped on had a very shallow slope to it, my bivvy was actually totally encompassed by water ! Frantically I jumped to the rescue of my waterlogged alarms & had a look around at the pitifull marshland we had set up on in the dark. "Nige" said I "I hate to mention this, but unless we get a boat pretty quickly, we had better move the heck away from here''. While drinking the obligatory morning coffee, we sorted out the best swim to move into. It was a 500 yd treck to the opposite bank, but at least we knew it would be relatively dry! Without too much delay we were soon stomping round to our newly decided swim.

Once setup in our new swim it had turned 11am & we soon were feeling the pangs of hunger that all fisherman know off. The pub was calling & soon enough we were enjoying a glass of beer & the pool table was also beckoning us to play a couple of tables. Eventually , thoughts of huge carp began to cloud the public house & we had to go back from whence we came. Dutifully we fired some balls of nutrition lakewards, & then retired again into that land of carp where they grow to the size of water horses ! It was soon night once more & the lake became enshrouded in solitude & mystery. Slowly my eyes became heavy & they could not stay open any longer. All was quiet from Nigels tent, the carp it seemed had gone to mud !

Some time later in the middle of the night I heard that high pitched scream that all carp men know has to be treated with utmost urgency. Nigel was on his rod & I had to do my duty with the net. This I managed with no problems, surprising for me ,since it's bad enough for me to find the way to the 'john' in the night ,without having to negotiate hidden snags & eye poking sticks in the dark. Nigel quickly returned the carp & we both jumped back in the tents, it was bloody freezing! Well it could not have been more than 10 minutes later, once again, a Delkim screamed. I was even more reluctant to emerge this time ,since the alarm I knew was not mine either. Suddenly there were not one but two alarms screaming! Then I heard Nigel shouting "Steve, you got one! mine is way over in the bay " this had me moving at a greatly enhanced rate of knots & within moments I was battling an unseen opponent far out into the lake. Nigel had subdued his fish fairly quickly, & has a heart of gold when it comes to lending a much needed hand. Soon he was beside me egging me on, the carp meanwhile was coming closer & closer to revealing what the heck it was all about. I really had no idea just what was on the end of the line. Although I had the fish fairly close in & we could make out the there was a fairly substantial disturbance when the fish broke surface. I was having a lot of trouble getting the carp in close enough to the net. Also my hands & upper body were slowly numbing with the effects of the freezing night air. I kept blowing on my hands whilst shifting the rod between one & the other. It eventually became apparent that the carp was not, infact, going to come any closer, & upon inspection of the margin the answer was soon revealed why. There was only 6 inches of water below where we were standing ! The fish was walking on its pec's in the margin! "Darn it Nige, give me the net" , slowly & gently I eased the chord under the fish, which had ceased to move. I turned round & attempted to lift the fish, it did not budge. At first I thought that the mesh had snagged, but then it dawned on me that my middle name is actually not Hercules . I lifted with more gusto the second time & the fish did move this time. I knew it would be a good fish & when the flashlight shone, I was dumbstuck. Here was my 20 lb common! on the scales it was 23-06, I could not contain my feeling of elation, across the tranquil lake I hollared with all my might! On this November night I had reached a well earned milestone with this fish. For several seasons I had fished for this carp or one other like it, (there were only 2 twenty lb commons in the lake). Eventually I had let the ticket go because it had seemed my name was not on this fish, but here it was. I was totally overwhelmed. I wound in the other rod, I could fish no more. Nigel congratulated me & next morning was a little saddened to realise I would probably never fish this water ever again. I was more than happy with such an achievement & if anything can be concluded from this story at all; I would say that big fish could come when you least expect it, for that reason it must be supposed that every next fish is THE big one. With this rule followed you wont loose too many fish. Although I had suffered somewhat to catch this fish, I felt this was indeed one of the greatest moments of my carpfishing experience. You just cannot capture the moment in words it has to happen on the bank.

Good luck & tite Lines - - - - Carpsava

Fish came out of the blue ! One of the most remembered moments during carp fishing

- my first 20 lb English common

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