Plus ca change

In the early days of the 20th Century HT Sherringham was the doyen of fishing writers. He described carp fishing in these words: "Having laid out the rods you are at liberty to smoke, meditate, read, and- I think- sleep ... you and the rods and the floats gradually grow into the landscape and become part of it. It is like life in the isle of the lotus."
In other words, carp fishing, by nature, involves long periods of inactivity punctuated by brief flurries of action. In contrast with the frenetic activity and fish catching of my current crucian campaign, my only session so far this year after their bigger cousins proved Sherringham right. I travelled from my East Midlands home to Hertfordshire to fish my brother's Club Lake with him on a guest ticket. The texts and telephone conversations in the week running up to the session were full of optmism- after all, my brother had never blanked on the club lake, so why not?
In the event, we remained fishless all day, our bobbins troubled only by the wind, our boilies untouched, and the batteries in our bite alarms unecessary. We fished well enough, picked our spots thoughtfully, used good baits and fed in sensible quantities, but you can never tell with carp.
Meanwhile, in the swim next door my 11 year old son and 8 year old nephew added insult to injury by steadily catching small roach, rudd, bream and perch while deriding the angling impotence of their "elders and betters."
Some things stay the same, and it appears Sherringham was right about carp fishing, and I can't wait to get back to the crucians!
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.