On top for carp.

I would never claim to be an expert floater angler, in fact, pretty much the opposite. I enjoy the challenge, the visual excitement and the immediacy of surface fishing for carp, but have always found my effort's to be pretty "hit and miss", with slightly more "miss" than "hit". I'm pretty "textbook", I don't cast out until they're feeding confidently and such like, but catching carp on the top seems to be more an intuitive than a "textbook" art, and I'm just not that good at it. However, that doesn't stop me trying!

 

On the occasions that I have caught surface feeding carp I suspect luck has often played its part. That was certainly true of this small carp, taken over a decade ago. I was using an old fashioned bubble float with mixers as bait, and accidently overcast, resulting in the line lying neatly off the surface of the water over the top of some weeds. Within seconds a confident take resulted in this little common, which took with far more bravado with no line on the water's film than his brothers had been doing previously.

 

 

Last season I only carp fished once, and gave my floater rod to a friend who'd come to pay a bankside visit, and he promptly caught two carp in half an hour off the surface. (after I'd spent an hour feeding the swim and getting them going!) I'd put on a Korda bolt rig style controller, which despite looking like the prototype of some weapon of mass destruction seemed to be extremely efficient on the self-hooking front. It'll certainly be my first choice for any floater fishing that I do this summer, and first impressions were that it's well designed and easy to use.

 

I suspect that- like every past season- my attempts at floater fishing this season will be a mixture of frustration, unsolved puzzles and just enough success to merit further attempts at fooling cautious carp in hot weather, but I'm looking forward to once again testing myself against my elusive quarry.

 

Time to get my carp tackle out to prepare for the fray ....

 

 

Time for a change

My piscatorial exploits over the last three months have been devoted to perch fishing on Leicestershire's Grand Union Canal. It's been short session fishing (no single trip has exceeded three hours) and it's been productive (only one blank, three pike and a plentiful harvest of perch) but the time feels right for a change of focus. I'll probably fish one more early morning lure session with my friend Pete, before deserting the towpath to fish for carp with my son at a local lake.

 

This morning's session was one of the less successful (but no less enjoyable) trips to the watery former industrial arterial highway, and sporadic showers broke my recent run of fine weather fishing.

 

 

A variety of spinners and small spinnerbaits were used, with a small silver and blue number being the successful lure on the day, accounting for the brace of small perch that graced the bank. Other spinners were subject to follows and small plucks, but the perch appeared more reluctant to feed than normal, and the pike were conspicuous by their absence. More disappointing than the lack of fish, however, was the loss of a favourite red and yellow Panther Martin spinner.

 

 

 The morning's highlight was when I was treated to a remarkable display of predatory behaviour, when I witnessed a perch of about a quarter of a pound chase a hapless smaller fish, which gave several leaps before being engulfed by the perch, which itself bumped into some bankside wooden supports during the hectic few seconds of the chase.

 

The canal has been good to me, providing free sport, compliant perch and the occasional bonus jack pike, but it feels that the time is now overdue to get a real bend in my rod and tangle with some midsummer carp.

So many species, so many ways to fish, so little time ......

 

 

The (formerly) Glorious 16th

The 16th of June, once a hallowed date in the coarse angler's calendar passed barely noticed by me today. In years past such a statement would have been unthinkable. As a boy (and I'm referring to my post voice breaking teenage boyhood here, not the days of early childhood) the days leading up to the "glorious 16th" were accompanied by growing anticipation, butterflies in the stomach, the drawing up of plans, and sleepless nights.

 

The 15th would find us camped out by the lake on florally patterned early 1980's bedchairs with inadequate clothing and thin sleeping bags willing the clock to reach midnight. The quarry? Almost certainly tench.

 

How times have changed. Now it's only the Norfolk jacketed split cane fundamentalists who practice a self-enforced closed season, and the river anglers for whom the 16th holds any special place. The rest of us are year round anglers, and the day has no significance beyond the recollection of past triumphs and a bygone era.

 

 

The actual period of angling abstinence, with its intention of providing spawning fish an uninterrupted period for procreative activity was always slightly arbitrary- most June caught tench contained spawn and many pike had spawned before the previous season ended, and I enjoy the opportunity to angle throughout the year, but I can't help feeling I'm missing out somewhere along the line.

At least in the old days remembering the season's first session often involved the recollection of a misty dawn giving way to a sunny day - now it's usually a best forgotten January blank in freezing conditions.

Like the man sung: "Those were the days, my friend"...

 

 

Piscatorially proud Uncle

Rather like the Christian faith, one of the biggest joys of angling is to be found in the sharing of it, and the passing on of it to others. My own children had both caught fish well before they started school, my 13 year old son still fishes regularly with me, and even my older teenage daughter (who before discovering boy bands, make-up, clothes and staying in bed till midday was an avid angler) caught a couple of fish last year and, periodically, resolves to retake up fishing.

Both of my brother's have also managed to encourage their next generation into the pursuit of fish, and these photo's show my South Wales based nephew and niece posing with recently caught carp.

 

 

Next month my perch obsession will temporarily give way to a dalliance with the "dark side" as my son and I undertake a couple of overnighters for carp- I hope his picture will soon be joining that of his cousins on this blog.

 

There's a verse in the Bible that encourages parents to "train up a child in the way he should go" (Proverbs 22:6) - it may be stretching the context, but I take that to apply to fishing as well as matters pertaining to eternal salvation.

A pike, three perch and a "schoolboy error"

After three small perch and a lively, snappy jack, all caught in just an hour and a half on the canal I should be a happy man. The weather was benign, choosing to rain (accompanied by a couple of claps of thunder) only after I was safely ensconced in the car and driving home and the fishing had been fun. However, my feelings are somewhat rueful and mixed, and although I photographed the pike its picture won't appear along with the text.

 

I've been fishing this stretch of canal for perch for the last three years, and in that time have caught only one pike (and lost another), while catching countless perch, which have all been plucky and game, but very small. As one of the things I most enjoy about spinning is the mobility and lack of equipment and accoutrements I've never bothered taking an unhooking mat with me as, I do for the rest of my fishing. The perch are simply unhooked while being held, and the pike ..... well, I'm not expecting to catch any, although- of course- I always use a wire trace and bring forceps, a Baker "Hook Out" that I got from Harris Angling (in the days when they had a proper catalogue and were still run by Dave and Sue Harris), pliers and a pair of wire cutters "just in case."

 

For some reason, this time, as well as my usual small box of spinners I also brought along the box of pike lures pictured above, with no expectation of using them.

 

 

I targeted bridges (my usual ploy), and at the first bridge caught three perch and had several follows and plucks that didn't materialise into landed fish. The second bridge also produced follows and abortive attacks of the spinner, but no further perch.

 

Finally I arrived at my favourite bridge, and as I lifted the small spinner out of the water there was a tremendous swirl and splash at my feet which could only mean one thing. With esox clearly in the swim, I edged further down the bank in order to be able to draw the lure past the pike, and changed to a larger spinner. My first retrieve with the new spinner resulted in the pike grabbing it, the rod tip bent over, and I saw the pike, momentarily felt it pull, and then the spinner was thrown into the air. I doubted whether he'd fall for the same lure, so changed to a small rattling, vibrating plug, and on its second retrieve the water erupted, and I was treated to a brief tail walking display before netting a pike of a couple of pounds.

 

I unhooked the pike, but managed to get the hooks, now free of the pike, entangled in the folds of the net, and so decided to briefly photograph the pike on the bank. I laid the fish on some grass, took a picture on my phone and then returned him to his watery home.

 

It was only when I looked at the photo, having returned the fish, that I realised that the spot I'd quickly laid him on wasn't nearly as grassy as I'd thought, and although the pike was only laying there for seconds I regretted my decision not to bring the mat, and have consequently made a resolution always to bring it in future. Lugging it around is an inconvenience, but I'd rather compromise on my economy of luggage than the comfort of a fish. Although the fish was unscathed and looked perfectly happy (in typical sulky "post capture" pike style) I've decided not to publish the photo, as it doesn't set a good example, and I'm long in the tooth enough to know better.

 

I guess, the learning point is to "expect the unexpected", and the pike lures, as well as the unhooking mat, will become a feature of all future trips.