Roach that think they're carp

Neither cameras or statistics are apt to lie, according to perceived wisdom, but neither the simple statistics (three anglers fishing a pre-work morning session and catching four roach over a pound) or the photo's of said roach tell the story of a morning of struggle, and a catch which, though welcomed, owed more to luck than judgement. You see, the thing is we weren't roach fishing- we were carping, and at a  venue at which in three or four hours we'd normally expect to catch three or four carp each. As it was, Pete (who runs our church's fishing group) lost a small koi carp at the net, and David (who is a fellow Forum leader at www.christiananglers.co.uk ) did manage one carp, seen in the picture below, but the carp were notable for their a-typical lack of enthusiasm to make acquaintance with us on the bank.

 

 

David and I arrived at the fishery as its early morning gates opened, and I opted to fish with one rod on the method and a mini boilie as hookbait, with the other rod on a standard bolt rig with a larger boilie. David opted for a legered  meat bait, and chose to fish on the surface with a controller and dog biscuits on the other rod, as even at our early hour of arrival, carp were cruising languidly just below the surface. We were shortly joined by Pete, who set up two rods on the Method, one with a boilie, the other a banded pellet as bait.

The first surprise was David's first fish of the day, a roach of over a pound that slurped down a floating dog biscuit, something I'd never previously seen happen, but there- fairly embedded in its delicate mouth- was David's hook.

Shortly afterwards, David caught the carp, also on the surface, but from that point onward the morning was strangely quiet ...... until the roach turned up.

 

 

Now, I'd be the first to admit that it feels rather unsporting catching quality roach on carp gear, but it had never been our intention to do so. Carp were our target species, and carp were what we expected to catch, but, in an unusual inversion of the Commercial Fishery norm, it was the roach muscling in on the carp's bait. The morning was never prolific, the odd smaller roach was hooked, and much of the time the bobbins were motionless and the buzzers silent, but we did enjoy one memorable "double hook-up", with Pete and I both netting pound plus roach within seconds of each other.

 

 

Pete and I both had to leave and return to the real world of work, while David, who had the whole day off,was able to stay, although his extra two hours of fishing brought no further fish, but rumour has it that his wife, Jan, turned up and brought with her a rather splendid picnic. It had been a hard morning's fishing, the carp were either (a) sulking (b) sunbathing or (c) preparing to spawn depending on who you talked to, but we left with a lingering thought in all of our minds: if we can, by accident, catch four roach in excess of a pound apiece, then what might the roach potential of the lake be if we fished intentionally for them? With the majority of the lake's anglers targeting carp, we might be undertaking a project that no-one else is engaged on. Are there any two pounders? It's a question that seems to demand an answer, or at least a solid attempt to discover one.

I think you can guess what I'll be doing next time I visit the lake ..... it'll be farewell to boilies, bolt rigs and PVA bags and "hello" to maggots, castors, groundbait, floats, size 18 hooks, and small feeders; I'm excited just thinking about it.