Carp Bug: Part Two.

 Leading on from my first post regarding the Carp my fishing seemed to be going smoothly from the get go, after fishing on the lake I was on I decided to go for a drive somewhere I've never fished, only walked it a couple of times in the last closed season, these hours spent were to prove absolutely key. Over the years I could only imagine how many hours I have accrued whilst searching for Carp and many other species, to tell the truth I never think to myself "that was a waste of time", because there is always something to learn, whether it's fish stocks or gathering information on certain areas for potential campaigns.

 Now searching for Carp on a river is never easy especially when it's narrow in places, overgrown, choked with weed and so on, needle-in-a-stack type of fishing but I always enjoy this type of fishing more, the feeling of adventure is what does it for me and the sheer anticipation of finding something worth the effort. Thankfully the river was clear and I found that a tad fortuitous as we have had a considerable amount of rain, it seemed to have done nothing to the colour although I could see the higher waterline of some roots where it had been.

 For well over an hour, maybe two I bullied my way through nettles almost untouched which led me to believe it's not getting much attention. As I continued my way down river I started to get that feeling I wasn't going to find something to cast at apart from scores of small Chub and a couple of Pike, nothing of note and as I was on a Carp mission I didn't want to lose focus. Maybe another twenty minutes later on I came to a row of overhanging trees which created a vast canopy and I felt this would be a good place for a few fish to hold up, unfortunately it was only Chub again, everywhere I looked it was Skelly soup!.

 Then out of the corner of my eye I noticed something cruising under the far bank vegetation and disturbing the surface of the water, as it appeared from the edge of the bush I could see it was a small Common maybe 8-9lb, it was start and no sooner did I spot that fish another two came into view and one was really big! that was the one I came for, however getting a bait to it was not easy, where it was so overgrown I had to make a cast over the top of some briars and hope the line didn't snag on any thorns, perilous stuff, nevertheless to stand a chance of catching her I had to get a bait out but the scores of Chub could also pose a problem as they were ravenous at the plop of anything. Then a plan came to mind to give me a chance, I fed loads of crust in one go upstream and the Chub went mental, almost leaving me just the Carp, operation big Carp was in full swing and was working, just needed to get the bait in front of the Carp, first cast and not 6ft from it I could see every bit of the one I wanted, as the slow drift of the current inched the flaker closer to the Carp, she reared up and without hesitation opened her mouth and my bread flake disappeared!

 In utter disbelief I was locked into battle with a monster river Carp, something I didn't think would happen seeing how long I'd walked with nothing but blanks spaces and chub. Nevertheless I was bent into a good fish and my MKIV was being put through it's paces somewhat, the bend was frightening and wondered just how much more pressure I could put on it, the snags were everywhere and the ribbon weed was so dense, how I managed to get it close to the net after a couple minutes was beyond me but I was in a position to mug it so the net was shipped out quicker than a flash of lightning. As she inched over the edge of the net the water erupted for ages as the fight continued in the net, she went absolutely ballistic, but what a creature.

A 30inch spoon almost completely filled!

 After calming her down a bit I readied the scales and set up the camera whilst wedging the landing net pole between my legs, then the fun began, everytime I lifted her up for a photo she flipped, weighing, flipped, rest up, flip, she never gave up and part of me thinks she'd never been caught before and didn't know how to respond, when the time come and she had settled down I got a couple of photos to savour the moment and weighed her quickly, the outcome? a new river personal best at 28lb 3ozs, I was made up like you wouldn't believe, could this go thirty pound? Damn skippy she could, built like a coke machine with room to grow too, I was made up so much.

My face said it all, she was difficult to hold !

 And after she sat in the net preparing to be set free back in to the wild I said my farewells and in the blink of an eye the huge paddle vanished from sight back into the depths, that was it for me, I was so content that I folded the rod away and walked the river back up, peering into the areas I did on the way down, but nothing more than a few small Chub. I may come back to see if anything else is present, maybe a river thirty!