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The time had come to go fishing in a still water and try out my new carp rod. I chose one of the club’s less popular lakes as I didn’t want a big audience for my first time. When I arrived there were a couple of other anglers but we were well spaced out, which was good for social distancing. I set up the carp rod with a method feeder and cast out then tackled up the float rod. This lake is fairly shallow so the rig wasn’t set too deep, I put some groundbait in and was catching fish immediately. A little roach, followed by another and another and another. I am always pleased when I catch a fish but I moved away from the canal to try and catch something bigger so a change of tactic was in order. I swopped from maggots to sweet corn and at last a chance to re-cast the carp rod and have a sit down. 

Things went quiet for a bit, giving me chance to have a cup of tea out of the flask and notice the heron paddling in the margins opposite and briefly glimpse the kingfisher which flew over the top of me and away over the lake like a streak of lightning. Then the float dipped and I was into a bigger roach, still only a few ounces but a proper fish!

I won’t go on about the day because the story is all about what happened at the end, but it is enough to say that I caught more roach, bream and a baby carp and had a good session. Early in the afternoon I had moved the carp rod and was fishing in the margins next to the swim. I was thinking about packing up and going home when the rod started shaking and moving so I grabbed it before it disappeared into the lake! I gave it a yank and could feel something big, my first ever proper carp!

I tell you, I was sweating! I knew all the theory but here I was with a real live fish to play and desperate not to lose it! I had fairly strong gear on and was able to pull the fish in after a few minutes and get it into my landing net. 

Wow! What a feeling! There it was laid out in front of me, the biggest fish I have ever caught! It was hooked nicely in the lower lip and I was able to pull the hook out with my fingers, take a photo and slip it back in. I then had a sit down with a big grin all over my face and an amazing sense of achievement and an understanding of the attraction of carp fishing. Then that was it for the day, nothing could top that so I might as well pack up and go home while I was still on a high. One thing is for sure, I will be back!

My first ever big carp! I didn’t have any scales so don’t know how much it weighed but the diameter of the landing net is 20ins or 51cm. And yes, I now have a proper carp landing net and unhooking mat!

So, I had been fishing for a few weeks in the canal and river and been catching small fish and it was not enough. If I was going to carry on I wanted to catch something bigger and a bit more interesting and thought about the club’s still waters. I wasn’t feeling confident enough just to rock up and start fishing so I spent a couple of days driving round to find the lakes and chat to anglers there, at a social distance of course!

It was all quite interesting, it was clear that carp fishing was the “in thing.” Every lake I visited had their fair share of carp anglers with their alarms beeping every now and again and I saw some good fish being caught and thought that I would like to have a go at that. I also looked on YouTube and other sites and fishing forums and was getting overwhelmed with information! Let me give a shout out here for Carl and Alex as I spent a lot of time watching their YouTube videos and learnt a lot. In case you don’t know them they are two brothers who have been posting videos since they were kids and now that they have grown up have gone full time. They are well worth a watch.

What I realised was that if I wanted to catch bigger carp then I needed a stronger rod and a suitable reel. I was still not sure at this stage if angling was going to be a permanent thing for me so didn’t want to spend too much money. Normally I would have gone into the local tackle shop to support local business but as we were shielding I decided to buy online. I did some research and it was then that I realised that I was a tackle snob! I could have bought a rod from Sports Direct for under £20 but I didn’t want to be seen on the bank with really cheap gear, I could imagine the pitying looks that I would get from proper anglers! I ordered a 12ft Daiwa Black Widow rod with a 3lb test curve which I thought would be a good allrounder along with some method feeders, hair rigs, boilies, pellets , line and other bits and pieces that I thought I would need and they all arrived within a few days. I also ordered a baitrunner reel, a NGT Dynamic 6000 from Ebay at a reasonable price and when it came I was all set to go.

I had a practice at rigging up in my garden then I was ready. The plan was to go to one of the club’s smaller, less popular waters and catch a carp. Whether I did or not you will have to wait and see in the next blog entry!

I will leave you with a picture of one of the more exotic inhabitants of the canal!

I was quite pleased with my first fishing trip. I had remembered how to tackle up and managed to catch some fish so I thought that I would carry on for a bit. I tried different techniques on the feeder rod using both quiver and swing tips. I also tried different floats and baits and had a go at breeding maggots as I was still staying away from people and didn’t want to go to the shop.

After a couple more sessions on the canal where I caught small roach and rudd again I thought that I would have a look at the river that the club had the rights to so set out to explore a quite remote location. When I arrived I could see that it was going to be difficult fishing. The river itself was no more than a large stream and as it was by now late summer it was very shallow. It was also very difficult to get to in places as the banks were overgrown with nettles. I managed to find a couple of swims and was soon pulling out small fish again including minnows which seemed to have the habit of swallowing the bait and hook as far down as they could. After this session I had a look on Youtube on how to use the disgorger properly, which helped!

I was a bit disappointed with my efforts as I had heard that there were some decent fish in the river and decided to wait until the nettles had died down and the river had filled up a bit before trying again.