Surface carping

As a little intro to this blog I wanted to say this is just a short one, mainly because I've not been out much latey & also its quite similar to previous blogs. Anyway let get on with the business in hand......

As the river season is well & truly gone, for the next few months at least & the weather picking up again, it's time to indulge in one of my favourite methods.

Digging out my barbel gear, small but strong hooks & my bucket of dog biscuits meant it's surface fishing time.

As I've said before, does it get more exciting than seeing a lump, just under the surface gobbling up mixers confidently in the margins & then make a b line for your hookbait, blissfully unaware that he's being watched. More often than not he'll move on to your hookbait & just stall, millimetres away for what seems like an age as your nerves jangle & the adrenaline starts to pump through your veins........

As you concentrate intensely & will the beast to take it, with rod in hand ready to strike like a coiled spring.

(Your mind is just waiting for the impending classic slurping noise & then all hell breaks loose, as the carp steams off looking for the closest cover, well that's the plan anyways)

Then he inexplicably turns away for no good reason & disappears back in to the murky depths never to be seen again, as you sit back, head in hands.

Arhhhhhhhhhh

It's almost as infuriating as mullet fishing but not quite. 

But my word it's great when u get it spot on & that's basically why we go fishing, 

"the anticipation & the thrill of the chase"

 

Before you say anything I know, I stole the above line from the great carp man Mark Pitchers, but I really feel it's sums up how we all feel about fishing & that's what brings us back to the waters edge week after week after week.

I must also add that I also enjoy the unknown, fishing a wild lake or river where the fish don't have names, probably never been caught. 

Not knowing just how big they might have grown & any second you could be attached to a fish of a lifetime.

With that thought in my mind I've found an old gravel pit that as far as I know doesn't get fished much, if at all, with some very nice tench & carp to well over 20lb+

I hope to be giving that a good bash over the coming summer months.

Ok so back to the story, I'm terrible at getting distracted.......

Just a quick few hours after work I hoped would be enough to entice a handful of carp to get feeding on the surface & in turn hopefully get a few on the bank to have their picture taken.

My chosen lake is a small & quiet day ticket place close to home, it's got plenty of fish to just over 20lb but the average is 6 to 11lb.

With some nice marginal bushes & trees for cover I made a b-line for the scum covered slacks in the corner of the lake, with the wind pushing quite hard into this bay I felt sure I'll find a few carp lurking in this area.

My chosen swim was slowly coming alive 

Three large handfuls of mixers were scattered about in this bay as I set up my rod. Free lining is always my preferred method if I'm fishing close in & I can get away with it. I had controller floats in my bag if the fish became spooky & fed more confidently out in the middle but I hoped I wouldn't need them.

After an hour of feeding & some gentle coaxing closer I felt ready for my first cast, with the wind in my face even just an underarm flick was going to be tricky. So I was proved right as my artificial mixer & hook flew straight into a tree !!!

As you can guess that was game over for a bit as my line snapped but I hastily got an other hook from my bag, luckily I hadn't spooked the fish & they were still feeding positively. 

As I hastily tied on my esp size 10, the carp where luckly still feeding well with a few nice sized black shapes crusing just beneath the surface. 

At this point I have a confession to make, I had my gopro ready mounted to my head but, as I can be at times extremely scaterbrained, unfortunately I had 45 mins of footage from earlier of me feeding carp, attaching myself to the aforementioned tree & my hook tying skills.

I assure it wasn't riveting stuff & to top it off the battery had died. I did have another battery ready charged but I just couldn't risk these fish moving of the feed with only a few hours of fishing time left.

I became focused on the fishing in hand, but I must be more disciplined in the future & I promise I'll have something worth watching sometime soon. 

A pair of very soft zig baits that I rubbed in to earth to give them more of a brown mixer colour

The next 10 minutes were unusually perfect, right out of the "surface fishing bible" 

Three carp were feeding less than a foot from the bank & right under my feet, one of the three was a nice sized common.

So I slowly shuffled back up the bank on my back as quietly as possible, no doubt I looked like a right burk trying to itch my back at the time, but did I care ??

Just as I got in position I turned to see the better common sucking in a couple of biscuits & I speedily dropped my hookbait a foot in from of his nose....... He heard the plop & homed in on my bait, came right out of the water like a whale coming up for air to quickly grab the mixer before one of his fellow pals could get there. 

Game on !!

He bolted off to the left where it shallowed off & headed for the reeds. As I felt the line ping off the vegetation & unseen lily pad roots many times as I prayed for a touch of luck. 

After a minute of churning up the bottom & uprooting plenty more reeds & basically wrecking the swim, I gleefully scooped him up in the landing net, which was just about big enough for this long, lean & powerful carp.

Feeling a touch smug at how "text book" that went & although not a monster I gathered my nerves, unhooked the fish & rested it in the margins while I set my mini tripod up for a quick selfie.

I got myself organised & proceeded to get some half decent pics on my iphone using a brilliant little app called "auto camera" & a joby gorilla pod.

  A scraper double but I was happy as Larry

As this swim was completely destroyed with all the commotion I moved round to another bay & proceeded to catch a couple more fish in a far less text book way with countless missed opportunities but I got there in the end.

I added three more carp to my tally, all of which were smaller than the first but scraped very well for their size.

6lb of fighting fit carp that gave me the run around in a tight swim

A 7lb plump fish that needed attention from my carp care kit

Another lean common in the net, about 8lb+

With the gates shutting shortly I knew after I released fish four it was time to make a move & after an enjoyable four hours fishing but I will be back for the bigger ones, until the next time.....

On a Zander mission

So after three failed attempts at getting a "Sander Lucioperca" into my net at bury hills (hooking & then losing two fish) I felt it was time to heal these wounds.

This meant a trip north was needed, a hundred miles or so from my Surrey home.

We just don't have the canals or rivers with a decent enough stock of these spiny beasts to target them specificly. Apart from the river Thames of course, which is not easy to fish from the bank in areas that the Zander like to hang out, thus far more accessible from a boat.

With my perennial fishing pal Mr Wheatie bagging his first zander the other week along with plenty of plump 2lb Perch, I pestered him to set up a trip north. 

Our last minute plan was to meet up with a couple of Paul's old "Lure Nuts" friends Nathan & Garry (both seasoned lure & predator anglers) at a small midlands canal just before daybreak. In turn this meant a 4am alarm was set & a two hour drive for me, not something I'd do every weekend but this could be a special trip.

A supposedly very early nights sleep ending up being just four hours & most of that sleep time was full of zandery dreams.

The early morning brought a dose of reality to my mindset as these zander have seemed ever so elusive for me & at times, I felt they were almost un-catchable..... my bogey fish. 

Scores needed to be settled & with a war like mentality as I drove into the darkness with thoughts firmly locked on the upcoming battle of wits.

My chosen tactics for the impending conflict was of course the now infamous "dropshot"

Paul did well with his first Zander on the winning combo of dropshot fished grass minnow & we'd be stupid not to use this as our first port of call. 

A was met with a bleary eyed welcome at 6am from the guys & with sunlight yet to arrive, we stumbled off in search of some water. 

Paul's great plan was to walk a couple of miles or so, pointing out good spots along the way, then stopping at a certain lock & making our way back. We would be casting out regularly at fishy holding areas, such as overhanging trees & bushes on the far bank, turning circles (for the many canal boats) as well as parked boats & of course the many locks & bridges dotted along our route back to the cars.

As the sun poked his head just about over the horizon, I had my first proper sight of the canal. Very narrow in places but far from a uniform canal, with regular width changes with plenty of features, yet relatively shallow & with very poor water clarity. 

All in all it looked great & with a clouded sky & warmish temperatures for this time of year, we all cast out into the unknown murky depths.

Bridges are always worth at least a few casts

           Plenty of boat cover to explore 

    Nathan & I trying to sneak out a predator 

After a fish-less first hour, without even a tap or inquiry, I plugged away with my grass minnow as the other guys chopped & changed with tactics & lures.

We thought if we all tried something different & found the winning method on the day then perhaps we could all get on it & share the spoils. 

Of course with best laid plans, it was bound to fail & fail we did, until........

Nathan has a pluck on his lure & a tap on the rod tip from a deep lock, unfortunately resulting in a short lived fight. A glimpse of the fish at around 2lb was all we saw, as mr zander won this particular battle. 

After closer inspection it showed he was never really hooked with the last inch of the lure missing. 

But it showed something was feeding....At Last !!!

With renewed hope we all cast with purpose & gave it our full concentration & luckily I was next to taste some action.........

A cast to a small far bank tree resulted in a slow yet positive take, I'm sure he'd followed my minnow from the cover of the tree & took it halfway across the canal.

With my new 1-8g rod bending very nicely I thought the likely culprit was a good sized perch, with the classic head shaking, ponderous fight.

I rapidly changed my mind as it rolled on the surface & my legs went weak, it's a zander. The fight then picked up a bit & it started to give me more of a darting battle. But that was short lived as I deployed the landing net, then I had a problem.......

The powerful magnet I used to hang the net on my back was now stuck fast on the metal corrugated edge of the bank, as i wrestled one handed with the net, I feared I might lose the fish but today seemed like my lucky day as I landed my prize with gusto. I parted the net to see a bristling creature looking at me with his huge predatory eyes, the Zander monkey was finally removed from my back.

                Another pb hits the net

   I'm far more happy than I look, honestly 

Within twenty minutes Nathan also had a Zander on the bank, dropshot again but he had scaled right down & used an S sized grass minnow. 

  On a rock hard day any fish is so welcome 

Our hard work seemed to be paying off at last but, unfortunately that was the last fish of the day for anybody.

We were all surprised that even a small perch or three didn't arrive.

Both Paul & Garry deserved a fish or two with their dogged commitment but it just wasn't to be today.

I would have loved to celebrate my fish with the other chaps but I didn't feel it was the time or the place to so. I've been in that position far to many times to mention & trust me it's the last thing you want to do.

So with those thoughts in my mind, I decided it was time to tackle the long drive home. Great to meet new friends & you know what this means chaps ?

We have unfinished business on this canal & we will be back soon.