Chris Yates and I arranged a days fishing meeting at 9am in Shaftesbury for a day in pursuit of crucian carp, the indigenous carp species in the UK, and Chris's preen favourite species
Chris took me along the lanes to a little pool that held nice sized fish ideal for float fishing. I was put into the "hot" hole where most of the fish are caught adjacent to lily pads. I was also told that nearly everyone used pellet and the fish seemed to be getting wise to it, so try something else. Chris was using maggot, whereas I tried corn, one of my trusted baits.
As I settled in, the sun was rising in a clear sky and we thought the fishing would probably be near impossible until dusk. I had no touches in a couple of hours. Chris dragged his swim with a rake and roved around the lake as it settled, then deciding we really needed a cup of tea.
Chris got out his Eydon storm kettle and water, I got out the fruit cake and hobnobs as we prepared to have a proper 11'sis. As the kettle came to the boil, and I had turned from my rod, my float slid away; I was too slow to react. Recasting, the float had just settled, and I waited in case the fish returned for another go, which it did just a few moments later sliding away. After a battle keeping the fish out of the lily pads with the B James Avocet (which proved an ideal rod for the job), I was rewarded with a fish of 2lb 2oz. A beautiful crucian and my personal best too. What a way to break a 40 year gap in catching this species.
I recast and had another bite bumping off the fish and then had another one come off at the net. It was just as if the fish were aroused by the smoke of burning elder in the kettle. After losing the fish, the swim went quiet and we both returned to our fishing in earnest. Chris had a couple of rudd, one very attractive fish but no more crucian despite the patches of bubbles breaking the surface and the lily pads moving. They clearly were being very cautious.
Lunch time came around and it was time for another cuppa. The same thing happened again, Chris was making the tea and I caught another crucian, this time a bit smaller at 1lb 10oz, and then had the hook pull out of what looked the best fish of the day. Again everything went quiet. Chris joined me in my swim as it appeared the best and again, no action.
It did give us a few hours to talk about butterflies, birds, model making - we both used to build model planes - whether whole cane butt sections were better than split cane sections, should centre pins have spokes and how wide should he drums be - all the critically important issues of the day until we both had talked ourselves dry and needed another cuppa.
We joked that this would result in another fish - and sure enough I had another crucian of 1lb 12oz; unbelievable.
As the light fell we expected the sport to pick up, but it just went quiet.
Peter Wheat, another angling hero turned up with his wife and they were going to fish through the night to get the best of the early morning sport. After a short time, we realised that this evening was going to be quiet, and vacated the swim, which was Peter's favourite and made our way home.
This was a true red-letter day for me fishing with a friend and hero, Chris Yates; catching three nice crucian after all those years and a personal best to boot in a beautiful place, on a nice day, and meeting Peter Wheat too. What could be better. The memory will long remain with me.