After doing a few jobs around the house in the morning, the sun came out so I decided to head to Darracott Reservoir for a few hours fishing in the afternoon. With the usual cane rod and centre pin, I set up a float rig slightly overshotted to keep the bait on the bottom, with a grain of corn on a size 10 hook on 4lb line. I don't fish any lighter because there is a good chance of hooking a carp and any lighter wouldn't be fair to the fish, and so it proved. First cast, I caught my target species, a small roach followed by four more over the next hour to about 6oz. Then I struck and met solid resistance before the fish headed out and down into the middle of the reservoir, a sure sign of a carp. It eventually came in several minutes later, and was an old friend I catch most years. This time it weighed in at 14lb. After a priod of inactivity, the roach came back onto the feed and I caught 3 more of similar size before the wind started to pick up. I was fishing so sensitively that this caused the float to dip making bite detection difficult. A change to small piece of spam normally results in slower bites, and true to form, I had a couple of bream about 2lb and then hit into another carp. This fish gave me the best fight I have had from a carp in years. Every time I gained a few yards, off it went again. It seemed about 15 minutes later (but was probably less) I brought the fish to the surface expecting to see a monster, only to see a long thin 12lb mirror carp. The photo shows why the fight was so good, with athletic proportions for a carp and a large tail, it was more like a wildie than the current fat lumps we all see in photos.
After all the disruption, I decided to call it a night at about 6 o'clock as the light faded. After the snow of the previous week, the sport exceeded expectations, but I wonder if boillie anglers with bolt rigs would have detected such fine bites which I find are the norm for this time of year. Float tackle is an under-appreciated method of fishing, and seeing the float disappear always makes the heart race.
As a foot note to this piece, I went up again a couple of days later and fished in the shallower water following a warm spell, thinking that the fish would move up there. Nothing seemed to be happening, carp anglers were there with no fish, but in three hours, I caught 5 carp, one 6lb and all the rest between 10lb and 14lb, had two more shed the hook, and managed a roach bream and rudd.
I think that if carp anglers tried different methods for differing conditions, they would be far more successful rather than the mindless three rod set up wanging it into the middle and showering the bottom with boillies that we see so often. Here endeth the lesson from Victor Meldrew for today!