06/10/2025 - A day among the carp

My first carp of the session

A Day Among The Carp

It was a delightful October morning when Paul Watts and I arrived at a secluded still water set in the `Sussex countryside, getting out of the car, I immediately noticed how quiet it was with no sound of traffic, the only sound was the bird song. Paul said, "Let's take a walk around the waterside"? A few anglers were fishing most using a pole, I was amazed at the amount of equipment, it was a different scene to my pole fishing days with my 17 foot 6-inch pole with it whale bone tip, even today I have a few trips each season. Eventually we arrived back where we started. I chose to fish at the top end of the lake, while Paul fish some twenty yards from me. Pauls approached was to fish with dog biscuits as bait, using a float controller. I chose to fish bread fake and crust both baits on the surface.

My Tackle Set Up

I chose to fish an 11-foot bamboo carp rod made in 1952 by Sharpes; I matched this with a centre in reel holding about 60 yards of 12lb breaking strain line to which I attached a size 4 Pallatrax barbless hook, this completed my set up.

I then scattered some pieces of crust and flake on the surface to see if the carp were interested. I then put the Jet boiler on for a fresh brew, within a couple of minutes the water was boiling, I then walked down to Paul with his mug of freshly brewed tea, it beats anything from a flask, why not give it a try sometime?

As I sat on the bank listening to the birds, at the same time a Robin appeared, no doubt hoping for some food item, he soon had some breadcrumbs to keep him happy. I also spotted two carp approaching bits of floating bread flake, these were quickly and quietly taken hardly causing any movement on the surface, a bit like a trout taking a dry fly.

In fact, my fishing was a bit like casting a fly but using small bits of flake or crust. I just sat quietly on my seat, then with a Wallis cast I would drop the bait some six inches to a foot in front of a cruising fish causing just a slight ripple. I soon had a fish in the landing net and with an hour IO probably had five carp, one which was a Ghost carp which I had never seen before, it had a light-yellow side with a row of scales along the lateral line. After a couple of hours Paul turned up saying "Can I have some bread" as he was struggling to catch on dog biscuits. I gave him some bread also a packet of size 4 Pallatrax barbless hook.

I then made us a fresh brew. Paul then went back to his swim, where he was soon in business catching some very good carp, in fact a far better average than my fish, his best weighed in at 17 lb 4 ounces. We ended up with Paul catching twelve carp, three very good ones I had fifteen with a smaller average than Paul. All in all, it had been a very enjoyable session also very relaxing.

Paul Watts with his best fish at 17 lb 4 ounces

My swim where I spent all my time.

My first Ghost carp, in fact the first I had ever seen

Back to the News List