So what does carp angling mean to you???

noknot

noknot

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Many moons ago and lost in the mist of time I was blessed with the sight of a monster Mirror Carp on the bank!

The monster was 12lbs and not caught by myself! And changed my life to this very day 30 years on!

I would consider myself back then as a pleasure angler, just happy to be on a River bank or a pond and happy with anything daft enough to hook it's self. Then things changed, when in the last week of the "old" closed season my swing tip (remember them?) swung up tight, the culprit was a 3lb Tench and one more on the next cast! I read everything I could find on Tench angling, as I just loved them for their power and beauty!

The next season I just fished for Tench, but the site of that Mirror was burning so much, I just had to catch one! The gear and information was a little different back then, so I devoured every scrap if info available! Carp Fever by Kevin Maddocks became my bible and also showed me that Carp were indeed catchable! The myth was blown away, maybe!

This is where night fishing begins! I lived in Canterbury at the time, and having two small children and earning a modest wage as a butcher I had the trusty bike! Two rods, reels, brollie, sun lounger, bait, tackle, and a sarnie and a bottle of pop and I was off to catch Leviathan! Oh lots of pedal power to reach my selected water four miles away!

First rod set up and cast to an island margin, placed on the antenna buzzer, just setting up the second rod and Buuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, I could not believe it! But the "churning" Mitchell reel showed I was in! My first ever Carp run! I hooked the fish for a second before the rod sprang back!

There was a wind knot in the Dacron hook link, Gutted!!! This small 4.5 acre pit contained twelve Carp! That was all the action as the winter was far too cold.

The next season:

I was invited to fish for a week by a friend with two of his friends, a big pond with a caravan site next to it, how could I resist? So off we go! We arrived at the caravan site, and then I was greeted by the site of the most amazing Carp water I have ever seen to this day! This was no Redmire pool, But huge, around 90 acres! The water was crystal clear, the bottom could be seen in six ft of water! And solid with pond weed!

We had no idea what this pond held, but I did not care, I was a "Carp angler" and Carp I will fish for!
That question was answered the next day, as I sat in my swim watching a Dolphin display with 30lb+ Carp leaping full out of the water!

That day I hooked and lost two big Carp! I was a "Noddy" leave it at that! However I used my eyes, and spotted a good fish feeding on a small gravel hump on the right of my swim! So that afternoon the swim was raked and baited for the night!

I forget the exact time but around 3am the buzzer buzzed, and then the reel started to spin! A doer fight an she was in the net!!! Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssss! I ran back to the Caravan and woke my friends, not easy as they had had a drinkypoo's! Back at the water my prize and very first ever Carp was a 17lbs Mirror!

At that time it was the biggest fish I had ever seen on the bank and was stunning! I might just add that the water is the hardest water I have ever fished, as I was to find out a few years latter! I had twelve consecutive 72hrs blanks!

So what does Carp angling mean to me? Well lots of things! To wake at 4am to a flat calm water, to watch the mist spiraling above the Lilly pads, to watch Fox cubs rolling down the bank, to watch Monsters swimming in the clear shallows, the expectation and the solitude, the first bleep, then the take! To hold one of the most awesome fish that swims!

Lastly to have been honored to have met an befriended some wonderful people along the way, It's just that Carp angling is in my blood.
NK.

The pond:
Thepond.jpg
 
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Tilman Bieselt

Tilman Bieselt

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What makes carp one of the most exciting fish to catch ?

I still wonder about that one ... I must say, that i have caught more carp in the last two years than in my whole previous lifetime. The exact count would be somewhere in the 160+ region. Only a few lonesome doubles among them with two twenties (the "bigger" one of them a mid twenty). And last year i really had enough of carp for a good period. In the start of December i had one last winter session (3 hours) with 7 carp on the bank. December last year seems very far back now, after this long abstinence ...

They grow big, that is one thing that is amazing. They can be very tricky to catch, which is sometimes a blessing and sometimes a curse ... They are different to predators.
You have to keep on thinking to catch them on a regular basis. That keeps carp fishing interesting for me.

They happen to have a very special smell, which is very different to all other species and which i quite like (take a net, where you have landed some bream with, for example ... Juck !).

... The methods you can use to fish for carp are endless, which is another plus. I like to catch them with the float as well as with the bolt rig, on floaters, with the method feeder, etc ... (freelined).

They eat the whole range of baits, which sometimes makes it difficult to choose the right one, but can be an advantage for the open minded angler ... (when a certain bait doesn´t work anymore on a particular water, you can just choose another one ...)


Well, that´s it, for now. (How i got addicted to carp fishing is written down somewhere here, i know. I may copy this into this thread, if needed)
 
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tinca taker

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Hi notnok,great story! just wondering where the picture is from? it looks like one of those listening devises they used during the second world war on the south coast?
 
Tilman Bieselt

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noknot said:
Great post Tilman,

I believe we will be great friends for a long time! Thank you!:w
Click to expand...

Cheers, mate ! No problem, i just did a little bit of brain storming.

Did i mention that it sometimes sends me shivers down my spine when i release them ? They are majestic creatures. I know that not everyone fishes for carp but i can´t really recollect meeting someone, who "hated" carp. Carp will remain a little mysterious to even the best Carp Angler.

What i think as well is that if you get to know this species well, you will be able to fish for at least every non-predatory species "very good".

And i don´t know about you, but it´s really exciting when you sit there in the Quiet of the night (or day), dreamily, and then, all of a sudden, you get a screaming take ... Those takes are so electrifying, even without bite alarms (can you imagine, i sometimes even turn them off in the day ?).

There are so many different types of carp around, which is amazing as well. There are specific characteristics, which every carp has in common with its´family, but they are all unique. You can tell most carp apart without looking hard. That is another stroke of genius, i think.

(And there are still at least 3 carp left in my club water that i have yet failed to land ... In know you want to hear it ... There is a big Koi in there, a red/black one, one white Koi and one Carp, that i lost and don´t think i have landed before or afterwards ..)
 
O

Old Nick

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Its a bit like war - hours of boredom for that momentary gut wrenching adrenalin rush! an amazing and intense experience!

I gave up carp fishing about 10 or so years ago when it all became very formulaic, sweet home made boilies on a helicopter rig, sit and wait, and (on my club waters of the time) along came a carp usually the first at 10/11 pm and another 6/7am - having done this for several years and then branching out into the various Kent pits (Larkfield, Darenth, etc) when I couldn't invest the time for sit and wait tactics sold all my kit, simplified my approach, started real pleasure fishing, and learning far more watercraft so that now I can get just as much pleasure regardless of what I catch.

Have just started targeting carp again, with much shorter sessions and more proactive tactics - maybe fewer fish on the bank in total but more productive per hour!

Carp - they take over your life if your not careful!
 
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Stealph Viper

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Carp Fishing for me -:

Well it was a Love / Hate relationship for me personally.

At first i loved it, then i grew to hate it, the hours of boredom, loneliness, etc etc, really ruined Carp Fishing for me, the crappy Carp puddles with poor qulaity fish in them, really did it for me in the end.

Anyway, all is not lost and all doom and gloom, i loved stalking the Margins for Carp, with different techniques, ledgering, Float and free lining, that really did excite me, setting the traps and watching and waiting for that bite, that for me was what made Carp fishing great.

I do concede, i may well have felt differently if i had had regular mates to go fishing with.

Would i take up Carp fishing again now, Yes i think i would, but i would approach it totally differently, i would certainly have it in my fishing armoury, but it wouldn't be my only weapon.

Why did Carp fishing become such a Torment to me ?

I though about this for several years, i feel that for me personally, i tried to incorporate Long Stay Carp Fishing in to Short Stay Sessions, by this i mean, i wanted to have all the gear and try all the techniques and to catch all the great looking fish, however i had that one Flaw in my Plan. I didn't have the Money available to me, i didn't have the time available to me and i wasn't fishing the right waters, also, i didn't have the knowledge or experience to adapt quickly enough to compensate for this.
Inevitably i ended up spending more money than i had, and buying more tackle, and bait, than i needed, but hey at least i looked the part .............. :wh
 
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Tilman Bieselt

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Yes, carp fishing is addictive, that´s for sure. I still buy gear in the winter (when i can´t get to the bank and when i have any money left). It´s not that i "need" ALL that tackle, but maybe i am being a bit of a perfectionist ...


I have to add the "When i started carp fishing" story here:

These are the late 80ies i am writing about ...

Boilies were already known at the time i started carp fishing, but there were few (MUCH fewer) choices that you could make. I was a real dedicated Angler at the time and took the bus to the river Rhine even in winter, driving with my Umbrella and match seat (the aluminum/wooden type) and Feeder fishing while snow fell and my rod tip froze, being happy and catching quite a few bream. I was the first one in our club to use feeder methods (although not using a feeder rod, but a very tough match rod).

There were occasions when i was lucky and hooked a carp on the Rhine river and those little beasts amazed me for their fighting power. I even took one of them home, put it in the tub and then decided to set it free in the city pond ... (i bet my parents will remember that one as well)

My carp catches were real coincidences and that only changed when i joined a club water, which regularly stocked carp.
I read every article i could grab about the hair rig and boilies including their history after fishing for carp with a match rod and breadflake or paste ...

I had reasonable success with bought boilies but the carp just didn´t get any bigger, so i had to change something. I went fishing on the Rhine river again and met two really helpful carp-anglers. They showed me how to tie a hair rig (I don´t remember if i had met them before i started with the boilies in the club water, or after, but i suppose i met them before, because i tied my hooklinks myself as long as i fish for carp)

It was a sliding hair rig, which i just have to tie again and show you, for old times sake. The idea was to have a hair which you could change the length of in no time, because the boilies were hand rolled and they weren´t all of the same size.

Those two guys gave me an idea of where to feed and fish and how much and when to start in the year. So it was in the end of April in 94 when i first hooked a "big one" ... The picture is in my gallery, it´s the red bellied mirror ... That was my first attempt and i came back a few days later for a blank and then again for the silver Wildy, which really made me sweat. It maybe my strongest carp up to date, because it was a real river carp. It was just too amazing.

After that i had a real long break, due to my work as a fishing guide in norway (which was too good to be true and i just couldn´t get around to fishing in germany again for a few years) and other things that were more important at the time..

I started again about ten years ago on the Rhine river after i had moved, but i couldn´t get any carp, so i started with bream fishing again and soon got fed up with it. Then i met a carp angler from my region and he put me on a water i could fish on a year ticket basis. I had two years of fishing there. I was really new to fishing lakes and had to rethink all of my tactics and now am happily fishing in a little pool that doesn´t contain really big carp, but i can fish comfortably and mostly by myself. My fishing mate and me have caught almost all of the carp in there and we have really witnessed how the carps get "smarter" over the years (it´s two years now). It was almost a pity how easy (for us) it was to catch them. Now we have to change our approaches and baits more regularly ...

I now know that it´s true: 2% of the Anglers catch 98% of the fish ... I am glad that i am one of the two percent (The carp can be glad as well, because catch and release isn´t really a common thing among Anglers over here, Carp Anglers aside)

Ok, there you are ! I dunnit ! :D
 
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Stealph Viper

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This is like one of them Correction Programs.

Hi everybody, my name is Stealph Viper and i am a Carp Addict ............... :D

Well i'm not anymore, i am a reformed Addict.
 
Q

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Stealph Viper said:
Carp Fishing for me -:

Well it was a Love / Hate relationship for me personally.

At first i loved it, then i grew to hate it, the hours of boredom, loneliness, etc etc, really ruined Carp Fishing for me, the crappy Carp puddles with poor qulaity fish in them, really did it for me in the end.

Anyway, all is not lost and all doom and gloom, i loved stalking the Margins for Carp, with different techniques, ledgering, Float and free lining, that really did excite me, setting the traps and watching and waiting for that bite, that for me was what made Carp fishing great.

I do concede, i may well have felt differently if i had had regular mates to go fishing with.

Would i take up Carp fishing again now, Yes i think i would, but i would approach it totally differently, i would certainly have it in my fishing armoury, but it wouldn't be my only weapon.

Why did Carp fishing become such a Torment to me ?

I though about this for several years, i feel that for me personally, i tried to incorporate Long Stay Carp Fishing in to Short Stay Sessions, by this i mean, i wanted to have all the gear and try all the techniques and to catch all the great looking fish, however i had that one Flaw in my Plan. I didn't have the Money available to me, i didn't have the time available to me and i wasn't fishing the right waters, also, i didn't have the knowledge or experience to adapt quickly enough to compensate for this.
Inevitably i ended up spending more money than i had, and buying more tackle, and bait, than i needed, but hey at least i looked the part .............. :wh
Click to expand...

You could have written that for me. The only difference is I still give in and have a go for them on the canal and rarely the local commercial mud hole.
 
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