Sunday 10 June 2018

Canal Carp


The only way I was going to catch a canal carp was by leaving the lures at home - even faced with a bunch of feeding double figure carp I am distracted by a jack, time and time again!

On Friday afternoon I set out searching the canal for carp. Lures ditched, kit was a size 2 micro barbed hook to 6 foot of invisible 12lb line to my 10lb mainline - even for me this was traveling light.

And I found about a dozen carp spread over about 5 miles. I convinced a couple to take my floating bread, and struck too quickly both times! Then, as the light was failing, I spotted something special...


Saturday morning I was back - and I found her exactly where I left her. And followed her for about half a mile, flicking a piece of bread in front of her - she sniffed it about 6 times before making a mistake!

I can’t describe how hard she fought, tearing up the muddy bottom as I followed along behind, dragging the net along with my foot - then disaster, she went though a roll of wire and was completely snagged...

I was tempted to go in after her - but it was a 12 foot jump down into water that is polluted enough to put me in hospital - I had to trust the micro-barb and waited the longest 2 minutes for her to swim out.


She still made a fight of it but found the net - my first canal carp and my first thirty! Until I put her on the scales, but at 28lb 12oz I couldn’t care less about those 20 ounces - what a beauty!

Massive thanks to a passing Kiran for the photo (after several photos of his thumb). So my PB didn’t last a week, I’ve christened my new net - and James; I’ve temporarily stolen your canal carp crown..!

I didn’t bother to fish on, my day couldn’t get any better - time for a celebratory pint. OK, the stunning topless lady who walked past me on route to the pub was pretty cool. But what a fish!

11 comments:

  1. That is a fabulous fish - well done.

    Any pictures of the topless lady? please! :o)

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    1. Cheers, that was a fight I won’t forget - in fact triple lucky; spotting her, conning her into taking the bait and getting herself out of the snag.

      Should have taken a photo once she had walked passed to prove it happened (had the camera in my pocket).

      Apparently it was national nudist day - fortunately I didn’t know or the photo of me and the carp might have been a photograph nobody wanted to see!

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    2. National Nudist Day? Damn it, I missed out on the march again :o)

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  2. What a special carp, wild as you like and the sort of fish the challenge was borne out of. I hoped they existed, now one for just a little bigger and my canal challenge is complete!

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    1. Feel lucky just to have spotted her. Really not worried it missed the thirty mark - an awesome fish. Want to catch some more now...

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  3. what were you drinking?are you sure it was just the one??well done brian,but i think you should've asked for a selfie! i'm already looking forward to pike blog 10/06/19!

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    1. You can tell you’ve had a great morning’s fishing when a topless lady is the second best thing you’ve seen that day :-)

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  4. I’ve just had a thought - I’ve always liked the fact my biggest UK fish was a pike - this has put some pressure on the pike season!

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  5. one thing for sure-beating pb's only gets tougher.that's why i'm happy to beat them ounces at a time!

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    1. Yeah an eight pound jump in PB makes things a lot harder for myself, but still doable this season... With a bit of luck!

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