The Simple Things are Best (an epiphany)

It’s a funny thing carp fishing, all the dreaming anticipation and excitement experienced in the days preceding  a session can be forgotten in a matter of minutes upon arrival at the chosen venue, leaving you feeling down-hearted and despondent for the next few hours. This is how it has been for me until recently, my drive, passion and enthusiasm for the sport I’ve loved for 35 years has just not been there whilst on the bank. The mad thing is that whilst at work, home or even driving the van back home from an unfruitful session my mind is swimming with all things carp and I cannot wait until Friday night when I get my next weekly overnighter.

The thing that’s been my saviour has been a different approach to what I want to achieve and how I go about achieving it. By this I mean fish the waters I want to fish not just the ones with hard to catch whackers in it and try and remember back to my early days of carp fishing where simplicity was the key, hair rigs, groundbait and floater fishing. I realised I spent far too much time trying to tie the next “wonder rig” or create the greatest spod mix ever (RRP £40!) without actually remembering that it is only fishing and not a life or death situation.

Never forget how it all started

Now I know that some of you have just started swearing at you screens calling me all the names under the sun because to you it is your life which is your choice but I’d put money on you realising one day that it is just fishing and that your families and work out-weigh it a million to one. If you want proof of this, if you have children take them float fishing with maggots and watch the absolute look of joy and wonder on their faces when they catch their first fish, no matter how small, it sums up how we as fully fledged adult carp anglers should feel every time we catch a fish (yes even bream!). How often have we caught a “nuisance” fish without even taking the time to admire its own individual beauty and sit back with a sense of pride that we caught it? We are always too eager to get them back in the water so we can cast out again in an attempt to catch its big brother when what we should be doing is enjoying every moment of the experience.

My own personal epiphany came to me purely by mistake (does anyone ever plan an epiphany?) when all my usual lakes were closed due to the carp doing jiggy jiggy so I ended up on a lake where I started my carp fishing journey all those years ago, Badshot Lea in Aldershot, a lake I have fished man and boy but have chosen to ignore for a few years because I had other fishing distractions.

I had been reliably informed that the carp had got their annual ritual over and done with (romantic) and were probably looking for a bite to eat after their exertions (not unlike me to be honest.) I walked round the lake, it was Sunday night a rarity for me but I had the Monday off work so took my opportunity and found the lake to be almost empty. Carp where moving all over the lake but were showing over one area in particular, which from memory was a nice gravel area about 50 yards out. I collected my gear from the van and carted it down to the waters edge, the fish were now giving a nice aerial display so I opted to fish one zig and one solid bag in a hope that I might nick a bite without creating too much disturbance. Despite all my well laid plans no bites were forthcoming so after a couple of hours sitting on my hands I thought that I should investigate the swim further. I attached a lead to my spod rod and had feel around, sure enough the gravel area that I had remembered was at 48 yards out and was nice and clean, so that was my area to fish. A simple mix of hemp, sweetcorn and pellet was made up and then about 20 spombfuls were deposited in the area and two snowman, blowback rigs were fished on top. All went quiet, the dreaded feeling of doubt started creeping in, had I scared them all off with the spomb? I sat cursing to myself and thinking about taking up needlecraft when for some unknown reason I reeled in both rods tied up two simple, basic hair rigs, no shrink tubing or anything  just a hook and hooklink and place them into solid bags with just pellet and dry Sonubaits bloodworm groundbait.

I added some of the groundbait to the spod mix as well and put out another dozen spombfuls over the freshly cast pva bags. Within 10 minutes the right rod was away, a pretty, low double mirror was duly netted, I took a quick mat pic and slipped her back into the surprisingly warm water. Being a bit chuffed with myself I celebrated with a couple of cheese toasties and a cup of tea. I was just finishing my tea when the left rod was away, this time it was an extremely angry mid-double common that gave me a great tussle.

The smile says it all

By now both rods were constantly chirping away with line bites and every now and then one would burst off signalling a take. I even reeled one rod in and fished the remaining rod on its own through the night, ending up with 7 takes with 6 landed, no sleep but overjoyed that I felt I had my mojo back, all because I decided to keep it simple, the last fish coming as I was packing away at 7am with the rod laying on the floor. It was all such a wake-up call for me (a bit ironic as I was knackered from no sleep) simple rigs, simple bait, simple angler (!?) and an approach that I am certainly going to be adopting in my angling in the future. I hadn’t caught anything over 15lb but I was ecstatic with my results, just what I needed to boost my confidence and enthusiasm for the coming months a real tonic for the system.

Cheers,

Poults