Hi I’m Andy and I’m a Carpaholic

So I’ve mentioned before that, with all the dirty weather we’ve had this winter, a bunch of friends have been complaining about how difficult it’s been to get offshore. And that problem’s been driving me round the twist too. But casting about (he he) in frustration for alternatives, I’ve turned to carp. They check all the boxes including hard fighting, available just about everywhere, and pretty much fishable in any and all weather. Only downside being they’re not much on the plate. But seeing as their fillets make fantastic deep drop baits I’m happy to let that one go. Met up with Fitz down at the spot this afternoon with the first job being raking some weeds out, in front of our fishing position:

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Before any fretting greenies get their hemp panties in a twist let me mention that this spot is just downstream from a heavily fertilized property? The pond gets way too much nitrogen and phosphorous, which is why so much of it is choked with weeds. Next development was when a bloke fishing nearby borrowed my landing net. He’d got into into all kinds of trouble trying to bring this giant eel on to the bank:

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It went back in, after Fitz measured it at 1.4 metres:

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Fitz had cleverly brought along some koi carp food. We threw a couple of handfuls in while we got sorted, with the gear. There’s a light current in this backwater meaning the burley scent moves slowly downstream. It wasn’t long until some big fan tails could be seen, breaking the surface. Time to rig up. When I first started carping I used pretty much any old hook, baited with a chunk of bread. Strikes came often, hook ups not so much. Then UK pro carp angler and friend, Roy, sorted me out with a gift pack of carp hooks called Kranks:

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These have a curved shank but are by no means a circle hook. A small ring, and no barb. My hookup rate has gone through the roof, with these puppies. Bait can be bread, corn or worms. Here’s a quick and easy way of making the hair rig, using braid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9-g7f3lD2w

Using a float as you can see, because once the bait gets into the weeds it’s gone forever:

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They were not biting vigorously today but finally one slurped down the bait. It went 7.3 kilos/16 pounds on the digital scales. Check the tail on this thing:

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Getting more into it every time I go. The sign of a big tail or dorsal fin breaking the surface, the scream of the bite alarm as the fish picks up the bait and charges away, and most of all the hard fighting slug fest when the hook sinks home is very addictive indeed. Love my jigging, deep dropping and downrigging, but when seas are up or winds are fresh I’ll be back on the river chasing carp. Cheers, Andy