link. Bait on one rod was a micro

Being on the inside of a bend, there was little flow where I intended positioning the baits, so I felt I could get away with a relatively short hook-link. Bait on one rod was a micro-waved Hi-Nu-Val boilie which was about as buoyant as a pingpong ball, and which I used because they make good pop-ups and last a long time in the water; also because I knew the chub would be using that bait as a punch ball all night long. This was fished straight off the lead, and on the other rods, I mean rod, I fished maize. All baits were fished over considerable helpings of hemp and maize. One bait was cast parallel to the bank and some 40 yards downstream into the vicinity of the wasp’s nest, a tricky cast owing to overhanging trees and bushes. The other was dropped into the margins, and I mean the margins, some 6 inches from the bank. I figured that anyone else fishing this swim would fish at least a rod length out, so had dropped the nearer pre-baits right in the edge, where it was quite deep. It all looked a bit daft really, the rods set almost parallel to the bank, one with the tip bent down, and the line descending almost vertically to the lead. However, there was little space to do anything else, and I hoped that either the carp found the features in this swim as attractive as I thought they would, or they had homed in on the free offerings. As dusk turned slowly to darkness, and the boat traffic quietened, I was surprised at the number of big fish rolling all over the river. Most of them would probably have been chub, but knowing how difficult the matchmen can find it to fill a net in this area, I was surprised there were so many of them. An hour into dark, and a single beep on the right hand rod turned into a screaming run, the fish going straight downstream under some overhanging trees. I picked the rod up and hit it – nothing. That was odd – this rod actually had a 4 ounce lead on it, one I had been fishing on the gravel pit and hadn’t bothered to change. The fish had towed it 20 yards downstream without managing to hook itself. I thought it was unlikely to have been a chub, and indeed, subsequent experiences with quite a few chub showed that they didn’t actually run on these set-ups – they just kept pulling until they either got fed up and went away, or slipped up and hooked themselves in which case the pulling became more persistent. But they never once gave a run. Hmmm! One chance gone. Half past three in the morning – what an unearthly hour – and a continuous bleep from the left hand rod had me off the bed-chair and into a fish. It was immediately obvious it was a carp, and I had to play it fairly hard to stop it going upstream where lurked a big bed of submerged water-lilies. Deep water close in favoured me and prevented the fish from running too far and soon I was lifting out my first Thames carp, a lovely linear of 13.5lbs. My wife was due to bring the kids down at 9 a.m, so I popped him into a sack for photographing in the morning. Barely it seemed had I sorted out the chaos that ensues from landing a carp and returned to the bed-chair when the other rod was off again. Yet once again, the strike brought no response. Odd that, though I’m convinced it was a carp. I recast, and tried to go back to sleep, though I found this difficult as it was nearly light, and I find it hard to keep my eyes closed in daylight when there are so many interesting sounds to investigate. At 9 a.m. my wife arrived as arranged, and after several stop-start efforts due to boats appearing just as I held up the fish, we photographed the carp before packing up. Three runs in a night – this was definitely the spot. I would return. Three days later I went back, intending to fish from around 9 p.m. to 7.30 a.m., when I would have to pack up and go to work. Bloody nuisance that, isn’t it! Not a nice night this one, cold wet and windy, and the carp expressed their contempt by not showing up at all, though I did catch four chub which got stuck on the hooks. The only other event of note was that a rat chewed a hole in my landing net. I wonder why he wanted to do that? Friday night came round at last, and in the meantime, several large helpings of maize had been dropped in the swim. This time I took one of the boys with me, Allan, my seven year old son. He was terribly excited about staying out all night, and having his breakfast on the river-bank. Well, he would be wouldn’t he – I was too. This was another warm calm night, and after several twitches the chub died down making way for a proper run at 1 a.m. A big carp this one, and it took me ages to get him over the net. I weighed him straight away at 19lbs 5oz, then sacked him up for morning photos. I told young Allan about it, but he didn’t seem overly impressed – I don’t think he knew where he was! Which is one of the reasons I had positioned my bedchair between him and the river! At 4 a.m. I had one of the self-hooking chub, which I didn’t weigh, and then at 6 a.m., of all things, a tench of about 3lbs! On seeing this, Allan decided to do some float fishing, and in the next hour caught a chub of 1lb 12oz, his first, and a bream of 3lbs 6oz, of which he was rightly proud. At 9 a.m., Gill arrived, and after photographing the fish (which was a bit of a disaster, as you can see, the flash on my all singing-dancing and very expensive auto-everything Minolta deciding to play silly buggers yet again) we packed up. Wednesday night and I was back again for a ten hour session (if you can call that a session!). Another nasty night, very cold, wet and windy. At 10.30 p.m. I had another terrific run, and hooked into a big fish which I couldn’t prevent from getting into the submerged lilies upstream. After a bit of pulling from both ends, the hook came out, and I retrieved a large lily pad instead of a carp. No consolation at all. All quiet then until 4.30 a.m. when another self-hooking chub arrived, followed by two more before it got light. As usual, dawn seemed to stop everything, and when I packed up at 7.30 a.m. I had had no further action. So that was my five nights on the Thames, which produced five runs, three carp hooked, two landed together with assorted chub and a tench. I never returned that summer, for once the algae cleared from the gravel pit I felt I had to be back there, particularly as the future of the fishing there was uncertain and I knew I may not get many more opportunities. But I shall return to the river in time, perhaps when I have run out of these silly gravel pits I insist on wasting (?) so much time on. In the meantime, perhaps a summary of what I learned from these escapades. First, bait. Well, I hooked three fish on maize, and the two runs with which I failed to connect were on the pop-up boilies. You can draw your own conclusions from that (if any). I don’t think it’s worth getting complicated with bait for these fish, though if you do decide to use boilies, then remember in some cases, round ones may roll away! No need to go overboard on rigs either – side-hooking or fairly standard hairs should suffice, though I wouldn’t think it a good idea to fish fine hairs with all the other fish about – if it’s not chub in your area, then there are bound to be bream. Use whatever hooks you like – I used Drennan Starpoints and Drennan boilie hooks, both of which I like very much. Softish through action rods are ideal, and I used Graham Phillips 2lb t.c. kevlars which I’ve had for years, though since trying out the lighter versions of the Bruce & Walker Hexagraphs, I am of the opinion that these would be superb rods for river carp in 1.5lb t.c. or thereabouts. Traditionalists will love the cane coloured Hexagraphs which offer some of the aesthetics of cane together with the advantages of advanced rod making materials. You’ll be amazed at what these rods can do. Reels; I left the Shimanos on the gravel pit rods, and fished with DAM CDS 350’s which are O.K for this sort of work, and are cheap enough, though the bait runner mechanism is a bit fiddly to engage when the rod is in the rest, and the bait runner mechanism does not work with the anti reverse off, whatever you may read in the adverts! Line as always was 12lb Trilene Big Game – you can’t beat it! If you are fishing much more than a rod-length from the bank, be sure to take back-leads, as you will often find boat traffic moving along the river well into darkness. Most of the action came at night, though I only fished about an hour before dark, and then two or three hours after dawn. I never had any action after dawn, and the river certainly had that dead feel about it once it got properly light. I don’t know if there would have been any benefit in staying later, but then, as on many areas of the Thames, the boat traffic would have been a problem. Location – well, yes you will find carp in the back waters, but you will also find them out in the main flow. They can turn up almost anywhere, but, like most carp, they do like cover. On the Thames that is as likely to be provided by an overhanging crane as a luxuriant weeping willow, which won’t suit the romantics at all! Never mind, just keep it out of the photos!

So there you are – I’m not a Thames carp expert, but for what it’s worth, that’s the experiences and thoughts of a beginner to this river carp game, formed over four or five nights fishing for Thames carp. I had some action, caught a couple of nice fish, so I must have done something right!