I really do hope I’m wrong.

He had brought me to this stretch in the winter a couple of years ago, then we had fished the opposite bank. I thought it strange that we had to fight our way through tangled undergrowth when the other bank had a clear path and so asked him what the difference was. He told me “£185”. It seems that the other bank is run by a club which charges 200 quid a year but this bank was available from a local syndicate for only £15. It pays to shop around I guess.Our last trip together had us concentrating on barbel. It had been, as this was to be, a short session where I was generously given the ‘prime barbel swim’ with Bill just twenty feet upstream. If my memory serves me correctly, I had two bites in the four or so hours we were there, resulting in two fish. One was around the 8lb mark and the other topped 12lb. Neither unfortunately were barbel. Both were fat mirror carp which fought like hell.This day we had a late start, arriving at around 11am. The river was high and only just within it’s banks, a swirling chocolate milkshake of a river. Bill chose a swim and, for social reasons alone, I slipped in to the next one downstream. It was very tight. Overhung with trees on both sides with trailing branches forming rafts of flotsam on either side. It was a one-rod swim and anything hooked would need a hook n’hold approach to keep it out of the terrible snags on either side. I introduced some free samples and dropped my hookbait just a foot out from the bank where I hoped to find some slacker water.I’ll be honest. I was not fully confident fishing in this spot. The path was at 45 degrees, slippery with wet mud and it was uncomfortable. That I could easily stand but my problem was one of itchy feet. Just thirty foot downstream I had spotted a two-rod swim, with an eddy right in front of it. If Mr Crabtree was to be believed, this is where most of the fish would be. Anticipating a move in the very near future (i.e. before Billy saw it) I started to tackle up a second rod. Most of this I could do whilst in my low-chair, but to thread the tip-section meant standing up and following the rod. Of course that’s when it happened. While I was concentrating on threading the second rod, the first one was away! I heard the baitrunner screaming and turned to see the rod tip performing a beautiful curve down toward the water. Bugger! Dropping the rod I was holding, I launched myself down the dangerous slippery path and grabbed the bucking rod. Yes! It was still on! The powerful wrenches on the rod tip however were going in a different direction from the fish, which was now crashing out of the water on the far side of the downstream tree. It had run me around a snag and was now going for broke. It succeeded, but not before I managed to get a good look at it. A pink and orange mirror carp in the 8 to 12lb range. Hmm. I reeled in the slack line to find Billy behind me holding the net and looking sympathetic.That was it. I moved swims. In the two-rod swim I felt much more confident. Although there were bad snags here too, the gap between them was big enough to comfortably accommodate two rods and would allow me to play a fish without needing a knitting pattern. The weather so far had been perfect. Cloudy and grey but not at all cold and the odd knock on the rod tip told of fish in the swim. Line bites, I thought. ‘Crayfish’ said Bill. Oh.The bite came, as always, when I was least prepared for it. I had thought, by neglecting to bring a flask with me, that my chances of this happening would improve. It wasn’t a flask that caused the problem this time. It was the other, plumbing, thing. Short of having a colostomy bag fitted, there was no way I could have hit that bite!I was ready for the next one though and made no mistakes. A thumping fighter of a small barbel entered the net to provide me with my first fish of the millennium. Sadly it was also the only fish of the day. Within minutes of the barbel’s capture, the sky cleared and the sun shone through brightly. Despite this, I did manage a couple of more bites, one whilst casting out the other rod (Grr!) and the other which I was ready for and struck into. This was a heavy, fast fish but of which species I couldn’t tell, the hook pulled within the first minute.I would like to think that it was a barbel but it was in all probability a carp. Carp in the River Kennet are reaching epidemic levels and one does not need to be a genius to see which way the wind is blowing. This fish, which was such a rare sight in my youth, is now becoming a pest. Okay, on a quiet day it is a welcome pest at the moment, but in years to come I don’t think we will see it that way. Back in the early ’50’s, the then young Richard Walker predicted that river fishing was in decline and that the future of angling was to be found in stillwaters. We all know that was correct and that the reasons were those of pollution, abstraction, canalisation etc etc. Now as the new century begins I’ll make my own prediction. In recent years, thanks to general awareness of the problems, we have seen the rivers coming back to life a little. But for how long? With carp now present in most of the Thames tributaries, and the populations of the Kennet, Wey and Mole prospering, I predict that it won’t be long before they join up with, and boost, the Thames carp population. This will no doubt be good for the carp fishing industry, as the river carp don’t seem to feel the need to stop feeding in cold weather. Within a few years carp will become a sought-after winter species. River carp fishing in cold weather will eventually become as popular as still-water carp fishing is in the warmer weather. Carp anglers will move off the lakes when the runs stop and invade the riverbanks in search of winter sport. Don’t believe me? It’s already starting to happen. A bivvy on a riverbank is not so uncommon these days. The carp problem is endemic. And it is a problem. The losers will be the other species. My fear is that the carp will compete for the food of the traditional river species and that we could end up with the same situation that Australia endures, and that parts of the USA is threatened with. Where the carp is considered a pest, where it has virtually wiped out several of the indigenous species by competing for food and by wiping out other species spawning areas in search of food. Where a hero has become a villain.

I really do hope I’m wrong.