So Mr. Crabtree decided it would be a good idea to set me a 7 day challenge and, after some discussion, it was decided that I was going to try and catch my first River Carp from my local river – The Arrow.

With a wet and windy week forecast I had to pick my day to actually fish – the other days would be spent finding the fish and pre-baiting for them.

Over about 4 miles of river I could only think of three swims where I had seen carp in the clear summer water, so with little time and not much good weather these were the swims that I returned to for another look.

On visiting my first swim I immediately spotted a small common. The swim looked ideal. The river split into two and a small gravel bed and a channel between some reeds had been created naturally. The carp, some small chub and bream were using the channel to cruise between deep and shallow water.

I decided to take my chance and immediately got a bait in the water. The sun was low, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and my chosen peg was right on top of the fish. I set a standard bolt rig up with a 9 inch braided hook link to a size 8 hook. I crept down to the peg and baited up with a tin of corn, some bread flake and some flavourless pellets. Then I stood well back and after about 10 minutes I had what I wanted – 2 or 3 carp grazing on my feed.

I let them get on with it and added a little more feed.

Once I was happy they were feeding with confidence I dropped in my hook bait, a big cube of luncheon meat.

The water was clear enough for me to see a take but I needed to stay low and out of sight. I have seen these fish in the summer and they are easily spooked. I opted to use a bite alarm and literally lay down by my rod waiting for it to rip off.

I didn’t have to wait long! A few knocks and a screaming run followed by my strike and I had a fish on!

I have caught hundreds of carp out of still waters but let me tell you, a fish that spends 75% of its life swimming against a current has a lot more power than one that doesn’t!

Like most other fighting fish in the river it headed for every possible snag it could. Fortunately with the lilies and weed dying off it didn’t have many places to hide.

A furious battle it was, but a battle that I wasn’t going to lose! After what seemed like half an hour (probably 5 mins in reality) the fish was in my net!

A beautiful 9lb 10oz River Common. I did all the usual, weighed it, photos and after a few minutes of letting it recover it swam off unscathed into the shallows.

I couldn’t resist another cast so I repeated the process that had successfully bagged the common, and again within no time at all a fish was on. This time a cracking little 5lb Mirror Carp.

The light had finally passed and I was one very happy angler. Two fish was enough for me and it was challenge complete at the first try.

Bring on challenge 2 Mr. Crabtree!

—————————————–

About Jimmy

Predominantly a river angler, Jimmy does occasionally dip into stillwaters too.  You can also find him on twitter as @jimmysallis and facebook, and he’ll be here on weekly basis sharing his bankside exploits. Catch up with his other posts here.