When I eventually left school in 1988 (eighteen years ago!) & started work, I started to spend some of my early wage packets on a two rod set-up. It was frighteningly basic! From memory, I had two Sundridge 'Turbo' 1.75lb TC rods, two Sundridge rear drag reels, two 'hi-tone' Optonics, 12lb Maxima main line & I didn't even have a chair, I had to sit on my coat on the floor! My first sessions were totally fruitless, as I really was just finding my feet. I was aware that the other guys, Dave Edwards, Dave Williams, Royston Butwell, Wayne Dunn, Lee Evans, Stu Lines, Micky Eagles & Les Bowd were catching odd fish, & was dying to glean as much information as possible. I hooked my first fish after a night session at Clayhanger. I borrowed my parents camp-bed, & spent the night under my 45" brolly & thin sleeping bag one autumn night. I woke early in the morning because I was freezing, & had zipped the sleeping bag right to the top. Out of the blue, my left hand rod, on a side hooked Richworth 'tutti-fruitti' absolutely flew off, & I couldn't get out of my sleeping bag! When I eventually did get to the rod, it was buried solid in the weed. After a bit of pulling, the rig eventually came back, complete with a straightened out size six Drennan Super Specialist hook! Although I was gutted at losing the fish, I was pleased that at least I knew that I was in the right places to get pick-ups.

Dave Edwards became my closest source of information, & from him I learned most of my carp fishing knowledge. He introduced me to the three inch bolt rig, big leads, line sinkers (back leads), peanuts & pop-ups! I slowly but surely started to notch up a few captures, even though most of these fish were no bigger than low doubles, these early lessons were extremely important. I started to move further afield from Clayhanger (which was easy for me to fish, as I lived about half a mile away), & I paid a lot of attention to an area we referred to as 'Tesco arm', at Brownhills. Here, the 'arm' was a small cut-off from the main canal that was no more than three feet deep, & twenty feet wide & was heavily overgrown. Although most of it was unfishable, because of the trees, it provided us with some great positions to watch the carp closely, so we could study how they behaved.

 2nd capture of 'The Leather' @ 20lb+

 'The 18' @ 17lb 12oz from 'the anchor'

 17lb 10oz from 'tesco bend'

 A 13lb 10oz Common from 'the apex'

During the summer of 2008, I made a few visits to an area of the canal in an attempt to stalk a fish known as ‘three scale’. I believe this fish was first caught by my mate Dave Edwards some time during the early eighties at around 10lb & I last caught this fish at a weight of 18lb 12oz from Aldridge marina in 2002 & it certainly looked as if it was now over the 20lb mark. Unfortunately, I only had one real chance to hook it on a floating bait due to the blustery conditions on the day. I opted to fish a hastily arranged night session in the area, knowing that there were only two carp in the stretch. The take came in the early hours of the morning & it turned out to be the other fish that I’d spotted – a small common. I found ‘three scale’ the following day, where it had located to another nearby stretch. During two evening stalking sessions, I caught two fish whilst trying to snare it – both double figure commons! 'Three scale', along with another couple of known fish (one of them being a good upper-double ghostie) are still on my hit list, but unfortunately, my canal fishing is limited to just a handful of opportunistic sessions per season, due to the already limited fishing time I have available being spent targeting bigger venues. 

  A surface caught double-figure Common

With the weather turning markedly warmer during early May 2009, I was able to sneak a few stalking sessions in, here & there on one or two local stretches. Frustratingly, I’d been unable to locate any decent fish & had only succeeded in catching a couple of small commons – more by accident than design. June subsequently arrived on the back of two weeks of very hot weather & this triggered the carp into spawning activity which lasted for a few days, further increasing my frustration! However, after lots of walking & looking I eventually managed to find & bank my first, half decent fish of the summer. 

As my evening stalking sessions were limited to no more than just a couple of hours, the need to locate fish & get them feeding as soon as practically possible was extremely important. By keeping a close eye on just a couple of local stretches that I felt would yield the better fish, in most cases I was able to segregate the smaller fish from the decent ones. On one evening, I turned up to find a good breeze blowing along the stretch & I was surprised to find hardly any carp there at all… Out of desperation I followed the floaters that had drifted into the next stretch to find three fish taking the occasional one or two. Luckily the smallest of the group was happily slurping the floaters down on its own, well away from the two better fish – a common & a mirror, both upper doubles. Although the mirror managed to avoid the hookbait on several occasions, the common eventually made its mistake after a very delicate take. At 18lb 10oz, I also realised that this was my biggest canal common to date.

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  18lb 10oz Common

 

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One of the most frustrating things about my evening stalking episodes was the amount of times I would locate fish, get them to feed, then for no reason at all they’d vacate the area completely. I’d also noticed that there were more & more people targeting the canal carp using surface methods. When my friends & I used to fish the canal over twenty years before, we never saw anyone else fishing for them. These days it seems as if everyone is out with a rod, net & half a loaf of bread as soon as the sun comes out! With the extra pressure on these fish, seeking out quieter stretches where their presence may have been overlooked was now my highest priority.

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 Fully-scaled Mirror

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 17lb 12oz Common

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 15lb 10oz Mirror

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 As early as three weeks prior to the 2010 closed season, on a local stretch of canal I’d been trickling bait into a few likely looking spots on a regular basis – usually on my way home from work in the evenings. A couple of areas in particular were beginning to clear up very nicely, up to the point where it was only a matter of a days to go until I intended to start my canal campaign. Around this time, the main feeder reservoir for the canal system was being drained for repair work & the millions of gallons of water that had been released into the canal added a tinge of unseasonable colour to the water, that suddenly made it difficult to identify whether my spots were being fed on with any regularity. Despite this, I kept the bait going in as I remained confident that fish would still be taking full advantage of the free food source that I was systematically providing for them. For my first session, the weather conditions were perfect - warm with light rain forecast well into the night. I positioned two hinged stiff rigs onto each of the spots & after backleading both lines out of harms way, I spread thirty baits over the general area. Once the rain arrived, I made myself comfortable under my brolly & got the kettle on. Just as the kettle had boiled, the right-hand Delkim shrieked out & I was on the rod in an instant. Luckily the fish hadn’t gone too far & was soon bundled into the net, which turned out to be a feisty common of 18lb 4oz – not a bad start! With a couple of self-take pictures done in the rain, she was soon reunited with her friends & a fresh rig was soon in position with the minimum of fuss. I had several savage liners during the night & I awoke at dawn, quickly packing away before the rain returned. Whilst I stood patiently for a couple of hours, I had several more liners which confirmed that the carp had continued to visit my spots regularly, but something wasn’t quite right. When the rain returned around 8:00am I decided enough was enough & I reeled in to go home. I then realised that there was a small ‘hump’ of weed that my main lines were running over & I was certain that this was the reason for the liners - the fish must have been spooking off the poor line lay as a result. The plan now was to keep the original spots primed & to work on a couple of new areas, but to focus on making sure that in future, the line lay was spot-on.

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First session success - 18lb 4oz Common

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The following weeks were spent continually priming various spots within the same stretch with a view to getting in a few overnight sessions during the three month period of the normal closed season. Unfortunately, at the time I was in the process of purchasing a new vehicle – a saga that was beginning to drag on & cost me valuable fishing time. Eventually after what seemed like an age, I took delivery of my new ‘carp wagon’ & I planned to continue the canal campaign in mid April. Whilst planning my next session & keeping the baiting plan in motion, a warm spell in early April presented me with an opportunity to get out onto the canal bank for a spot of floater fishing where I was lucky enough to bank three doubles from two different stretches. Although the best fish was only 14lb, it was nice to get out on the banks in a tee-shirt in the sunshine.

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Floater caught 14lb Common

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After lots of looking & baiting I settled on priming one particular area, as one or two other carp anglers had begun targeting the same stretch so in order to avoid ‘stepping on anyone’s toes’, I decided to focus my attentions in my new pitch. As far as presentation was concerned, I chose to use balanced bottom-bait presentations, due largely because of the weed-free nature of the two spots. By making sure my lines were backleaded out of the way, I was supremely confident of some action upon my return. Unfortunately, any action was limited to being dragged out of a warm sleeping bag at 1:00am to land a tench of around 3lb & my luck was typified by a carp crashing out right on the spot I’d taken the tench from just minutes earlier while I was trying to remove all the snot & weed from the line & leader! Despite receiving lots of liners throughout the hours of darkness, a take failed to materialise & I headed off home in the early morning for a shower & some breakfast. I returned a couple of hours later with my stalking gear for a day’s floater fishing, whereby after walking several miles of canal, I failed to find a single fish!

After spending a couple of evenings searching a few different stretches, I eventually found one stretch where there were evidently a few carp holding up. Although they were difficult to temp largely due to the volume of towpath traffic – dog walkers, joggers & cyclists, I managed to bank two commons in successive evenings – both around mid-doubles.

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Double-figure floater caught Common

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Following these captures, I spent the following few weeks trying to track down some better fish on various different stretches, but it seemed no matter how hard I looked I simply could not locate many carp above mid-double figures. Eventually, after many hours of searching I managed to find three decent fish – a common & a mirror both around the twenty-pound mark & a slightly smaller common in a quiet area tucked up in a small reedbed. It took a relatively long time to get them taking floaters – I suspect largely due to the very hot temperatures at the time - & at one stage the big mirror appeared right at the edge of the reeds & I flicked my single hookbait just to the left of the spot. Almost immediately another fish appeared & swam straight up to the hoobait & vey gently sipped it in & after a very lively fight I landed the fish – the smallest of the three that turned out to be another common that weighed 15lb exactly.

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Curse of the Commons... yet another @ 15lb

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I spent the following three-week period returning to the stretch where I’d seen the two bigger fish, where they had remained resident during that time. At one point, I’d spent four successive evenings trying to fashion a take from the big mirror & with each opportunity that presented itself, the stubborn creature refused to entertain any notion of sampling my hookbait. Eventually, the ever-increasing mallard, coot & moorhen population almost drove me mad as they would literally ‘sweep’ the canal, hunting for every last mixer they could find - despite my best attempts to dissuade them. On my last evening of that week & with time running out, I hastily made my way to another stretch where I knew there were a few carp holding up & spent almost three hours drifting floaters on the prevailing breeze. Eventually, with a desperate need for food & with my depleted supply of floaters, I decided enough was enough & I turned to head for my local chip shop. Within seconds, I noticed a deep-bodied swirl appear on the surface in a corner where many of the soggy floaters had drifted. Quick as a flash, I assembled the rod & net & I quietly crept along the bank to get a better look at my potential victim… it looked like a good un’! Very gradually, the dumpy mirror made its way along the margin & I was able to conceal my presence by virtue of the long grass on the edge of the towpath. Having plotted the path of the fish, I flicked the hookbait about six feet in front it & drew it back into position, just two yards from the nearside bank. As it neared the hookbait, the fish turned to head for the middle of the canal & just as I cursed my luck, he inexplicably turned back & headed straight for it. It seemed like an age, but eventually he tentatively slurped it in & I swept the rod back, feeling that satisfying ‘thump’ as the rod kicked over & the fish made its bid for freedom. After a really feisty scrap, I netted my prize & I knew instantly it was 20lb+. With the photographs taken in the evening sun, the scales revealed a weight of 21lb exactly – my fifth canal twenty. All the trials & tribulations I’d had targeting the mirror on the first stretch were instantly forgotten - happy days!

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A Mirror at last! - 21lb canal brute

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Another upper-double Common

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The following week I returned to the original stretch to see if the big mirror had returned & I couldn’t believe my luck when I found it holding-up under a small group of lily pads. Once I'd spent a few minutes drifting floaters into the pads on the breeze, she could resist no longer & eventually took the opportunity for a free feed. After painstakingly trying to get the hookbait into the right position, I eventually hit the right spot & the light breeze slowly pushed the hookbait right in front of the now stationary fish. With the hookbait barely an inch from the nose of the fish, she glared at it for an age before slowly easing forward & sipping at the surface. As the hookbait begun to bob up & down, eventually it disappeared from view & my subsequent strike made her absolutely furious! Holding on for dear life, once I'd made the mistake of allowing her to turn her head she powered off on a simply unstoppable run towards the nearest lily bed & I can quite honestly say, I can't remember ever hooking a carp with that kind of power before in the canal. Trying my damndest to slow the fish down, I eventually ‘applied the brakes’ just as the fish neared the lily bed, but it was all too much for my 8lb mono & in a split-second it was all over - my first canal loss for a long time. Having landed the 21lb mirror just a week or so earlier, I knew that fish was a good three or four pounds bigger in size...

With the arrival of 16th of June, I returned to Oakwood to see in the beginning of the new season with Ben & Chris & predictably, any activity we'd seen at the lake stopped as soon as the masses descended onto the banks of the lake after three months of relative peace. I continued my floater fishing excursions on the canal, whilst I made plans to get back to Oakwood in last weeks of June & managed to bank three fish in three sessions during one week - a small scaley mirror & two upper-double commons. Although I was continuing to bank a few fish & their average size was improving, the really big fish were still proving difficult to locate. On one occasion, I found a good-sized mirror, but it was continually flanked by a pack of four smaller fish, so trying to single that one fish out was a difficult task. I eventually managed to get a take from it at close range, only to bump the hook out on the strike! Just when I thought I'd blown any opportunity of catching, I found an average-sized common feeding at close range which when hooked, the fight proved to be most bizarre... As the fish charged up & down the margins in its bid for freedom, it was being followed side-by-side by a smaller mirror. When the common was ready to net, the mirror dived in there with him & when I lifted it & realised what had happened, all hell broke loose as the mirror furiously tried to swim through the mesh! I had to be really careful to make sure that the mirror could swim out without risking letting the hooked common out too - madness!

My subsequent return to the canal was after a period of very hot weather in mid-June where the air temperature had dropped markedly & I was sure that the carp had finished spawning, so I made my way along the canal looking at the usual stretches, but with no luck. Eventually I managed to locate a group of three small commons & after getting them competing for floaters, I realised that indeed there were quite a few fish resident & I managed to identify a good upper-double figure mirror. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at trying to single out the biggest mirror, I suddenly became aware of a big white shape below the group of feeding fish that slowly came up to the surface revealing the one fish that I'd been searching for the last three or four years - the big twenty pound plus ghost carp that I'd heard countless rumours about, but had never actually seen in the flesh before. Here it was, in front of me & wolfing down floaters like he didn't have a care in the world! Hurriedly, I glued on a new floater & by this time my hands were shaking & the ghostie was mopping up every floater in its path. When I was ready to cast out, the ghostie disappeared & every now & again he would reappear from the far bank, eat two or three floaters, then drift back out of sight again. It was mad to be standing there, watching a group of six or seven carp troughing down floaters in front of me - with one or two good upper doubles there too & yet I was totally focussed on hooking the ghostie. The feeding pattern of the fish was the same every time, so I knew that each time it appeared, I would have to make sure that the hookbait was placed perfectly, as I was probably only going to get one window of opportunity. On several occasions I tried to position the hookbait, but each time he wasn't interested - almost as if he'd already identified which three floaters he was going to eat on each showing. On a number of occasions, I even had to drag the hookbait away from the mouth of a feeding fish so that I didn't spook the biggun! With the light fading quickly, he again reappeared & I tried to plot its path again once more. Having taken two floaters, he turned & headed back towards his hidey-hole & I flicked the hookbait out into his return route. Up he came with purpose & sucked it in with gusto & I struck... sending the hookbait whizzing past me into the bush behind me & with that my chance was gone. I did hook & land a solitary token low-double mirror as compensation, but I was still sick about failing to take the golden opportunity that I had been presented with.





Last updated: 30th June 2010