Saturday, 26 March 2011

Finding the time for a canal carp...


greeted by the setting sun.

One evening about 8 years ago whilst walking along the canal at Fazeley, I happened to spot what I thought must be a good carp create a bow wave on the surface near to a mooring. At the very next opportunity I was back with rod and line to try for that fish. I never did catch it or anything near its size, but I did manage to land a small (baby) one on my first attempt, which I was more than chuffed with for my first go, and it proved conclusively that there were some carp around.


My only canal carp to date (circa 2003) - I haven't really tried that hard to catch another yet though...


Since that time I’ve been nagged by an urge to fit in some time trying to land myself a decent carp from the canal. With this in mind and along with the recent mild spell we have been having, I had a couple of attempts this past week.


Nothing to report as yet (except for a few small bream) I just hope I can keep the focus going until I land one of these enigmatic wild canal fish, that is before the call of other spring species takes my attention away again.
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This is the largest of the bream I caught tonight at 2lb 11oz. It might have edged more towards the dizzy heights of three pounds if it wasn't for the nasty chunk gauged out of its side !
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3 comments:

  1. Jeff Hatt26 March 2011 at 13:06

    Three pounds is dizzy heights indeed for a canal bream. My best is a fish of 3lbs 2oz and though I've heard of bigger, I've never seen one.

    I have my eyes on a canal carp this year but really I'll be tench fishing primarily as I saw a pic of surprisingly big local fish just recently.

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  2. Russell Hilton27 January 2012 at 18:34

    Hi Lee,

    Just having a browse and have come across your post. That carp has no barbules. I would wager that it is an F1 Carp (appalling name), the kind that you find stacked in commercials. Quite unusual to find one in a canal. Possible escapee, I suppose?

    Actually, I'm certain it's an F1. I'd bet my entire fishing tackle on it!

    I don't know if that makes it any better or worse, but it's certainly rarer!

    Great blog.
    Russell

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  3. Lee Fletcher28 January 2012 at 21:17

    Thanks Russell despite trying my best to prove you wrong, I think your tackles safe. I dug out some other snaps I'd taken at the time and the fish definitely has no visible barbules.

    There's a lot of matches further up the canal from that area so thinking about it now, it wouldn't surprise me if there's been a few introduced at some point or other!

    Gotta admit it had never crossed my mind.

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