After a couple of disappointing visits to another local pond recently, I decided that it was time for some bag up therapy at my very local Allsmoor Pond, a short walk from my home. There was a cold wind from the east, but the sun was shining and I settled down in the shade of a tree.

I mixed up a tray of coarse liquidised bread and ground carp pellets, sprinkled with strawberry essence, damped it down and squeezed up some loose balls to break up on impact in the two foot deep swim, putting in four balls before tackling up my pole. The swim was a bit of a parrot cage, with the tree overhead and another growing out to my left. Casting my small 2 BB waggler required feeding the pole out, then giving it an under hand flick to put the float to the left of the lily bed to my right. By 2 pm I was ready and bubbles were popping up on the surface.

The float did not dive away as expected from a small rudd, but instead gave the characteristic dips and dithers of a crucian carp. The float slowly moved away and under. I lifted into the frantic fight of a small crucian, that dived for the cover of the lilies, pulling out the elastic, while counteracted with the pole, dragging it back out. A rapid pull back with the pole to the top two sections, saw the crucian skim back to the landing net.

A crucian first cast. I usually have to fish my way through a raft of rudd before the crucians move in.

Next cast, another crucian.

The following cast saw the elastic out with a small common carp burying itself among the lillies.  An attempt to pull it free failed, so the slack line trick was tried. It worked as the fish swam free, but only for a few feet, when the carp dug deep again. Slack line and watch the float. It moved again and I put on side strain and it came out. It was not a big carp, thank goodness.

I cast further over to the left and the float was away again with the fish fighting hard, left to right, pulling it away from the lilies this time.

This pond is full of surprises, a fantail crucian hybrid having taken the 7 mm punch of bread on a size 14 hook. Next cast, a crucian had successfully taken the bread.

A burst of bubbles next to my float forewarned of something bigger and seconds later the float lifted, then slid away and I watched the elastic stretching out toward a post standing up over to my left. This was a good carp, that stirred up the mud as it powered away, then rolling on the surface, when the elastic slowed it’s progress. It turned back toward the lilies, pushing through and I put on side strain. The hook came out and the rig shot across into the tree to my left. Even the elastic was wrapped around a branch. I tried to pull it free, the elastic stretching beyond it’s maximum breaking strain and snapped at the weakest point at the Stonfo connector knot, leaving me holding some loose elastic.

This could have been the end of my session. I had lost my float that has done good service on this pond for the last twelve years on this pond and without another large elastic to line connector, I was stumped, but with a possible exceptional fishing session to follow, I tied a loop in the elastic as get out jail measure.

Attaching a double looped 6 lb shock leader onto a waggler float rig, that I had only made up the week before, got me fishing again. I must have had a premonition, that I would lose my old favourite float, and made up a replacement. HaHa!

Another couple of balls of feed to the left of the lilies and the new float was in action, sinking away.

Another hard fighting common was soon under control, the reduced length of elastic exerting more pressure and it was soon in the net.

Some of these crucians are hybrids with common carp, getting the best of both worlds, a hard stand and fight without the long runs of a common.

It was now a crucian a chuck. I reckoned that they preferred the shade on such a bright day and my ground bait had concentrated them over the feed. Here are just a selection.

A small common broke the procession of crucians, that were filling the net.

Another surprise, a baby common carp.

More crucians.

More variety. A nice rudd.

Another fantail.

A common.

Then the rudd moved in.

A third fantail.

Then the crucians were back.

I could have kept on, but my three hours were up. It had been much colder than I had anticipated and despite my wife walking down to the pond with a sweater earlier, I was freezing. It had been a good session on the bread punch, marred by the loss of my favourite float, the old one was gone, long live the  new one.

A fantastic net of fish from a free council owned unstocked water surrounded by housing estates, where the scales just failed to hit the 10 lb mark.