Not having fished the local River Cut since the start of the river season, due to very low water levels, I decided on fishing a late afternoon session in one of the deeper areas, although I was surprised to find it resembled a pond, with no apparent flow. Knowing that carp are taking over as the main species in this once fast flowing stream, I left my float rods behind and opted to use my beefy Edgemonster pole, with heavy elastic through the top two sections. When we first began catching carp, mirrors and commons from the Cut about ten years ago, they were a manageable 8 to 12 oz, which boosted the nets of roach and chub that we were landing, but today they are much bigger, tending to shoal in groups, usually with a large gang leader. On June 16 th this year, Braybrook club member Martin Bryant, called me to ask if I had any 20 lb scales, as he had a landed a big carp. Living very close to the Cut, I was soon at his swim and photgraphed the carp below.

Martin with his 15 lb 12oz common carp

Martin had started fishing for silvers, netting good size roach and dace, plus a few decent chublets, but being troubled by this inquisitve common, rooting around in his swim, so Martin took his carp gear out and cast to the cruising fish, that took his bread hookbait on a size 12 hook. A twenty minute fight that covered the full length of his swim, up and down, eventually tired them both out, several attempts at getting the carp into the small landing net, finally proving successful.

The lush greens of early summer were gone, this area not having seen decent rainfall for months, while the Midlands and the North have had more than their share. Setting up, bursts of bubbles were breaking out over the surface. Carp were on the feed. I mixed up a hemp influenced tray of groundbait, liquidised bread loaded with ground hemp and lose hempseed with a dash of strawberry for luck, wetted down to form small balls and catapulted out beyond the middle to the bay opposite. I could see several snags in the clear water, two long branches to my left, extending beyond the middle and the usual shopping trolley upstream to my right, plus a tangle of branches beneath the tree. Again another reason for bringing the pole, as it has the leverage to stear a wayward carp away from snags. First catch a carp.

I started off in a snag, when a gudgeon suddenly gained weight, stretched the elastic, but then came free. The hook was embedded in a sunken branch and I swung both in.

Despite casting into the centre of the fizzing bubbles, a sailaway bite, saw a decent roach leap clear of the surface, not the expected carp. I fed the pole through the trees behind me to land this roach, almost lancing a cyclist passing by on the path, when the thick end of the pole suddenly appeared out of the trees in front of him. Apologies made to the unseen cyclist, I broke the pole down to the top two and netted the roach. A deep fish.

Every time that I cast my float into the area of bubbles, I had a sailaway bite, that took line and after a delay, I gave a firm lift of the pole, only to send a gudgeon skyward. Some good roach were in there too, but no carp.

Small gudgeon and tiny chublets were constantly the culprits, so I upped the punch size from 8 mm to 10 mm, which then resulted in missed bites. I was now convinced that the bubbles were from crayfish, that now infest the Braybrook club’s other water, Jeanes Pond, where they can strip the bread punch from the hook in minutes, giving short tugging bites. But then again these were full bites. A sudden snatch of the float saw another quality roach coming to the net.

Negotiating my pole back through the bushes a familiar voice greeted me, it was another Braybrook member Russell Haworth. He had been fishing upstream and had counted eight big carp swimming around, but he couldn’t get a bite on his light legered meat. He watched me get perfect bites, which turned out to be small rudd, dace and more gudgeon. After a chat he went back upstream to another of his favourite swims.

I went up to a 12 mm punch and squeezed it around the shank of the hook. More feed amd more casts kept the bubbles rising to the surface, then the float dipped and moved very slowly downstream, except that there was no flow. The float slid away, with the line following. I lifted and was IN! Being close to the tree, I pulled the pole round, feeling the carp buck, before it accelerated deep beneath the tree. The elastic was still coming out and the pole bent round, when the float pinged back. It was gone. I checked the size 14 Drennan barbless carp hook. It was still OK.

I fed again, the carp were still there, closer to the far bank. I put on another pole joint out to 9 metres, which allowed the float to reach an area of branches beneath a tree on the bank. Another sailaway and another roach, which I netted. It was now getting dark and this roach was out of focus. The flash on my camera whited it out, so apologies.

I guessed that the carp were not taking the bread pellet, merely pushing it around with their lips. I’d only hooked this last one, as the hook had lightly snagged the fish as it swam away from me. My phone beeped , it was from Russell, he’d finally hooked and landed one of his carp circus. His photo is below.

I replied  that I had hooked and lost one and was packing up, as it was getting dark. It had not been a complete blank and had caught a whole range of species on the bread punch

A Mixed Bag