Following last week’s session on a local pond, trying to avoid pike, I made an overdue visit to Kings Pond near Farnham this week, where there are comorants, but no pike and a net of silvers, plus a few bonus carp on the bread punch, is usually on the cards.

It is a fair walk from the carpark to the pond and my first sight of the lack of water, indicated by the tide mark along the anti cormorant fence, lining the opposite bank, made me consider the long walk back to the car.  Walking along to the nearest angler didn’t help either. “How’s it fishing?” “It ain’t. Only one line bite all morning. It’s too shallow!” He had two feeder rods out for carp, but I was going to fish the pole with the punch, it was bound to be better, wasn’t it?

Plumbing the depth showed a maximum of two feet, six meters out, where five feet was the norm. I’d already suffered a halted dual carraigeway, followed by a round the houses diversion, that included a couple of roadworks, what more was in store for this pleasure fishing session? Had I mentioned the drizzle, that eventually turned into proper rain, while I tackled up? I never fish under an umbrella, and the TV forecast had said mainly dry in the South East, so no waterproofs either!

I’ve always been an optimist and today’s minor barriers were overcome. Groundbait was mixed up with liquidisd bread, but sloppier than usual to form a cloud, that would spread across the bottom, while a 4 x 14 antenna float, with the shot strung out to a 9 inch tail to a size 14 barbless hook on a long line, kept the pole out of sight for the fish. To start, a soft 7 mm pellet of punched bread was tried on the hook and cast into the baited area eight metres out. An immediate response saw the float sink away out of sight. A strike missed the fish. I left it longer next time. Still a miss. I changed down to a 6 mm punch. A hit, with quite a nice roach pulled back, hand over hand on the pole, to the top two sections and netted.

The next pair of roach bumped off the hook, due to the heavy elastic, a precaution due to the size of the carp in Kings getting bigger, but the next, a small skimmer stayed on, despite somersaulting all over the surface.

Among the small roach and skimmers was a standout rudd, its colours radiant in the weak sunshine.

Small roach were becoming a nuisance, running off with the bait as soon as it hit the surface and I made a point of fishing away from recently fed areas, one result being a better skimmer.

The sun had gone again and a cold wind was driving drizzle and fallen leaves down the pond, the gusts making the pole difficult to keep steady. The occasional better fish kept me going, but this session was proving hard work.

The sight of a couple of pound carp nosing around the margins, perked me up and I added liquidised bread to my groundbait to stiffen it up, throwing several balls along the bare bank between two bushes to my right. I punched out a 10 mm punch of fresh bread and folded it over the hook, adding sections to the pole for the full 10 metres, which brought the bushes within range. I sat and waited. After ten minutes, the float lifted, then sank and slowly tracked away. I lifted. False alarm!

How did this small roach get that great big bait into it’s mouth? Try again. A slightly bigger roach. Bubbles were now rising steadily in the gap and I dropped the float over the top. The float flicked up to lie flat on the surface and in the same instant, the elastic pulled out. I was in. That was almost too easy, why didn’t I do this earlier? This did not seem like a big fish and I drew it closer, removing the bottom section. It now woke up, and powered along the opposite bank, drawing out more heavy elastic, then rolling on the surface. Was it a bronze bream? It was very deep, but bream don’t fight like this. It’s head was out and coming toward me. I needed to break the pole down again, but the landing net was in my other hand. With the pole vertical at 8 metres, the carp felt the slack and powered away again. If I was going to lose it, now was the time, while it desperately churned up the swim. The pressure was telling on the carp and it was back on it’s side and steered into the net.

Quite a lump, very deep mirror carp. I pulled it up onto my lap and the hook dropped out of it’s lip. The size 14 barbless didn’t show a mark.

Weighed in the net, the scales read 5 lb and I allowed 8 oz for the net, returning it to swim away unharmed. Although there were now more bubbles rising along that bank, it was time to pack up and pulled the keepnet out. Not a bad catch for three hours on the bread punch, considering the dozen thrown back. Another carp like the last would have seen me packing up in the dark.