With knee replacement surgery booked for early next week, I was keen to get some fish in the net, before my forced retirement from fishing, while I recuperate. This spring has seen most still waters in the area not fishing, due to sudden warm weather throwing the spawning switch on fish stocks and I was taking a chance with my local pond. Heavy morning rain had helped me clear the decks in preparation for my incapacity, but a burst of bright sunshine got me thinking of just one more fishing session and my wife kindly drove me the short distance to Allsmoor Pond.

As I walked along the pond, I could see carp paired up, breaking the surface among the reeds, preoccupied with spawning and wondered what would be feeding today. Setting up my pole, fish were also rolling among the roots of the bushes either side of me, while fresh growth from the bushes and the tree above, had turned this swim into a parrot cage, leaving little room for the keepnet and landing net.

Getting comfortable, with everything to hand from the tackle box, I damped down liquidised bread, ground pellets, ground hemp and strawberry essence, squeezing up four balls to put in six metres out. Predictably, the float antenna lifted and sank within seconds of casting into the baited area, as a decent rudd took the 6 mm punch of bread.

This was a good start, a quality rudd from the off. Back in, the float lifted, then sank away and the elastic came out as a carp made a run for the lily pads opposite. The elastic was doing its job and the carp turned away in an arc to swim towards my bushes. I put on another length of pole to pull it away from my bank, back to the middle, where it broached on the surface. It was a ghost carp. The elastic was pulling back inside the pole and I readied the landing net, breaking the pole down to the top three sections to slide it into the net.

I knew this fish. I have watched it grow. This is the third time that I have landed this bespectacled carp, it is rapidly putting on weight. Next time it could be trouble.

Suddenly the black clouds had given way to sunshine and I was now overdressed, having expected more rain as forecast, the May sun was now at full blast in the blue sky. There was no time to strip off. I would just have to sweat, as the rudd were coming thick and fast. Pulling the pole back and lifting it high behind me through the trees to avoid the bank.

A small common managed to get in amongst the rudd, pulling out elastic before being swung to hand.

Look at these beautiful rudd. I just hope that they keep growing. A pound fish is on the cards.

A fishing friend, Geoff, was walking his dog round the pond and stopped for a chat and to watch the rudd being hooked in rapid succession, when the elastic was out again with a good fish. From his standing position, he could see this fish. “It’s a big crucian carp!” he exclaimed, but it was not fighting like a crucian as it made a B-line for the lilies. The pole was bending and the elastic stretching, all a novelty for Geoff, who usually fishes for carp with bolt rigs and electronic buzzers on the line. The size 14 hook kept its grip and the net was waiting after a late lunge for the roots, the deep sided common carp, not has big as it’s fight suggested.

The carp had finally moved in over the feed, the next fish being this baby common. The clouds were also back again and the wind got up, blowing a shower across the pond, but I was in catching mode with a shoal of these miniature scrappers taking the bread on the drop, to be returned immediately.

The next carp was very big, but just sat there bemused, swimming slowly around with it’s black back out of the water. I followed it with the pole, waiting for it to wake up, which it did, bursting into life, stirring up the black mud, the elastic cutting a V through the surface over to the opposite bank, before the hook came out, catapulting the elastic and float back at lightning speed, tangling the line round the float. The tangle was a mess. I cut off the hook link and pulled the tangle tight round the float. A new hook link got me fishing again with no depth adjustment.

The rudd did not mind the shallow bait, this another beauty.

Another rudd complete with tangled float.

More feed had brought the small commons back, but the rain was falling harder and it was time for one last cast and this mirror carp was the result.

The scale pattern on this mirror is impressive, although it looks like the resident heron has left a stab mark on it’s flank.

Three hours and half a slice of bread had filled my net again, and can only hope for a speedy recovery from my knee surgery for me to start fishing again.

Over 12 lb of rudd and carp on the bread punch. Where were the crucian carp today?