Pickled Carp

Pickled Carp Adventures

The Pickled Carpers Web site

Just Havin’ some Fun (This page takes ages to load due to all the pics but its worth it!)

The end of 1998 was wet, very wet, and this ran into the beginning of 1999. I started the year with a bit of Piking on Staunton Harold Res’. It was hard work and there were few fish to show for it. The IAC had arranged a number of Grayling days on the Kennet and I was down for one in early February. It was touch and go whether the river would be fishable but things picked up a few days before and we had a great day. The Hot Spot article tells the full story.

After another couple of sessions on Staunton the local rivers started to get back to some sort of form. At the end of February I fished a session on the Mease for Chub, which went rather well. Mollusc gives all the details.

March was spent fishing the local gravel pit for Chub but this proved fruitless. Then in April I returned to Anglers Paradise for a holiday. As with previous visits this was a very pickled affair. I was reading through my diary as a reminder of what I had been catching and it’s incredible how often captures can slip from your mind. During this week the group caught a lot of twenties and I mean a lot, I personally had carp up to 26lb and a 10lb Catfish.

During the early part of 1999 I took up fly tying. Although I have fished on and off for trout, mainly in the river Dove and Severn, I was now taking a much greater interest in Fly Fishing, mainly because of a desire to catch some large Grayling. I found that the commercially produced flies did not last, probably having been ‘thrown’ together in some eastern sweatshop. Tying my own ensured a better overall quality. This also gave an added interest to the fishing.

During the summer I spent my time between Anglers Paradise and fishing for wild Trout on the upper Dove and River Hamps and with some success. The monthly summer sessions at Anglers were very drunk affairs but I was having fun and catching some nice fish, including a personal best Catfish of 21lb, a new venue record at the time.

The winter soon arrived and the Carp rods were put away and replaced with the Grayling gear. I mixed the fishing according to the venue, sometimes trotting and other times fishing the Nymphs or GHEs. I developed a variation on the normal pattern of GHE that has proved to be very successful.

Hook - Size 10 Heavy Buzzer, Thread – Bright Orange, Body – Mix of Hares Ear and Light Red Seals Fur (40/60), Tag – Bright Orange Wool, Rib – Flat Gold Tinsel, stretched (v.important).

In the spring of 2000 I switched back to Barbel fishing, when the rivers were too coloured for Grayling, and managed to put some nice fish on the bank. This was followed by a return to Anglers Paradise for what was to be our last holiday there. As the summer wore on the Anglers monthly visit was starting to become a little monotonous, I decided that it was time to move on but not before having some more good fish though, including another PB Catfish.

The decision to leave the Anglers Paradise Syndicate was based on nothing other than the amount of time I spent there and all the time driving up and down the motorway, also I don’t like getting into a rut with my fishing. It’s a great place and all the syndicate members are friendly, A-political and there are very few places I have fished where that is the case, especially on ‘Carp’ waters!

The winter of 2000 / 2001 was a real Grayling affair and I found myself fishing all over the country. Great fun it was too and some of these fish were real beauties.

A new holiday venue was selected for 2001. We went to Ireland for some trout fishing and fell in love with Lough Currane. The Seatrout are spectacular, the Guides are really welcoming and so are the bar staff.

The summer was spent Barbel fishing before switching to the Grayling in the winter. Although I was mixing it up with Carp, Bream, Tench and Chub … oh and a bit of Piking too!!!!

Some Carp from Paradise