Do I Need Carp When The Bream Are Like That?

 The tench pond looked cold and foreboding with just one angler there who was wisely tucked away in the only sheltered corner. It's funny how your preconceived plans of where you were going to fish go out the window on inspection of a water. A northerly wind blowing through the woods into my face and the surface swirling around were enough for a change of plan, the sun dipping in made going back to the previously sunlit corner of the other pond I passed a no brainer.

I had heard of a 'big bream' coming out of this tiny pond recently and it's amazing how these little snippets of information log in the memory banks permanently, how big? I didn't hear, but any nice bream would do me, failing that a morning in the sun out of the wind and a few other fish would do nicely.

My corner of the this pond was sheltered and sunny for the most part early on, a quick talk to the only chap opposite revealed his one carp early doors, he was fishing a float that looked like a large cube of plastic, reminding me of a plastic container my dad used to use to put soap in, I didn't judge him as I must look strange trying out some of my ideas at times. I set up and quickly plumbed the depth to reveal five feet under the rod tip, there was no need to fish far out with the water so well up and besides I was going to try fishing left handed again.

Fishing single maggot under a pole float right under the rod tip saw bites instantly before I awkwardly unhooked a perch that was swung in with not enough line like a newbie, rather than bore you with more stories of my bad good arm I'll cut to the chase of switching back to my right hand and fishing with it as normal dosed up with painkillers. I'm glad I did as the next bite went solid and slow, it was no carp but felt good, it sure beat staying at home.

Now bream are one of those fish much like large roach and perch that look huge in the water, how many times have you had a bream turn on the surface only to be greeted with a fish that would barely top 3lb ringing wet? This fish looked massive as I squinted through the sun as it spun on top, kicking up spray that glistened like diamonds. With my light(ish) compromise set up I didn't want it flapping all the way to the net, so I let it have a little line and unlike the standard size bream it took it and took it well, a slow solid fight on light enough line left me wondering why some people don't like bream, I liked this one, very plump, very fit and good to look at in the sun weighing in at 5lb 11oz

I was off to a flyer but my feeding bought the rudd and roach in numbers that made my float settling a thing of the past, even changing to a size 12 hook with a bunch of maggots saw the float dashing off before I could get my bait to bream territory, by now every hookbait was in rudd territory.

I changed to bread having bought a loaf of Sainsbury's cheapest (twice the price of last year) and introduced a few bits of bread some of which were gulped by a carp in the margins, this gave me a back up if the rudd and roach were also a problem on the bread, although I couldn't resist winkling out that fish off the top, a ghost koi of around 4lb, a sad looking parrot nosed fish that had a tiny hole for a mouth.

Now that my carp distraction had gone I concentrated on the float line, it also served a purpose of removing one of the feeding carp from the swim with the idea that the bream would return if the carp are cagey, a fun way of solving a problem. It didn't work as a 3lb common was caught next under the rod tip before I had a break for coffee. The carp were hurting my arm but I found by holding the rod against my midriff I could play the fish with my weak arm with the clutch set right, it looked weird but served a purpose.

I then dug out the bread punch as it gets more bites, using a 10mm one is the same as a small bit of bread but it just works better. A brief rest may have also worked as had the bread I fed which lets face bream absolutely adore. Once more I was into that slow plodding fight however this time It erupted on the surface as the bream took off like they sometimes do and almost landed on the bank as I was fishing so close in, this fish wasn't as fat but seemed deeper as it filled the net and I was over the moon.

Now I don't get many good bream and I'm not ashamed to admit my pb is rather modest, maybe because I'm always fishing float and usually close in on small ponds and mostly on fast shallow rivers during the season, they sure don't grow this size on my local canal, either way it had me looking on my phone to see if it was a pb, it wasn't as a Thames weir pool provided my with one larger back in the day when I had hair but was still a lovely fish for such a tiny pond at 6lb 5oz.

By now the angler opposite was replaced by Mallet Man, who lived up to his name by hammering at everything, first a bank stick, then a second bank stick before where his umbrella fitted to his chair. I was going to say his setting up was noisy but meticulous but that wasn't the case as his umbrella took off in a gust along with his chair and deposited it back near his car which was right behind the swim. In the time it took him to set up I had landed and weighed that bream and caught two more carp. 

Bang went the mallet once more as I stopped for lunch.

A few on the main lake were catching and several came round for a quick chat whilst stretching their legs, after I while I got tired of folk asking about the carp when I was more excited about the bream, so when the second guy told me where the carp were sunning themselves to the left of me I just nodded and smiled having caught one there earlier. I felt like saying do I need 4lb carp when the bream are like that? But refrained of course, it's all a bit of fun. Sadly the tench angler also came round from the other pond who was blanking, confirming I made the right choice just by looking for somewhere comfortable, he did have the whole pond to himself though with just the company of the wildlife, no mallets just mallards.. 

A couple of hours passed with quick rudd dips of the float keeping me occupied but also frustrated, with plenty of thin air strikes and a swirling wind that bought the willow that was ever so close to my rod tip into play. Sticking with the bread bought the odd carp and a small bream of around a pound that had a beautiful blue sheen and perfect scales, I should have photographed it really but I'm a specimen angler now and only take pics of the slabs - I am joking of course.

There was time for one last bream, once again on the punched bread, once again the slow heavy pull was unmistakable with everything so close in under the rod tip, it really was a lot of fun, by now it was cold and grey and the wind was getting round so this was one last hurrah. I slipped the net under a fish which was bang on 6lb to finish the day.

As I packed up Mallet Man was finally into a fish which he landed awkwardly with not enough line out much like me with my perch earlier, I wondered if he was fishing left handed too. Tench guy had walked by having blanked and some hardly souls were still on the main lake having fun with their carp quarry in the cold wind, I left them to it so as to beat the school run. 

I probably won't tell them where the bream are though as I may get the odd strange look.

An Interesting Experiment

 I thought I'd try something out of necessity, the last few trips have been hard as the pain of my Angler's Elbow* hasn't abated. The fishing has been pretty good on the ponds of late but I feel I've lost fish I shouldn't have, it's amazing how much power you have in your good arm compared to the other. Oh and if anyone says you'll get used to fishing the other way round, you won't, I tried it last time and lasted ten minutes, ok maybe I should have tried longer but it felt awful, didn't help the pain and was frustrating bordering on the comical, I'm about as good as fishing ambidextrous as I am at spelling the word I concluded. 

Thinking of ways around this made me remember fishing as a kid on rivers like the upper Lea, Gade and Beane, tying the line to the bottom ring (no doubt after a stupid tangle by the reel) and fishing for the last hour or so for dace and small chub, with a lightness of tackle and crispness of the fight that made everything seem large, I wondered if I could use something similar on ponds where the carp don't go that big.

So here's the plan, I'm going to fish an old rod with no reel as it will be ultralight to hold with either hand, the line will be threaded through the opposite way and connected to a length of pole elastic which is tied to the rod butt, this will be my shock absorber for larger fish, but I still want the crispness of rod and line for silvers so will hold the line when playing them. My thinking is it will be similar to the makeshift set up I used on those rivers as a kid, much like fishing a whip, but with the bend of a rod and the elastic of a pole for larger fish.

I won't need to cast far (I never do anyway) and hopefully any carp will potter about in close quarters like they usually do. The safety is the elastic which is much heavier than I need just in case and also fishing a small fine wire hook which will should bend out before any kit gets snapped off, failing that there's 3lb bottom, 4,4lb mainline and the 9-11 rated elastic.

Here's the connection between elastic and line, I used a standard dacron connector the way pole anglers do after watching several Youtube clips, but I removed the stop bead and used a couple of thin pieces of silicon tubing so that the connector can pass through the rod rings smoothly.

I started fishing in a quiet corner of the pond and thankfully there was no one else there to see me make a twat of myself, the weather wasn't ideal with a sharp wind and it felt pretty cold when the sun dipped in, all pre loaded excuses for the inevitable failure even if in my mind it could work, the new margin rod whippy pole thingy (I'm still working on a catchy name) would be on everyone's shopping list and it would be a solution for those in pain who can't hold a heavy rod or pole all day. 

Yeah right.

The weird thing is it did actually work, my tiny pole float was swung out, I then pulled the line in with my hand like a fly angler until I had no slack, mending any surface bow, if anything I could have had less line tied as I had more than enough to swing fish in and a bit too much for where I was fishing. Bites came from the off with the customary shyness for this time of year, the float went under I struck each time whilst holding the line as a few roach put a crisp bend in the rod. I soon got into a rhythm.

I was conscious of having line getting tangled by my feet so placed a second mat there and I think this would be negated by having around two feet less line but the test would come when I hooked something bigger than roach. I may need that extra line I thought.

If the roach were fun the f1's were another level, although none got even close to stretching that elastic which left me wondering if there's more control gained by feeding the line in and out by hand with a fish on, they weren't big though but a lot of fun.

I wanted a test of a larger carp and it came in the shape of a good one, however the unmistakable feeling of a foul hooked fish is there no matter how you fish and after a brief battle the hook pulled from the fin. I did turn it several times and stopped a foul hooker going into the middle which was kind of impressive even if it didn't prove the theory. Sadly it was the only test of the day, although getting those f1's and bream was direct and fun, why do these gaunt looking bream always look so big in the water?

I had hoped for some nice perch but only a few small ones showed, the roach action was non stop but a bit frustrating as getting through small ones to the better fish was a problem, changing more to on the drop a few netters succumbed and once more gave me that crisp bend in the rod I wanted.

I packed up early to beat the rain as it got really cold, finishing with 30 roach, 5 f1's, 2 perch, 2 bream and a rudd in around three hours although it seemed half of that was setting up, I did bump a few and had a couple of foul hookers but that can happen anyway, I didn't get snapped up and felt in control of all the fish.

The verdict on this experiment? Well it worked surprisingly well and yet it didn't work the way I wanted it to. It caught fish well and looked like it would handle the larger fish just as well as my usual rod and line set up, however I would have caught the same amount on rod and line of that I am pretty sure. Where it failed was it was just as painful fishing this way despite being lighter, I think it was because I was holding the rod along with the line instead of resting it on my leg and that I still played every fish with my bad arm despite using a set up that could be used by my left hand, force of habit I suppose.

It's probably not a style I'll try again, but it was fun experimenting, although I know with a bit of fine tuning it would work better, perhaps on a warm sunny day just whittling out a few fish for fun, who knows. However The Beast Thruster Margin Pole Rod Whip Carbon X F1 is unlikely to feature on Dragon's Den soon.

* They've got Tennis Elbow and even Golfer's Elbow so lets have Angler's Elbow. After chatting to quite a few online sufferers it seems it's quite common in the rod arm. More painful than you would think and rather persistent. I would be quite cautious if you feel a little niggle in your arm at any stage like I did as it kind of lets you know it's coming. Before long you may be in pain and thinking up wacky inventions.