We're Not The Same

As I was walking upstream I was inspecting the bushes by the footpath, still a few berries but just a few. I still fancied there would be plenty of fish hanging out by the bushes. There were but although a lot of them were looking up they were more spread out than I'd have liked. When they're bunched up under the bushes, they race each other to the fly and often commit to the eat out of competition rather than certainty that the fly is for eating. As it was, the fish were less reckless and my first couple of shots further out from the bush were met with inspection followed by refusal. I hooked a fish under the bush which came to the fly plopping in close and ate it quick. It then managed to get me wrapped up under the bushes and after a couple of minutes I decided to let the tension off in the hope that the barbless fly would fall out of its mouth, it did and I got everything back but had to tie a new leader. By the time I was ready the fish had started milling around happily again so I cast to one giving it a fairly short lead, only a couple of feet so it would notice the fly landing. It swam quickly towards the fly, opened it's mouth as if to eat then spooked away. I decided that and the earlier refusals were probably because the fly was floating too high, so I did the old trick that was so effective for fry feeders back home in winter and squeezed half the fly under water so the deer hair would sponge up the water and make the fly ride much lower in the film. It seemed to work as the next 2 fish ate fairly confidently, but then the refusals started again.

I could probably have persevered with the berry fly and caught a few more but, I had a nice shallow flat stretch to the next bush and could see tails waving happily so I switched to a backstabber and was met with instant success with fish charging the fly and eating so aggressively it was impossible not to hook them, some even hooking themselves which is incredibly rare for carp on a river. I briefly put a deer hair berry back on at the next bush, but the fish were still being a bit finicky so I went back to the back stabber and just picked up fish all the way down the river. I had about 25 by the time I stopped, but I didn't deserve 25, a good few fish ate on bad shots that would normally be too close or too far or just noisy and clumsy entry. If the fish hadn't been so seemingly suicidal, I'd probably only have had about 18, which still isn't bad but is a bit more reflective of how well I fished vs normal carping conditions.

Talking to some folk in one of the carp groups afterwards I was pulled up by an English guy who like to fish for them with floating feed pellets and a pellet fly. I've made my thoughts on that clear in the past, but I'll repeat them here; folk can do what they want if it's within the rules, but if bait is involved, for me it's not fly fishing. This might seem to be in contradiction with my last couple of FPs, but it's not. If I had a small, say 3 acre lake nearby, I would occasionally go and fish floaters for the carp there, but I'd be using an 11ft Avon rod, a baitrunner filled with floating braid and a controller float. A thoroughly pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon and it's just a more efficient way to do that kind of fishing. Anyway, this guy who uses a fly rod to bait fish was trying to equate the mulberry fishing to pellet fishing. It's not the same, I can't understand how anyone could think it's the same thing. Aside from the fact that the mulberries are a natural food item and not being loose fed, exploiting the mulberry hatch-or infact catching wild carp eating any forage - on a river involves a lot more work than rocking up at a peg on a small stocked pond and then sitting on your arse throwing feed in until the fish switch on then without getting up off your arse casting to the edge of the feed and waiting. I doubt he was expecting the response, but I notice a lot recently as carping becomes more popular that more and more (mostly English and Welsh) "experts" are turning up to educate myself and others who've been doing it quite successfully for years and it's wearing a little thin. Again, if it's allowed and it's fun they should fill their boots. But! They're not doing what I and the other guys like John Montana, Ryan mock and those guys fishing the Spanish reservoirs are doing, which frankly requires a level of casting competence, water craft and knowledge of fish behaviour that is light years ahead of fishing over pellets.