“Fishing can be as simple as you make it”
Sometimes a hook and a biscuit is all you need for success
AMATE of mine was saying the trouble with fishing nowadays is that it’s too complicated. Well, I use depth-finders, bait boats and fancy rigs, but nobody’s forcing me to.
Just the other day I caught a carp with just a hook and a single dog biscuit. I decide for myself how technical I want my fishing to be.
Let me tell you a bit more about the capture of that carp. At first, I was fishing the ‘beachcaster’ rig, which is about as complicated as it gets. On its day it’s devastating but this time, apart from a small mirror, I hadn’t taken a fish. After a few hours of drifting dog biscuits across the surface without another take I heard the odd ‘slurp’ of carp on the other side of the pool.
A quick check through the binoculars (which I always carry with me) and I could make out a number of good carp waiting for my loosefed biscuits to settle in the margins. They were taking them inches from the bank.
I quickly set up a rod with a dog biscuit on a size 10 hook – sometimes it takes a couple of attempts to get the hook through the biscuit without splitting. With a few more hookbaits in my pocket, my rod and a landing net, I was off
round to the other bank to catch one of these clever fish.
To get into position without the carp seeing me, I used my ‘John Wilson’ walk, crouching low like he did so many times in his TV films. The marginal grass is growing now and I was able to peer through it. At first the fish seemed to spook, but after 15 minutes of my not making a move, a couple of nice carp began to take the biscuits again. It was incredible to be there. Slowly, a carp’s face rose from the depths. I was looking at it head on – its fins were held out horizontally as its big orangelined mouth sucked in another biscuit. I did this about three times, and it was if the carp was looking into my eyes before it took the bait.
The next time, as it sank back out of sight, I pushed just a few inches of the rod out from the bank and just held the hookbait steady, with no line on the surface, in the exact spot where the fish had been taking.
It took longer for her to come up this time, but just when I thought she’d sussed me out she came into view. How could she not see me?
Nevertheless, I saw the bait disappear into her mouth and struck. As I hooked her and she thrashed the water with her big tail, at least another five carp vortexed or leapt from the water in panic mode.
My fish tried to get as far away from me as possible and the first run was impressive, but after that it was a slow plod to the net. A couple of photos and she was back in the water. It shows how fishing can be as simple as you care to make it… in this case using just a hook and a bait!