Arthur Ransome, best known for children's stories like Swallows and Amazons, is probably the only really stylish angling writer of the twentieth century. His book Rod and Line has little in it that will help you catch more or bigger fish, but Ransome can be relied on to get right to the heart of what makes fishing so appealing and he usually does it by describing nothing more than a day catching gudgeon, or watching the anglers on some remote Russian river ply their rods. Ransome was himself a very keen angler, though disarmingly modest about his abilities.
Only once did he land a carp and it was an experience so shattering that he wrote about it at length. Catching just one carp may sound like a pretty poor show, but until modern tackle and techniques began to develop in the 1950s, carp were considered almost uncatchable.
They were seen as huge, mysterious fish, the inscrutable inhabitants of deep, long-forgotten lakes. They would rarely take a bait and if by chance one was hooked its speed, power and cunning almost always meant the fisherman's tackle was smashed before he realised what had hit him.
Ransome said that even the salmon could not match the carp's appalling pace and anyone who has caught both would probably agree with him. The difficulties of catching carp when Ransome was writing in the early 1900s can be judged by the fact that the British record stood at about twenty pounds at that time. Carp commonly grow to twice that size or more.
When Ransome hooked his carp he was using a multiplier and rod combination on which he'd caught numerous large salmon. Yet when he hooked his carp with the same tackle he admitted he simply could not keep in touch with it. More by luck than judgement he managed to land the fish and was astonished to discover after what he considered an epic battle, that it was really quite a small specimen.
As soon as it was hooked the carp set off at a blistering pace for the far side of the lake. It was so quick that Ransome could not give it line in time and the cast snapped like cotton. Then there occurred one of the strangest events of Ransome's long angling career.
His line had snapped a foot or so above his float and while considering how or even whether he should tackle up again he kept an eye on the lost float, which lay flat on the water and still well out towards the middle of the pond.
As he watched, he saw the float begin to move. It sailed directly towards Rancome's feet. When it came to within six feet of the edge of the lake the float stopped, there was a mighty swirl and a great bronze flank was seen to shoot off towards deeper water. Using his net Ransome retrieved his float, which still had its hook and weights attached.
As he remarked later, it was as though the fish had returned his tackle as if to say: 'Not a bad first attempt. Do try again."
However as an engineer to try again never worked with me when it came to art, my brain just isn't programmed to be artistic and Sam is the same. This effort he came home recently with and at least you could work out what is was. Anyway to the fishing, I wanted some revenge from the chub that Sam lost down at the untrodden but being a busy man this week, my fishing time is very limited indeed, however I decided to set the alarm for 5.00am and have few hours before work.
To be fair I wanted to bring the deeper here as well to see how deep the pool was because I'm sure it could hold some fish. The pool itself was as the deepest 10ft and in the main between 7-8ft. So it carries some reasonable depth that's for sure.
The fish though seemed to be in the shallower half of the pool and I'm not sure what they were because prior to casting the deeper those bits of bread on the surface didn't have much interest apart from some small fish initially. Then a good hour eventually a huge wake where a chub had taken it off the top from a competing duck.
Could it have been a carp though ? Sam reckons "it looks like an area where a carp would live" whatever it was though despite managing a freebee, never came back for more.
So sadly I blanked before curfew called time, however on a positive note I dropped in to the swim I made the other day which was alive with fish because where I secured a couple of SSG shots on the line and the bread hit the bottom it was getting mullered by the peckers !!!
Next time I'll bring some maggots I think just to see what I can pick up. Encouraging signs for sure, because this area was affected by the pollution incident a year ago. Anyway better get off to work, got tax to pay for those sofa dwellers.
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