THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Carp need not be difficult fish to catch. Often it's anglers who make it difficult. On the one hand by
bombarding them with more high quality food than it's healthy for them to be eating, while on the other,
as a result of being caught repeatedly on those baits or similar, failing to show flexibility, not so much
to think outside the box, but to try other tested approaches which may have slipped from favour over
the years.
Let me quote a couple of examples. Graeme and I once spent a week on Lundy Island exploring the
shore and boat fishing options there for the Landmark Trust.
One particular day, we'd yomped over the peat encrusted tops to try for wrasse from some rock ledges
on the far side. Being so rocky, steep, and wild, bait was always a problem, and all we could muster
was a few limpets prised from the rocks and a couple of soft mackerel from the previous day out in the
boat.
On the way back we must have taken a
slightly different route, because we
stumbled across a craggy little
indentation filled with pea green water
on top of the cliffs that we hadn't seen
previously. Obviously it was
freshwater, and the colouration was
due to algae. Then we saw something
create a bulge under the surface.
some sort of fish.
Lundy Island cliff top pond
Unable to see exactly what it was due
to the discolouration, we sat down and
watched, and it happened again. In fact
it happened several more times, but
still without giving away what was
causing it, though surely it must be
Intrigued to know what they were, we dug out the lightest monofilament we could find and tied a length
to the end eye of our shore rods, then using the smallest hooks we could muster, baited up with mackerel
strip on one and limpet on the other, we laid down on the rock edge and lowered them in. That afternoon
we finished up with around thirty small carp.
The next example is a video made by Graeme himself. This wasn't the first time he'd done what I'm
about to recount. In fact, I recorded an audio interview with him on the topic, then persuaded him to
repeat it on camera, which he later did.
It involved popping into a super-market and buying a roast dinner ready meal comprising all the usual
stuff such as slices of meat, potatoes, veg and gravy. This was then taken to a local carp water where
every element of that meal was used as bait to catch carp, including even the serviette which he'd soaked
in the gravy.
Okay, so it isn't serious fishing. It's a joke. But what it does is very clearly demonstrate, as with the
Lundy example, is that carp need not be difficult fish to catch and are there to be enjoyed rather than
get all secretive and serious about.
What Dick Walker might have made of the current 'serious' carp scene is anybody’s guess. Talking to
carp historian Chris Ball, who probably has a better handle on what the great man might have made of
his legacy than most, the suspicion is that Walker would probably have been appalled.
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