The day would start something like this; get up at 3am bleary eyed, light a fag and drink a cup of black coffee (2 sugars), sort out the food, load up the car and then head for the dreaded A406. I tried listening to calming music for a while but it left me vulnerable to the road hogs, as it's a proper race track the North Circular. I also tried extremely aggressive and angry music at one stage, but that was worse, I wanted to take the hogs off the road "Come on, 'ave it you f@#?*%s!" That was just too much!

I had my midweek break on the Wednesday and was out again on the Thursday and was unfortunately not met in the parking place by Adrian as was working so I was out alone, and due to circumstances on the river, I flew straight down to the spot that he'd taken his two commons from on the Monday and blanked… I went to the other spot [the only other spot I was fishing now] and blanked… I went back down to the first spot and… Yes you guessed it… wrong! I actually caught a lovely linear that went a couple more pounds than I expected!

22.2 Linear

To say I was relieved is an understatement, as despite never believing for one minute it wasn't going to happen (sooner or later) it didn't happen until a fair bit later than I expected. That felt a lot better and I was a happy man trundling along to the sounds of Hawkwind, casually making my way back over North London on the race track that evening, inner calm…

I got up Friday and happily zoomed back down the river, hoping that there was still a bit of lightning in the air, crackling the surface of the water. I needn't have trusted being struck by lightning too much but I was certainly struck dumb by what I caught next.

32.6 'Little Fully'

I'd weighed it but hadn't recognised it at the time, as I was absolutely stunned that I had another thirty, plus it was very nervous in the net and went straight in the sack to calm it down. It wasn't the only one that needed a bit of a breather and I called Ashley, Paul and Adrian, to see who could do the photographic honours, and it was Ash that could get there soonest.

The rods went back out and when Ashley turned up I carefully got everything sorted, no rush, no panic. When we opened the sack he recognised it straight away, so I immediately knew it was down a pound on the two occasions it had been caught last year, what an unbelievable fish. I still don't think I've really learnt to appreciate how beautiful this fish is, or how lucky I am to have caught it, and to many folk that know of her existence she is one of 'The One's' to catch on the river. We have some wonderful shots of the lady but I can only put one up and she went back in the water and strongly swam off like nothing had ever happened. The 'Little Fully' is one of Izaak's pearls, long may she travel and wink at the carpers on the bank, 'cos she does like a bit of bait and she ain't shy! Oh, she was a new PB too, can't be bad.

Where do we go from here? I don't suppose I'll ever catch anything quite so pretty from the Ol' Father's collection and with such personal significance, but, as ever, we have to move on…

Adrian came back on board the following Monday and caned me again! Not only does he start me singing the words to all his constant humming of old tunes (I can't help it!), but he invariably tends to take the lion's share of fish too! One of them was a repeat capture from the week before (See Part 2 for proper photo!) and it weighed 4ozs less, probably because it had travelled one and a half miles to get to the other baited spot! Check out the 18.1 near leather, OMG, another fish to die for!

Flipper part two, 18.4 common!

12.11 Mirror

18.1 Near Leather

I didn't have much right to feel jealous, but that near leather does an awful lot for me, another old warrior from the Thames and one that can grace my net any day of the week, a truly superb old fish.

I couldn't fish on the Tuesday (dentist or something, I can't remember?) and on the Wednesday I shot back down the river where I was rewarded by one of the toughest scraps I had the whole summer, this little critter would not allow itself to be brought up through the water at all!

10.14 Ghostie

Cracking looking fish, even though I do say so myself, like a giant goldfish!

On the Thursday I decided to demonstrate how not to take a self-take and the following picture of a common was the better of two attempts! I had tried to lift it on a number of occasions – having landed it rather quickly – and on the third 'going attempt' it tried to go mental, again! I lowered the fish back above the cot that was on my lap but its shoulders were beyond my biceps grip and as I tried to release the pressure and redistribute the weight centrally, it kicked and slid straight back in the water neatly off the side of the rubber boat tube… I waved it good bye and thanked it fully!

Err… 21.10 Common!

17.8 Common

The fish above also beat me up good and proper, it went under the boat, round the mud-weight, it powered on a number of short runs to and from the boat in front of me, both ends and behind. I eventually netted it mid-run as it tried to power back past the boat on a taught line, two foot under the surface, it never looked beat once.

 
Adriano had caught 3 fish on the Monday, no fishing on the Tuesday, and I had had a fish on each of the days I had been out since… I think you could say it had finally come together! Consistency and bait is the key, get out regular, keep baiting and keep at it.

It was a happy weekend of relaxing and we were looking forward to the next day's fishing on the Monday, as anyone would be, surely? It's funny in that regard though, it's easy to start becoming a bit lax and sit back thinking, 'I can have a day off, I've worked really hard and I deserve a rest…'
I will state unequivocally, if you think that and decide to ease up a little and start taking the odd day off – especially when you're on a roll; especially after all the hard work you've been putting in to get to this point – you will miss one of the very few opportunities that you have to fill your boots, seriously. Think 'that' and it's time to give yourself a good kick and to redouble your efforts.

We blanked (?), I blanked (?) on the Monday, I'm not sure? Regardless there were no fish caught on that day, but Tuesday was another productive session. We were entering the last week of August and we were generally seeing plenty of shows [from carp], so we knew they were in the vicinity and getting stuck into the bait and all we had to do, was be there… and wait… rod held in hand, a bit of singing and then… BANG!

11.11 Common

The small common above was another little battler and managed to snag me on a buoy chain, fortunately the leadcore probably saved the day, and after holding it solid for what seemed like an eternity, I just slackened right off for a few seconds then applied full pressure once again. Luckily it headed back towards the trees and not towards the open water, otherwise another unknown 'monster' would have escaped, as I really thought it was a big fish to begin with I have to admit.

Soon after Adriano was on the score sheet once again (need we expect anything less!) and after finally managing to get him to stop shaking and leaking, "Breathe Adrian, breathe!" this lovely split common struck a pose!

17lb Common

And not to be out-done for a change, I caught this rather brutish looking mirror below, which caused me a fair bit of grief as well. Having managed to keep it away from the trees (which I was very good at now, lesson learned!), it quickly found the strong flow behind and downstream of the boat, which whilst it was free from snags, had its own perils.

After a few minutes the fish came up to the top of the water, about 20 yards away from the boat, and it took at least ten minutes to inch back to the boat, it was horrible! I just kept waiting for something to give, as it didn't dive down to the depths (which would have allowed me greater control) and the rod was fully arched over as it turned and twisted in the strong flow, never more than a couple of foot from the surface. The line sang with a loud worrying whistle and it was an excruciating sound, a quiet desperation and tension filled my body and mind…

I had to sit on the far tube of the boat and almost treat the fish as if I was dragging a tree branch against the flow, as I daren't give her any more line whatsoever, as it would have been natural for her to go with the strong currents (and away from the boat) and I doubt I could have recovered the situation. Eventually she was alongside the boat and it was truly a relief, a war of attrition but there she was, nestled in the folds of the net!

25.7 Mirror

18.9 Fully

Needless to say, I was out as often as I could be during the week that followed, but the action began to slow and I blanked for the next four sessions. However, I lost my third fish of the summer when I put maximum pressure on a fish trying to make for a moored boat, the line parted at the needle knot and I wasn't a happy bunny, as usual, it must have been a whopper! But seriously, I think it was…

I stopped baiting quite so much – after the sessions ended – to try and help the fish become a bit more selective and induce more takes. A week to the day, Adrian caught 'The Brute' again, and it was up in weight, as well as a common just after dark.

'The Brute'

14.8 Common

Well, unbeknown to me at the time, the summer carping campaign was going to end shortly. 'Other lifey' things, as ever, swarmed around my time and was shortly going to put an unexpected early halt to the campaign. After fishing with Adriano for the last time on the Wednesday (5th Sept) I went out with Ashley on his boat ('Fools Gold') for the Friday and Saturday.

The Friday saw a couple of fish caught, one for each of us (which is nice when it happens!), and Ash was the first to strike it lucky with another amazing looking fully.

23.8 Fully

When we first saw the fish in the water we both thought it was the 'Little Fully' again, as we were fishing the exact same area, and Ash got a little keen during the playing/landing process! It may be in best keeping giving a little more context to how this next phase played out, as Ash has seen the secretly fabled fish (the 'Little Fully') caught twice last season, and both times it fell to his boat partner. He'd also been down to photograph it for me a few weeks prior to this particular session, and whilst he says that he's not obsessed with the fish, I suspect that he was more than a little bit hungry to see her roll over his net cord and attached to his line! Suffice it to say, that not many of those that are aware of her existence wouldn't have half an eye on catching the fish in truth.

Anyway, the fish in my opinion was nowhere near ready for the net as it swam and rolled – with energy – in front of the boat but Ash thought rather differently and told me so! "Swish the net my good man, sharpish!" I calmly replied, "My dear fellow, you barely have its measure I dare not 'swish' at it!" It got close to the boat once more and he uttered something similar, so I said – rather more firmly this time – "Ashley, my dear chap, bring the damn 'river rabbit' to heel and I'll gaff the chunk when it's blown…"

The fish was landed soon enough but as it dawned upon us that it wasn't the much sought after 'Little Fully' (and what with our gentlemanly discourse betwixt take and netting), it took some of the gloss away from the capture of the fish. However, we soon got our heads back on an even keel and it was just one of the moments really. It's not uncommon to get the 'ump with your boat fishing partner(s), especially when you fish as intensively as the team does (which means that we're often mentally and physically knackered), and we just have to move on quickly from such moments, simple as.

Later on we moved to the next spot and further reward was waiting.

17.9 "Crucian" Common!

The fish above epitomises the Thames as a 'carp water', the weird and wonderful shapes that it throws up are utterly fascinating, I find I like the weirder ones, not because they've got 'character' (an over-used phrase in my book), but simply because they're different.

We went out the next day and Ash came up trumps once again, with another 23lb fish.

23.2 Common

Funnily enough the common gave me the opportunity to net it early and Ash was delighted! We moved back to the other spot for the evening and I had a strange take on the very first chuck. We arrived and set up nice and easy, flicked a little bait about and the bream turned up rather quickly, which was always a good sign in that particular swim. I then saw a carp to the left of the 'sweet spot' and flicked the prepared rod straight on the spot… bang! I had it on for a couple of seconds, I applied the necessary brute force and the hook pulled? Strange really, I'm fairly positive that it wasn't even in the mouth, who knows?

 
And that was that for me, I've hardly been fishing since, I just haven't got any time at the moment.

Neither have I had the time, up until now, to reflect on the summer's campaign that I thought was going to continue well into the autumn or at least until the weather dictated that I could no longer fish from a boat! My life, much like most people I suppose, is always moving at pace and I've hardly had a moment to appreciate what happened over those warmer months, which have well and truly passed. It was very intensive, and whilst I allowed myself a quiet chuckle after I'd had a fish, I always stopped myself from basking in the sunshine for too long, as there was a job to be done…

The Wonderful River Thames