Total Carp Magazine

The river is starting to look really good now, I’ve only done one night there this month and blanked, but what’s been most encouraging is that I’ve been seeing fish, and one was an absolute clonker! I’ve set myself a target of catching a 20lb+ fish from the stretch this winter, and from what I’ve seen and heard it’s certainly possible. A lot of anglers would smirk at a target weight that low but, to me a river 20 holds as much merit as a lake-caught 30 or even 40 pounder, they’re certainly equally as rare. Also, from my experiences catching mid-double, wild river carp I can be assured that those elusive 20’s would scrap a whole lot harder than their lake cousins of a similar size. To emphasise this point more, I call river carp Robo-carp! The pic for this month’s blog is a 19lb original from my local quarry pit, estimated to be around 25 years old.

It was one of two fish caught on a hard 48-hour session, and it came as I was packing up. Was it worth it, too right, it just goes to show they don’t have to be chunks for you to get the buzz!

Pete McKenna