Have I sinned against the spirit of angling?

[Dick Dastardly]

It's a personal thing, yer angling, and if I can't be true to my own fishy feelings then it's a poor lookout and no mistake.

 

 

 

And thats good enough justification for me mate.

[Wordbender]

I'm a great believer in being true to yourself, but it's a measure of our respective skills that you are able to write off what I'd consider a fish to make me 'retire' from fishing after having caught it, as not worthy of record.

 

Oh, no, no, and thrice no, Alan! It wasn't the fish that failed to be 'worthy of record', it was my bumbling efforts to single out a monster carp.

 

That the majority of my best catches have come through failing to avoid fish, rather than catching the ones I'm actually after, says more about my 'skills' than anything else.

[Alan Stubbs]

Oh, no, no, and thrice no, Alan! It wasn't the fish that failed to be 'worthy of record', it was my bumbling efforts to single out a monster carp.

 

That the majority of my best catches have come through failing to avoid fish, rather than catching the ones I'm actually after, says more about my 'skills' than anything else.

 

I still think you're too hard on yourself. I will always bow to your skills comparative to mine, but - I usually find I have to work through bream or tench to get to the carp where there is a head of either in the lake I'm fishing and getting the carp to take the bait first is, to me, more luck than judgement.

 

It is safely beyond my ability to use tactics subtly enough refined to differentiate between tench and carp - or bream come to that!

[Wordbender]

It is safely beyond my ability to use tactics subtly enough refined to differentiate between tench and carp - or bream come to that!

 

I've caught bream and tench on 24mm boilies and tiger nuts, and stiff rigs, and now on a 20mm pop-up chod rig, but very few, even when they outnumber the carp by ten to one. I also avoid using pellets in venues where bream shoals are a fact of life. Then, I watch and find the carps' feeding places, noting their patrol routes and the times of greatest activity, and plotting my little campaigns around this information. To me, that's being about as skillfully selective as I can.

 

I still fail spectacularly on a regular basis, mind.

[Alan Stubbs]

I've caught bream and tench on 24mm boilies and tiger nuts, and stiff rigs, and now on a 20mm pop-up chod rig, but very few, even when they outnumber the carp by ten to one. I also avoid using pellets in venues where bream shoals are a fact of life. Then, I watch and find the carps' feeding places, noting their patrol routes and the times of greatest activity, and plotting my little campaigns around this information. To me, that's being about as skillfully selective as I can.

 

I still fail spectacularly on a regular basis, mind.

 

The difference is that when you fail, you ensure other people learn from it!

 

I would just end up writing 'I failed because I'm a lousy angler.'

 

It's ironic that I caught a 6lb bream 3 weeks ago using 15mm strawberry and cream boilies whilst looking for some canal carp...and was chuffed to bits as it upped my bream PB but about 4lbs!

The irony is that it took your post to tell me that to avoid pellets if there are bream present. I was using a bed of crushed boilies, pellets, crushed tiger nuts and bound with breadcrumb and tiger nut juice.

The result was carp -0 bream - 5 and the fat man's enjoyment quotient - stratospheric, which is the main thing.

 

The important thing for me was that it was the first time I'd fished the canal but I walk across a bridge daily to get to work. I'd seen a couple of carp nose down by the marina a few times previously and for about a week on my way to work was lobbing in some pva bags

of the bed I was intending fishing over and it made me feel as if I was giving myself a chance. It proved that what I was putting down was certainly a regular attractant. Pity it wasn't carp!

[Wordbender]

I would just end up writing 'I failed because I'm a lousy angler.'

 

Nah, you'd have a think and present us with a most interesting post. I just waffle on and hide my failings in the bluster.

 

The only thing that matters at all, is that we both get more than our fair share of pleasure from what we do. I'm an expert at enjoying angling, I am.

[Anderoo]

My opinion is that, as you were trying to avoid tench and catch very large carp, the spirit of angling dictates that you should allow yourself a wry smile, admire the huge tench, perhaps think about making her aquaintance again under more suitable circumstances, and slip her back. If it was your first double then a snap would probably be in order, but it sounds like you're banging them out one after another, so no need

 

Same goes for the big, ugly carp. I'm guessing that it's not exactly your first 30

 

Still, not a bad session, eh?

 

I guess it just comes down to where we all are on our angling path. Now, if you'd caught that 50lb carp and didn't take a photo because it wasn't pretty enough - that would be a sin!

[Wordbender]

If it was your first double then a snap would probably be in order, but it sounds like you're banging them out one after another, so no need

 

Three double-figure tench in the last decade falls a tad short of 'banging them out one after another', Anderoo, but I get your drift.

 

Whisper this quietly, but last year a carping chum had an 11lb tench and a 12lb monster...in a single night.

[Kappa]

I've caught bream and tench on 24mm boilies and tiger nuts, and stiff rigs, and now on a 20mm pop-up chod rig, but very few, even when they outnumber the carp by ten to one.

 

Wordbender just out of interest, apart from using large baits, what else would you do to your rigs to avoid tench and bream?

 

Rich

[Wordbender]

Wordbender just out of interest, apart from using large baits, what else would you do to your rigs to avoid tench and bream?

 

Rich

 

The opposite of going for the finesse approach, basically, Rich. Stiff rigs, using 15lb ESP Bristle Filament, chod rigs with large pop-ups, zig rigs, especially the variable-depth version using the Drennan sunken float. Also, the 360 rig, using the Fox Series 5 Longshank and a large pop-up. As I say, these don't guarantee a bream-free existence, but they definitely seem to help.