My own ‘Moby Dick’ is a ghost carp I’ve seen – hence the AHAB title.
About three years ago I was fishing a small pond in Lincolnshire, when I spotted this fish. It was an early May morning and, for once, the sun was shining as I approached my chosen swim – a swim that had, until recently, been overgrown with reeds and now had been cut back. There were 4 carp of about 6-8 lb basking in the morning sun as I crept up to the water. I dropped a couple pieces of bread into the margin and, naturally, the carp disappeared! I then dropped a couple of handfuls of pellets and boillies into where the carp had been and then set up a simple waggler to fish for the hoards of rudd up in the water. Every half-hour I fished a boilie over the baited area and caught a carp of about 6lb before resting the swim and getting back to the rudd, throwing a few crusts out to tempt the carp to the surface.
About 4 o’clock the rudd sport died off and I managed to get the carp surface-feeding. The boilie rig on the second rod was changed to a free-line set up and a large chunk of bread was cast out. The carp were feeding confidently and I waited for the inevitable take when a ghost carp much bigger than the others – maybe 12lb – came into view. I decided to keep feeding bread and to wait until the ghost carp was right in the swim before lowering my baited hook baited onto the water. The carp, being white with golden markings on its head, was easy to spot but the carp proved a worthy adversary managing to avoid the piece of bread with my hook in it! And so this continued until I packed away. Other carp had succumbed to my ploy but ‘my’ carp had grown too shrewd to make such a mistake!
Over the ensuing three years I have made several trips to that water and each time my carp was there to torment me, feeding in the margins, under my feet, taking bread off the top and feeding right over my bait – but never falling to the hook. I have tried various methods to fool this fish: method feeder in the margin; pellet feeder; no feeder at all or just letting the bait fall to the bottom under its own weight… a small dibbler pole float, fishing slack lines, tight lines, but every time the carp was feeding over my bait it seemed to spot the line and away it swam.
Other carp in the pond aren’t so savvy and I’ve caught them on all methods but the one I want to catch can’t be caught.
I was there last week, catching carp and watching ‘my’ carp feed right next to my baited hook. By now I’d given up trying to target this carp and resigned myself to believing this was an uncatchable fish. Anyway, I was happy catching other fish.
With about an hour to go the carp were feeding confidently in the margin right in from of me and I was catching them on meat with a method feeder. ‘My’ carp visited me often and openly just to show how it could mop-up all the freebies while avoiding my bait! But I just ignored it knowing I’d more chance of sleeping with Nicole Kidman than catching that carp. I made no special attempt for it then.
As I watched the carp, tails up in the water and feeding over my baited hook, I waited like an expectant father for a pull. Then ‘my’ carp appeared, snaffled my bait and tore off across the water in an explosion of noise and spray! Finally I’d done it! I’d hooked the one fish I’d been after for years! It powered sub-surface taking line from the spool at an alarming speed – fast enough to smoke and smoulder it seemed! I had a mental image of the old captain from ‘Jaws’ when they hooked the shark; I was ecstatic, then…disaster! The line went slack and I reeled-in nothing but a loose and wavering line.
I’m not sure how I feel about this now. I finally hooked the carp I’d been after for three years but failed to land it. Am I glad just to have hooked it? Or gutted at the prospect of another three year campaign?
And an even worse scenario has occurred to me: I’ll probably never get to meet Nicole Kidman…..
