Hampshire Avon Carp

November onwards has been a good spell for me over the last three years because it’s then that I start travelling along the south coast from Hastings to the famous Royalty Fishery on the Hampshire/Dorset border to fish for the river Avon carp.

On my first trip three years ago I landed my biggest Avon fish of 23lb 8oz and I have looked forward to fishing it each winter since then. Myself, Ian Welch and a couple of others, namely Adrian Smith and Dave Green, alias the Fat Northern Git, went down for a days barbel fishing in late September but I felt I should have been carping. So when Ian phoned to say he was going back for a three day trip towards the end of November I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, the third day coincided with my birthday so management said I could fish for two days but I had to be back for the Saturday.

Things did not look good prior to the trip with heavy rainfall and a drop in temperatures, but after a couple of phone calls to the bailiff Ian and I decided to go anyway. The conditions did not look good for Ian’s barbel but I knew from previous experience that the carp were willing to feed in just about any conditions.

As usual I arrived early in Christchurch so I parked the car up by the Parlour Pool and had a walk down to Watersmeet in the darkness. The river was well up, in fact it was over in the fields on the eastern bank but my favourite swim was fishable if I wore waders. I quickly returned to the cafe and ordered breakfast and waited for Ian to turn up. By the time he arrived with John, his mate, I was tucking into my fry-up. They couldn’t understand what the hurry was but I needed to be first in the queue for a day ticket so that I could get into Watersmeet before anyone else.

Now let me tell you that driving a car in a bib and brace and a pair of waders is not easy, but it has to be done if you want just one swim on a mile of river. There is no booking swims on the Royalty so it’s first come-first served as it were, and believe me I intended to be first after driving for 2 1/2 hours along the flooded south coast.

Anyway, all went to plan and I set up in Watersmeet. The swim looked fantastic, the main river belting through opposite and the steady flow of the Parlour Pool meeting just below the Island. To cast to where I wanted I had to wade to the side of the swim and flick the bait out sideways because of the overhanging trees. The water level was so high that an overhead cast was impossible and the rods were set up where I would normally sit. The horrible cold, wet feeling, in my left boot told me that my waders had sprung yet another leak since last winter and facing two days of wet feet did not enthral me I can tell you. But I was in my favourite swim, so what the heck!

I half expected a take straight away because it looked so good and on previous trips I have had action almost immediately, but when Ian phoned at midday I had nothing to report. My buzzers had been ominously quiet mainly due to the lack of weed that was coming down the river. The flooding the previous weeks had gotten rid of all the dying weed so it was not hanging up on the line. I had seen nothing roll under the big willow tree opposite and the only thing moving were the coots who had found my boilies in the clear water. They can be a real pain at times picking up free offerings and eventually the hook bait.

At 12.15 I had a two-bleep drop-back so I hit it with the usual result. All hell broke loose as one angry carp tried to get into the fast flow of the main river, but once I had stopped its initial downstream charge it just plodded about in mid-river. After filling up my wader yet again I netted a superb looking 14lb common. Some people will find it hard to see why I get excited over a double-figure common but this looked like a Brian Mills carving and to catch in such adverse conditions is brilliant.

I phoned Ian to tell him and placed it in a sack until he arrived. Now that I’d caught the pressure was off and tomorrow I could go barbel fishing without thinking I had wasted a trip by not fishing for the carp.

After we had photographed the fish Ian sat with me drinking coffee and I said it would be nice to catch another one. Only on three occasions have I had more than one bite in a day on the Royalty and on the previous two the second fish had been lost. Well, almost to order and with my photographer present the same rod was away. This time it was a more positive bite, ie, the rod nearly being pulled off the rests as an angry carp headed for the main current. The fish stayed deep down for a while but when it came to the surface all I could see was a mass of bright orange carp spinning in the water trying to shed the hook. The Royalty commons are normally golden bronze but this was some thing else. All the praying to the Carp God worked because under the lens of the Boss the fish was netted.

Now somewhere in my book, ‘River Carping’, I say something like when river carping you never know what’s coming next and for a time I was almost speechless, apart from the odd swear word. I think you will agree that the 15lb 8oz Koi is one of the most stunning fish you are likely to see but from the Avon I could not believe it.

Andy Sloane, the head bailiff, was summoned on the phone and after seeing the fish said he had seen it in the river for the last ten years or so. He had watched it grow along with the other Koi which is even bigger. My fish had not been caught for three years or so and he was pleased to see it looking so healthy. I did ask if I could catch the other one ever so nicely but he was not impressed.

Ian departed on his barbel wanderings and I sat glued to the rods not really daring to think I would get another bite. At just after three o’ clock the buzzer bleeped twice and the rod tip nodded, so I struck again, hardly daring to think it was another take. The rod was nearly pulled down flat as a powerful fish shot under the branches of the willow. But all of a sudden the tip straightened and it was gone. My hooklength had been bitten off a couple of inches above the hook, I did swear quite a lot but three fish in the day was more than I deserved.

As we sat in the pub that evening having a meal Ian was hardly surprised that I would not be barbel fishing the next day and that I would be back at Watersmeet. There must have been a shedful of carp in and around the Parlour and Watersmeet due to the heavy flow on the main river and I wanted to take full advantage of it.

During the last winter I had only caught three fish from six trips to the Royalty so catching two on my first trip was brilliant. Once again I was first in the queue for a day ticket and first in to Watersmeet. I baited up the same as the day before. Two pouchfuls of trout pellet and two of boilie bits. Both rods were baited with 22mm frozen Tutti Frutti boilies and I sat and waited. Shortly afterwards Ian wandered along having this time parked his car in the Parlour car park instead of the main car park. Sarcastically he asked why I had not caught anything yet so I told him I would not bother him today with taking photo’s unless it was a twenty. After a quick coffee he moved off downstream to fish the Pipes swims.

He couldn’t have been gone three quarters of a hour when I had an extremely fast take. Once again the fish refused to come off the bottom and I did not see it until it was virtually under the nearside weedbed. Of course it buried itself in there for a while, but steady pressure and a great deal of swearing – which I have found helps – coaxed it out and into the net.

One look in the bottom of the net told me that I would have to disturb my photographer from his barbeling. Once again it was a common out of the top draw – perfect. The weight was of secondary importance but 20lb 12oz of Royalty common caught from a flooded river is not to be sniffed at.

The rest of the day? Well, an hour later it started to rain and I don’t think it stopped for two more days. Ian went home early after not getting a bite in two days but I stayed to the bitter end hoped for another bite, but it was not to be. I wish I had taken Ian’s lead and left with him because of the traffic and the rain. It took me 3 1/2 hours to get home but it was worth it and as another big bloke once said, “I’ll be back”.

Wish I had his money though, and then I could buy the Royalty for myself.