On The Bank: Gorgeous Grange Carp

This weekend it was time for a trip to a new venue and after much deliberation we decided on The Grange from our BMAC card.
Grange fishery is a small pool just over an acre with an island in the middle, it is known to be full of carp up to nearly 20lb. There are f1's, crucians, commons, leathers and some of the best looking mirror carp I have ever seen.

It was not a bad sort of morning weather wise quite bright but there was a chill in the wind. The fishing started really slowly too. Toby's swim was first to show any sign of activity, but it was a good couple of hours before my old mate finally caught a fish. Free-lining a halibut pellet in the margins netted Toby the first of some really pretty scaled mirror carp, another small carp this time a common fell to the same tactics about twenty minutes later. And then that was it for ages, the three of us really started to struggle for a fish. I was beginning to get a little fed up, but not as cheesed off as a couple of guys who fished the other side of the pool. Despite catching a few fish each the other anglers around the pool had called it a day by lunch time, claiming it to be a real off day for the place. Liam and I had started to discuss the possibility of making a move ourselves, he had resorted to float fishing single maggot for a silver or too.Toby however having been a lot luckier wanted to stick it out, so with that we carried on after lunch.
I made a bit a change from maggot feeder to a cage feeder, that I was filling with a sticky mix of different sized pellet. This seemed to do the trick as my worm hook bait started to get a bit of attention, my little quiver-tip started to get a few bumps and knocks. But I was missing bites and starting to get frustrated with myself. Around 3pm my rod tip lurched round and there was no missing this bite, I was finally connected to fish. I declared to my chums that this didn't feel like much of a fish, thinking it might have even been a bream as I brought it close in fairly quickly. At this point however it started to give a better account of its self not wanting to come up to the surface for quite a bit. When I eventually did get her head up, I didn't expect it to be that big. Excitedly I got her in the sling to be weighed hoping that she was finally my double figure carp I have been after for ages.

After being weighed twice and re-weighed just in case, my fish was declared to be 9.4lb. A very nice specimen but alas still not a double figure fish. It was however the fish that opened the flood gates as we all started to catch at regular intervals. Well I say "we all " but I mean Toby and I, Liam was still struggling to get his swim going even though there were fish around him rustling in the reeds. Both Toby and I had caught four a piece before our buddy's perseverance paid off with really great looking mirror.

This was to be Liams only carp for the day unfortunately for him, but the good fishing continued for Toby and I. We soon added a fifth and six to our tally catching a couple of nice commons and again some very nicely marked mirrors. The majority of our fish were not much over 5lb but really good fun on quite light tackle as they fight like hell, your never really sure how big its going to be until its landed.
Darkness was starting to draw in sadly bringing us to the end of what had turned into a great session for us, and carp were swirling round near the surface in front of us. Being the only one with a rod left still set up Liam and I urged Toby to flick his free-lined pellet out over a good sized fish we had just seen surface, while we waited for him to finish packing up. He gave his pellet a little under arm flick and must have put it right on to the fishes nose, the take was instant and fight was good. With the last cast of the day Toby bagged himself not only the final fish of the day but the biggest!

It weighed in at 9.6lb just an oz heavier than mine, but it seems on closer inspection to be the same fish, just fattened on all the pellets we had been feeding!
What do you think readers is that the same fish I had earlier in the day? It sure looks that way and if it was I'm telling Toby it didn't count!