The Fish Of My Dreams

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The Fish of my Dreams Paul Dorman

My passion for fishing started at a very early age. From the age of about six, I used to fish a local club water - where I was quite content to go and catch loads of small fish. I spent a few happy years doing that, but the time came when I started to get bored of it - the small fish were good fun, but I wanted to catch bigger fish.

I remember the first carp I ever caught as though it were yesterday. It's a capture I will never forget and, whilst I have caught many carp much bigger than it since, it was a very special day for me. It was all thanks to my Grandad that I got into fishing - and it was a trip with him that saw me catch that first carp which, in turn, lead to me spending many a happy year indulging in the fantastic hobby that is carp fishing.

It was early one June morning when Grandad and I went to our local club stretch of river - the River Yar, in Brading on the Isle of Wight. It was a very narrow stretch, but it was such a tranquil, peaceful place to be at 4 o'clock in the morning - with the mist rolling off the river and its surrounding fields. I had stayed at Grandad's house the night before - although I hadn't slept much, such was my excitement to be heading off on my first ever carp fishing trip! It was "the buzz" that kept me going despite my tiredness, and what was a very long walk along the river for the little legs of a ten year old.

Local stretch of the River Yar

I'd borrowed a rod from Grandad - it was one of Richard Walker's split cane rods - and an old reel - how much tackle has changed in the time that has passed. We walked along the river until I found a spot I just knew I wanted to fish! I hurriedly set my rod up and baited the size 14 hook with a couple of grains of sweetcorn - side-hooked as back then I didn't know what a hair rig was! I cast it close to a large set of lily pads and put the rod down on my "Heron" bite alarm. The fresh air and tiredness got the better of me and I had clearly dozed off, as about 3 hours later I was rudely awakened by that unique sound of the Heron going off!

After a short battle (that at my age felt a lot longer than Grandad told me it actually was!) we managed to bundle it into the net. It was my first carp - a beautiful mirror that the passing club baliff told us was a fish known as "Fatty Lumpkin"! It weighed 10lb 4oz and looked absolutely enormous to me. I can remember how my hands were shaking with excitement as I unhooked it - I had the bug - I had fallen in love with carp and from that day I imagined myself catching fish like the ones in the photo's that Dick Walker himself had caught! Maybe one day I really could catch a huge common carp like the infamous Clarissa?

I remember how I saved up all of my pocket money - whilst my friends were spending theirs at the local sweet shop - just to buy a couple of cheap carp rods and reels. I put these to good use catching lots and lots of small carp from local club waters - my pal and I would regularly catch 25 to 30 carp between us in a night! A bit like when I first started catching small fish, it was only a matter of time before I wanted to catch something bigger. It so happened that my Dad and a small number of his friends had recently secured fishing rights for a local venue - which they took on and formed a small syndicate. I thought that this could be the start of what I needed in order to catch my dream fish! The first thing the new syndicate did was to drain the lake, remove the large number of small carp and re-stock with a far smaller number of hand-selected stock-fish - comprising 13 upper doubles and some smaller stockies. The lake was kept closed for the first year, and we fed it heavily. The first of June came and the lake was opened with a nice bbq for the syndicate members. I was down there early to spend a bit of time finding where the fish were hanging-out. It was clear that they were in an area near the pads - so I hurried to secure the Pads Swim. At 4 a.m. I had a take but unfortunately it fell off. Things that year didn't go well for me - I was down there most weekends and ended up with just one carp on the bank - a fish that went 16lb 9oz.

All this time I was working hard, trying to learn more and more about how to catch carp - from my own observations of how the carp behaved and from reading various carp fishing magazines. I felt I was getting wiser all the time and, although I knew it was never going to be easy, the longer I went without catching a fish, the lower my spirits became. It was made worse when I did catch - as other anglers (who were also struggling regularly) seemed to take an aversion to anyone else who caught. This lowered my spirits further - I wanted to enjoy my fishing and the company of those around me, not suffer at the hands of the jealous big fish hunters. The straw that broke the camels back was when I went to the lake for a couple of hours one morning armed with just the one rod and a kilo or so of trout pellets. Casting out, within five minutes I had a bite and ended up landing my first 20lb mirror carp. I asked one of the other members to take a photo for me - which he took exception to, presumably having blanked the previous 5 nights himself. That saw me give up fishing entirely for over 6 years.

Around about two years ago, the syndicate folded so that gave me an opportunity to return to the water, safe in the knowledge that those who had been so unsporting previously, had probably moved on to other waters. Again, it was down to Grandad - who had gone there as soon as it became "free-access" once more - and ended up catching a big common of over 40lb! That fish brought back those memories of Dick Walker's Clarissa, and I knew I just had to catch it.

The fish that inspired me - Dick Walker with 'Clarissa'

Last year - early March, after we had seen the last of the snow - I made my return. On the very first trip I caught a mirror of 24lb 5oz, which was a new PB for me. I was confident of more after that promising start and set myself a target to catch 14 fish that year - and to get the big common!

A mate and I were fishing regularly - one night I had a take and was devastated to lose it after a 15 minute battle. The rod was promptly deposited into the nearby undergrowth and I retreated to my bivvy to sulk - thinking there was every possibility that I had lost the fish I so badly wanted and knowing that it could be another two years before it picked up another bait! I got throught that - ending up doing 16 over-nighters for a total of 9 carp and a catfish. Whilst that seemed a reasonable result, I couldn't help but think about the number of times I had had carp all over my baits all night (I saw the big common roll over me on at least one occassion) and yet ended up with no bites. I started to lose confidence in my approach - and decided I wanted to try a different bait. I scoured the Internet - there were lots of bait companies out there - but the one that caught my eye was CarpBaitUK. They seemed to have some fresh and innovative ideas. A few e-mails to Dave and a good chat with him confirmed to me that they did indeed have a refreshing approach and I became a tester for them.

I plumped for The JoB and orded the first batch of the bait. It has a lovely smell and I just knew it was going to be a winner! I didn't actually get to fish much that season - only the odd trip here and there when the girlfriend would allow it (yeah, I bet you're all thinking that I was under the thumb........... and you'd be right!) After the cold winter we had early on, I think the girlfriend was fed up with me moping around the house and agreed to let me do a bit of time - so I started to empty the contents of the freezer into the lake during the milder weather at the end of January. I felt like I was baiting quite heavily seeing as it had only just started to warm up - putting a kilo of bait out every other night, scattered around a few likely looking areas. My first trip ened up with a 22lb 6oz Mirror on the bank. Happy days! The second trip was a blank. The third trip wasn't really planned - I'd taken a stroll down there during my lunch break, with a kilo or so of bait ready to introduce, but the second I got there I just sensed I had to be fishing! It was very much a spur of the moment thing, but as soon as I finished work for the day, I was down at the lake getting the rods out. All rods were baited with The JoB - one placed just off a large bed of rushes, another on the drop-off and the other on a small plateau. I fished a PVA bag of crushed JoB baits, mixed with JoB pellets to which I added some glug. I baited the general area with about 300 baits, all scattered widely across the area in an effort to get the fish hunting for the food. At 0745hrs, the sound of the left hand Delkim startled me as it screamed into life. Fishing close to the reeds, I reacted quickly and was on it in an instant. The rod took on a healthy battle curve and I could tell straight away that it was a good fish. It stayed very deep and just "plodded" about for the best part of fifteen minutes before I finally saw it break the surface. As it finally realised it was defeated, I slipped the net under her and realised I had landed the fish that I was after - the fish of a life-time and the one I had dreamt of catching! I really didn't expect to catch it so quickly!

Paul's Big Common of 42lb. 15-Feb-2011