2020: Carp And Covid

By Steve Graham

In 2020 Covid 19 changed the way that we all lived our lives, and not for the better. It put everything into perspective, and compared to the suffering that we all went through, and the loved ones that we lost, carp angling didn`t seem quite so important, but when the lockdown ended, Steve did still go fishing.
Normally Steve would have spent a large part of the year in France, searching for some enormous carp in Picardie, but this year of course, his French fishing was curtailed to a large extent. Instead Steve fished on several local lakes in England, and the book tells of all the adventures that he had during this time. He had a lot of successes, and a quite a few blanks too, on some lakes where the fishing was very challenging, but although it was very different from the angling that he had done in the past, he found it thoroughly enjoyable.
Sit back in a comfy chair and enjoy this fascinating story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve Graham
• Release date: Dec 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005948535

Steve Graham

Steve Graham is a retired financial adviser, who now lives in Staffordshire. He is married to Anita and they have four children – Lynne, John, Diana and Gary, and three grandchildren – Logan, Dylan and Sami. Not forgetting their dog Stan, a Springer Spaniel / Border Collie cross, that is loved by them all. Now that he has retired, Steve spends most of his time doing the things that he enjoys most, which includes writing, walking. Carp fishing, and looking after his grandchildren.

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2020

CARP AND COVID

Steve Graham

Smashwords edition

Copyright Steve Graham 2020

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INDEX

Chapter One – The Somme Canal

Chapter Two – Loeuilly

Chapter Three - Chipilly

Chapter Four - Conty

Chapter Five - Kingstanding

Chapter Six – Back To The Bottom Lake

Chapter Seven – A Day Session In The Rain

Chapter Eight – Success at last

Chapter Nine - Oddstone

Chapter Ten – Coton

About The Author

Other Books By Steve Graham

To my wife Anita.

Thank you for all of your help and encouragement.

CHAPTER ONE – THE SOMME CANAL

I first fished the Somme Canal, in Picardie, in 2019. I’d fished three sessions there, and had caught some lovely fish, with the best being a superb common of 34 lbs.7 oz. I knew that there were carp far bigger than that in there however, and I couldn’t wait to go back, and try to put one of them on the bank. The stretch of canal that I had fished was near to the small village of Sailly Laurette, and was about twenty miles long. Locating the carp in that long stretch of water was the hardest part. If I could find them, then I knew that I could catch them, but in a twenty mile stretch of canal, they might be many miles away. Having fished the canal before, I knew of some swims that had produced carp in the past, and I’d also found a new area that looked promising, and that is where I decided to start my first session of 2020.

The canal definitely holds carp in excess of 60 lbs. in weight, and possibly even bigger, and many of these fish had hardly ever been caught before, so it was exciting stuff. I had a good idea about the tactics that I would use, having caught several carp from there the previous year, and during the winter I spent time getting everything ready for my first session, in the first week of April. Large pop-ups and wafters had worked well for me the previous year, so I made up these special large hook-baits in various colours, but all with the same flavours and ingredients, to match my free-baits. The large baits were necessary due to the large quantity of ravenous bream in the canal, along with the chub that were also a major nuisance. The pop-ups were rolled by hand and were 25 mm. in size, and the wafters were dumbbell-shaped and 35 mm. long. These large hook-baits didn’t keep the bream and chub at bay completely, but they certainly helped, and I’d discovered the previous year, that if I used normal sized hook-baits, then I’d be up all night catching bream, which certainly wasn’t what I wanted. That winter I had all of my reels serviced, and loaded with new line. Parts of the canal bed were covered with mussels and sharp gravel areas, and my normally reliable GR60 nylon main-line hadn’t proved to be man enough for the job. I’d used either long shock-leaders or braided main-line on my last couple of sessions, and both of those had been quite successful, but I’d loaded some of my reels with GLT Pro Tough, which is a very abrasion-resistant line, and I hoped that this might be even better. Everything was ready about a month before I was due to fish, and I can’t ever remember being so well prepared for a session.

At the start of March, I went to Lanzarote on holiday with my wife Anita. We had a lovely time in the warm sunshine, and when we got back I was desperate to get back to France, and was looking forward to pitting my wits against some of those Somme Canal monsters.

Then came Covid 19, and everything changed.

At first we were all in lock-down, so there was no chance of any fishing at all, let alone in France. Eventually the restrictions were eased a little, so I did venture out a few times locally. I took my eldest grandson, Logan, fishing for the first time and he loved it. We went to a small complex of lakes about five miles from my house, and I set him up with a small 3 metre whip. I didn’t fish at all, I just helped Logan, and he started catching roach straight away. We stayed all day, and he caught over 100 fish, which were mainly roach, but he did catch some bream and perch too. Some of those fish were of quite a good size, with several well over half a pound, and Logan had a smile on his face all day long.

When we got back home, Logan asked if we could go fishing again the following week.

‘Can we fish for carp this time grandad?’ he asked.

‘We can if you want Logan,’ I replied, ‘but you do realise that we won’t catch as may fish as we did today. If we catch one or two carp then we will have done well.’

Logan thought about that for a while, and then told me that perhaps he’d rather fish for roach again.

The next week we fished at another small lake, not far away, and once again Logan caught over 100 small fish, and enjoyed himself immensely. The following