In 2004 I finally did something I had been thinking about doing for almost twenty years, to go and catch another carp from a river, only this time by angle and not just by good fortune. It's at times like these that my adrenaline really gets up and dare I say it's the same for most carpers.

Having that original thought and inspiration that takes you on to an adventure in pursuit of a dream and hopefully beyond to success is something that drives us all to the bank I guess, in one way or another. I am a gregarious person by nature but I spend an awful lot of my time on my own and it's the solitude I find in angling which I believe is the thing that attracts me so much, on rivers that solitude can be in abundance.

The importance of finding the carp on a river is penultimate, unlike a lake where given a change in conditions within the period you are there you can find yourself on them. In a lake the fish swim round and round, in a river they swim up and down. Now this sounds obvious but the point is that carp in a lake will almost always be within your grasp but in a river they can be miles away and so finding them can be impossible. Unless of course you make the river your best friend, the one you visit the most, think of the most and nurture.

All relationships need nurturing if a substantial outcome is the aim nothing that's worth anything comes easy. It is perhaps not so much the catching of the fish that is the reason behind all the effort but the desire we all have to achieve and be successful.

So how do we go about finding carp in a river? Well considering how relatively few anglers currently fish for them asking around might draw a complete blank. One, because of the small amount of experience gathered and two, well secrecy of course. When I decided to fish the cam in 2011 all I had was my previous experience's to go by and fortunately they were rather successful.

By the summer of 2004 I had been fishing the Woolpack lakes for two years. At that time I was bringing up two small children on my own and so time to fish was minimal, short sessions were the order of the day. Traveling up and down the A14 to Godmanchester to fish these sessions had also taken its toll too and the appeal of carp fishing right on my doorstep without all the travel began to occupy my mind more and more. Suffice to say by the late summer of that second year I was getting itchy feet and the urge to move away and find some solitude and adventure of a different kind was ever present in my mind.

It was then that the capture of that carp from the lesser Granta near my home in the village of Great Shelford way back in 1983 came to mind. That 'thought and inspiration' to fish the Cam five minutes from my house unraveled in my mind and the plans just fell out. Perfect! I could drop the kids off to school fish for a few hours, go to work and be back in time to pick them up at three thirty. Being so close to the river meant that even on the days I could not fish I could still go down and observe and bait up, so I began to make my plans.

My local section of the river Cam is about 4 miles long and is a 10-minute bike ride away. This particular stretch of the Cam is run by 'The Cambridge Fish Preservation and Angling Society'. When you buy your CFPAS club ticket you will see from the map provided in the club book that the river is divided into two distinct sections. The A section starts from near the center of town and continues down to Baits Bite Lock. The B section stretches from Baits Bite Lock to Clayhythe Bridge just outside the village of Waterbeach. The nearest stretch of the Cam to me is the A section and so I decided that this would be where I'd begin the task of locating any carp that were present in the river.

My approach to the location of the carp in the Cam would be by observation and feature finding with the aid of a rod and line set up as a marker rod. Features in rivers are things such as gravely/sandy runs, drop-offs, weed and reed beds or structures like bridges and sluices and of course boats and fallen or overhanging trees etc., in fact anything that breaks up the river course or sets it apart. The trouble is the Cam has all these features in abundance and so the question had to be revised to where was I not going to start?

Monday found me cycling along the towpath and wandering along the meadow bank for three or more hours tree climbing and fish spotting. Time spent staring into the gin clear water with Polaroid glasses gave me a better idea of the type of habitat I would be fishing in, as well as an idea of the type of areas I should concentrate on.

That evening four areas were selected as the most likely places to find carp out of the numerous possibilities. I baited these areas with a few handfuls of boilies each day for the next two days. All of the areas I intended to fish could be observed clearly from the bank or from up a tree so I had a good idea if the bait was being picked up or not. After the pre-baiting I selected the area that I had seen carp frequent and where the bait had all gone. I put in two six hour day sessions on the Thursday and Friday, and I blanked miserably!

Back to the drawing board! As the weekend passed I gave a lot of thought to my two fruitless sessions. I still felt that this was a very good swim, and so I decided to continue in the same area for another week of short sessions. I suspected that the carp traveled up and down the river locating food as they went. Sitting put in an obvious area like the sewer outfall with its raised temperatures and flow gave me the chance of intercepting any of these carp as they passed through which they undoubtedly would.

Changes were made to my rigs and setup as well as my approach. Fishing on the Cam for carp had already taught me a number of valuable lessons.

Lesson one was backleads, oh how important they are! As the river is navigable you will have narrow boats and cruisers passing by as well as the college boat crews which are the main reason for their use.
You will find that most boat users will steer a course away from your bank, however college and club rower's are often given little choice as to the course they must steer and so you should be tolerant of this. Rods should be positioned so that the tips are only just over the edge of the bank. Backleads should then be used to pin the line tight into the near margin, this hopefully will ensure against any boat traffic. There are many types of backlead and they all work well, however since I did not want to bury my line into the near bank weed beds and the cost of losses was eating into my bait budget I came up with an alternative that solved both issues. 14-gram arlsey bombs are very inexpensive; with the addition of a length of 5lb mono-filament line and a plastic ring I had the ideal backlead.

Lesson two was to go back to basics and re-tie all my rigs, I did not need complex rigs as these carp had most likely never been caught before so I went for simplicity. I pre-tied a dozen rigs with popups, 9 inches of 15lb Merlin and a nice sharp size 4 with a very bright popup bait tied on, this I felt would fit the bill nicely. Figure of eight loops were tied on the ends for quick changing of the rig and bait should it become needed. Now, one thing that should always be remembered about fishing a river with a flow is that your rigs will reset much better! So simplicity is often all that's needed. Besides like I say you are fishing for carp that in all probability don't see hooks and rigs that often or indeed at all in many cases.

The following 6 hour session on the Monday produced my first result, a bream of 4lbs! Followed by another and another and another! I ended the day with eight bream between 4-6lbs and a very slimy pair of jeans, back to the drawing board! Now I knew that carp frequented the area I was fishing as I had seen them pass in and out of it, I had also noticed that all the bait had disappeared. Trouble was I was only guessing really. Until I either caught a carp, or witnessed one picking up the bait I could not say for sure if they were responsible for the boilies disappearing or the bream.

It was now September and all I had to show for my efforts over the past week was a pair of smelly, slimy jeans. August had slipped by and I knew that I had only three or four weeks at the most to achieve a result. I had changed my rigs and tweaked my setup adding a further third rod so I could cover all three lines of the river. The tow-path margin provided some nice sandy gravel areas with reed and weed beds and the center of the river had the deeper channel with the drop-offs. The far bank which was the meadows side was completely different to the towpath side in that it was undisturbed. With just the meadow providing the bank-side it was untouched, there were shallow sandy/gravely areas between vast weed beds that just screamed carp and it was here that I had my first river Cam carp from. At a little under 18lbs it had me shaking with excitement and a huge sense of achievement. To say I was pleased with the capture of this carp was a complete understatement, I was ecstatic!

On hooking, the carp powered off taking line with such ease I was totally shocked and surprised! One second I was sitting there contemplating leaving after having stayed on an extra three hours and the next I was standing there with my rod fully bent over and the clutch buzzing! Before I could gather myself the carp hit the weed and buried itself amongst its tangled tendrils oh no! Not in there! I shouted. The carp must have heard me because it did a complete 180 degree turn and swam back out of the weed and straight past me back up the river. I moved back up the river with it continually winding down until I was opposite, and there it was in the middle of the river holding itself against the current and the pull of my line.

The carp looked amazing with its golden flanks and bright fire orange fins shining in the evening sun. I had it in the back of the net a few heart stopping minutes later where the hook fell out. Brilliant! I asked a slightly amazed passer-by if they would take a photo for me, they duly obliged and I slipped the carp back. For a few moments the fish sat calmly in the water's edge, but then with a powerful flick of its tail was gone.

The next day I could not wait to get down to the river, I loaded up my bike, slung my rod bag over my shoulder and rode off into the cool crisp early morning air down the cycle path to the Cam. As I rode along I kept on thinking to myself 'how big would they go?' The morning sun started its climb into the sky as I tackled up, four hours later I was beginning to wonder if this was going to be yet another blank session. I decided to go for a quick climb up a near-by tree to see if I could spot any fish movement. When I reached as high as I could climb I looked out over the river to the gaps in the huge weedbeds in the margin. Immediately I spotted a small group of carp in a gap browsing over the flat clean sandy bottom. Quickly I climbed down, grabbed the near margin rod and tied a new ready-made rig & bait on with the addition of a pva-mesh bag of boilies. This was then gently cast underarm into a gap in the weed about 10 feet upstream of the browsing group of carp. Placing the rod onto the rod rest I started to clip the line into the indicator when I felt the line tighten and the tip of the rod bend.

Picking up the rod I quickly wound down, the carp bore deep and roared past me upstream and for a moment I thought I had a biggy on. Within a minute though the carp was beaten and over the net, upon lifting I knew that I had not got a monster but I was none the less very pleased. A golden leather carp of just over 10lbs lay in the net. After returning the carp I placed another bait out into the gap in the weedbeds in the margin and sat back with a silly grin on my face. Twenty minutes later the same rod roared off again, I leapt up spilling coffee everywhere and grabbed the rod.

The carp came to the surface with a huge boil and slap of its tail. The rod lurched over and I had no choice but to stagger towards the carp just trying to stay in touch.

The carp had found its bearings and charged off down the river pulling my rod over to its very limit! The clutch started to give line; I placed my finger on the spool to slow down the loss. The carp turned and made for the deeper channel in the center of the river while I just held on, my heart pounding from the frantic first few seconds. The carp held in the deep channel and I decided to use the moment to regain my composure. As yet I had not seen the carp and so had no idea how big it was but it felt much bigger than the last.

Now it's at moments like these that we sometimes rush things and lose big fish so now with my composure returned I decided to let the carp make the next move. Again the carp made for the weedbeds that littered the margins. I applied pressure each time the carp lunged and managed to turn it each time and slowly but surely the carp tired. It made one last attempt to reach the weed deep in my margin but I had already lowered the net into the water and it just swam straight in! I pulled the net back grabbed the mesh and peered into its folds. I knew immediately that I had a twenty pound plus carp in the net and I could not control my sheer excitement at what I saw. YES! Like a kid high on sugar I lifted the net out of the water chuckling madly, barely able to control myself. I placed the carp into the weigh sling and slowly lifted the scales 10-15-20 20lbs 8oz brilliant! I fished on rather dazed for the next four hours without any more action eventually packing up and returning home excited at the prospect of a return to the same spot the next day.

Wednesday saw me in the same spot again and I managed a beautiful common of 14lbs plus in the first ten minutes of being there quickly followed up by a tiny mirror of 2lbs. The last two sessions that week did not produced any more takes from the carp instead the bream decided to show themselves again and I ended up with another pair of smelly slimy jean. The weekend could not pass quickly enough for me as I was sure I had cracked it! However as if I needed it I was bought straight back down to earth the following week with a bang! Blanking every day without even so much as a sniff from the slimy bream, oh dear! That weekend saw me re-appraising the swims I had first selected and going down to the river to have a stalk around them and climb a few trees. I had a choice to make either stay put in the hope that the carp would return or make a move to one of the other swims I had selected.

The following Monday I moved into a new area one and a half miles upstream, set up my tackle and climbed the nearest tree. I had already placed bait into the area I was going to fish the day before and so on my way around I had a good look in the swim from up a tree to see if the bait had been taken, it had, and so I tossed in three more handfuls and made my way around. I had now gone seven 6-hour sessions without a take from either the carp or the bream making it tough going.

Since the last capture I had been down to the river every day looking or fishing for carp, baiting likely areas and sitting up trees to await any results. You cannot catch carp by sitting at home I told myself, however I was beginning to realize that perhaps the Cam did not have as many carp in it as I had first hoped.

Beeeep Off went the near margin rod! The line was pouring from the bait-runner and the rod tip had bent right round when I picked it up and wound down. Wallop! Over went the rod, the clutch started to slip and line started to pull from the reel. I held on, again trying to stay composed and just letting the carp run up the river. The carp started to kite into my bank so I began winding down and walking towards the fish to try and prevent it getting too deeply into the margin weed. All the time the carp stayed deep and it was not until the net was under it that I could see that I had a beautiful upper double mirror. When I opened the folds of the landing net to look at the fish I gazed upon carp perfection!

Two hours later I had another epic battle with an upper double mirror carp during a very wild and windy rainstorm. The fight that ensued was every bit as thrilling as the others, tearing up and down the river like an express train and never giving up an inch without a struggle.

Sitting back enjoying a well-earned cupper after this latest capture I began to consider the prospects for the rest of my river Cam carp fishing adventure that year. It was half way through September and the days were getting cooler. I had already decided that I would stop my visits at the end of the month so I had another dozen possible sessions to go. I wanted to fish the other two areas I had previously selected but decided that if I was catching then I would stay put in this swim. I had no more takes that day but with two doubles under my belt I was not complaining, on the contrary I was elated. Tuesday saw that elation disappear as I hooked into a powerful carp that sped up the river with such force that I could not prevent it from reaching a huge weedbed. I wound down on the fish and heaved trying to get it to move but it shed the hook in the weedbed leaving me trembling as it bolted out with a huge bow wave. Anyone who has experience the loss of a good fish will know how this feels, awful! Gutting! I checked my hook and found that the needle sharp point was bent over so I replaced the rig and recast, sat down and poured myself a consoling cupper.

I had no more takes that day or the next two except for numerous bream between 4-5lbs with the odd 6-7lb fish. Friday came and I was beginning to really notice the cooler days. The rain, which had been with us all summer was colder and was putting in more of an appearance making life a little more wet, cold and muddy. It was around two hours after I had arrived that I had the first take that day the hook pulling out within seconds of hooking leaving me feeling gutted again. An hour later I landed a 12lb common carp now that's better! Another two hours passed and a fantastic two-toned common of 14.8lbs graced my landing net, terrific! That day I went home feeling that I had now achieved what I had set out to do and that was to target and catch carp from the river Cam. I fished on for the following week and blanked every single day, well there you are eh? Carp fishing is like that. It was at this point that I decided to call it a day and end my river cam carp fishing adventure. I still felt that the Cam had more to offer however it was not for another seven years before I would return.

In the next article I will revisit my campaigned in 2011 and the achievement of catching my first 30lb plus river carp.