Carp and only Carp - Essex

It was mid September, and the only freshwater fish I had caught all year was a few tiny rudd back in March, so I wanted to add a few species to this dismal tally. The idea was to go to my good old favourite Essex fishery and fish the mixed lake since I knew that they had matches on the match lake on Sundays. Wrong, the mixed lake was also booked out for a match so I had to fish a carp only lake around the back. This was a little bit disappointing but I still had to get carp onto my year list so I started to fish. I decided that I might try the mixed lake when the match finished

As usual I used standard two rod combo. A semi-fixed rig fished with corn to the island and a waggler fishing corn or meat to the near bank. It wasn’t too long until I had my first fish, with a little Common Carp of about a pound. A few more did follow. These were probably the smallest carp I had ever caught.




Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio



Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio



Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio



Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio

I said the previous few carp were the smallest I had ever caught, but I beat my personal worst with this fine specimen (of a goldfish). It must have been only a few ounces but you can still see the little barbules on them so definitely a common carp. It was almost time to move to the mixed lake, but finished with the best fish of the day so far with a little common at about 2lb. All of them had been taken on the waggler.



Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio



Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio




Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio

After a quick move to the mixed lake I setup in the exact same way. I had a few takes on the waggler but couldn’t convert any into solid hookups. Just before closing time, the bait runner started clicking and I wound into a nice little carp of about 3lb.



Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio



Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio

Having two rods seemed to paid off today with each method working on a different lake. The fish were all common carp but I had also doubled my year list for coarse species. I would have liked to have added a few more today but there's still time to get some more this season.

Grey Viking - Brighton

I was lucky this time with the charter boat as it only cancelled once before I was able to go out, or was I? The night before I got a call that we were going to go out to sea but the forecast didn’t look too good. I got up at about 3:30am and caught the first train to Brighton.

I got on the to the Marina at around 7. On the way out, I realised that I was in for a rough day. 10 Miles out was about as far as we could be able to cope and we dropped anchor. The wind was blowing but we all dropped our lines into the depths. I decided that I wanted a cod, so I baited up with cuttlefish and waited. A few of the fellow angler did get a few mackerel but I persisted only to get a mackerel on the end of my line. After about an hour, I gave in and put on my white feathers. I was into fish within seconds on every drop. I was getting a lot more fish than everyone else. I think it might have been my feathers. Everyone else was using silver and I used white. The other thing was that it was my new Abu 6500 Mag Elite’s maiden voyage and I had loaded it up with 20lb braid as well. It was amazing how sensitive this line was. I could even feel the mackerel taking the hook on the drop.



Atlantic Mackerel - Scomber scombrus



Atlantic Mackerel - Scomber scombrus





This brittle star was probably the weirdest looking thing that I had ever caught on a hook.



Serpent’s Table Brittlestar - Ophiura albida

I got really rough and we moved closer inshore and a little to the east. The trip was extremely wet and I became really seasick as well. The mark was a sand bank but I wanted to start on feathers as I was still a little too ill to change the rig. My first drop and within 10 seconds, I got the first fish here. After many more I got tired of mackerel and baited up for some bottom fishing. I kept getting some rattling at the end of my line but wasn’t able to hook up. After a few tries and downsized my hooks and ended up with 3 Black Bream.


Black Sea-Bream - Spondyliosoma cantharus



Black Sea-Bream - Spondyliosoma cantharus



Black Sea-Bream - Spondyliosoma cantharus



Black Sea-Bream - Spondyliosoma cantharus


This was a horse mackerel that one of the other anglers had caught on feathers.


Atlantic Horse Mackerel - Trachurus trachurus


After the bream, I finally added a new species to my list. A Dab [#129]. It’s easy to tell a dab apart from the other similar species, it has a lateral line that curves around the pectoral fine. That finished off the day and after another very wet trip on the way back to the Marina, I was glad to be on dry land and heading home. I still haven't caught a cod but maybe next time.




Dab - Limanda limanda #129



Dab - Limanda limanda



Dab - Limanda limanda

Brighton Marina

This was the first trip to the Brighton Marina of the year. I hadn’t fished here since October last year when I caught mainly whiting. Now, about 8 months on, I’d be expecting to catch the summer species of Mackerel and Bream.




European Pilchard - Sardina pilchardus #128

As with most occasions, I started fished around peg 40 on the Eastern Arm of the Marina. The seas where pretty rough and there was quite a lot of weed about, but I decided to fish two rods on the bottom with rag. Nothing much was happening, so I decided to fish down the side and got my self a few little shannies.




Shanny - Lipophrys pholis



Looking around, a few of the nearby anglers started getting some mackerel on feathers, so I feathered up some of my rods and started some fluff chucking. On the first cast, I got myself a nice mackerel and got a few of them during the day. On one cast, I looked up right up near the surface, but it wasn’t kicking as much as a mackerel would and as I got it in, I had a little silver fish hanging off one of my feathers. I knew it was something in the herring family, i.e., a herring, sprat or pilchard but didn’t know couldn’t tell which. I was only able to identify it when I got home though examination of the photographs, and it was a Pilchard [#128]. You quite easily identify a pilchard because it is the only species in Britain that has radiating grooves on its gill plate. It is smooth in the sprat and herring.



Atlantic Mackerel - Scomber scombrus



European Pilchard - Sardina pilchardus

It got a little rough later one, so I fished in the one of first few pegs. I always seem to loses quite a bit of tackle here as there is a mussel bed about 20 metres out. This is actually a good spot for ballan wrasse and I managed to get a few of them out of the water. I also got a bullhead has well.






Ballan Wrasse - Labrus bergylta




Ballan Wrasse - Labrus bergylta



Ballan Wrasse - Labrus bergylta



Longspined Bullhead - Taurulus bubalis



Longspined Bullhead - Taurulus bubalis

Galata Brige - Istanbul

Do a little image search on Galata Bridge and you will find hundreds of photos of a bridge jammed packed with anglers fishing. This is a bridge in Istanbul that crosses the Golden Horn. The bridge has two levels. The bottom lines with stores and restaurants an top is used for cars, trams and of course fishing.

I hadn't brought any fishing equipment on this trip as I was I travelling light across Eastern Europe. Hooks or any other sharp object can't be brought onto carry on luggage and I didn't want to be weighed down with cargo lugguge. Thankfully there were are few shops on the Galata end of the bridge which sold fishing gear and managed to get a small telescopic rod and a set of feathers for about £5.

I hopped right back on the bridge, I lined myself up next the the very first angler and dropped my feathers into the deep. It was quite deep but after a few minutes, I had my first İstavrit [#127] on the line. İstavrit or Mediterranean Horse Mackerel seem to be the most common fish being caught here, although I did see a few mullet in some of the buckets on the bridge. I did manage to catch quite a few and even came back the next day to catch some more. None of them were of a decent size, but it was still a new species.






Mediterranean Horse Mackerel - Trachurus mediterraneus #127






Mediterranean Horse Mackerel - Trachurus mediterraneus







Mediterranean Horse Mackerel - Trachurus mediterraneus







Mediterranean Horse Mackerel - Trachurus mediterraneus







Mediterranean Horse Mackerel - Trachurus mediterraneus





There is a little fish market just near where I bought my fishing gear. I really love going to fish markets as it gives me a chance to see what's around nearby. Here is a little sample:







Little Tuna - Euthynnus alletteratus







Meagre - Argyrosomus regius







Goldblotch Grouper - Epinephelus costae







Largescaled Scorpionfish - Scorpaena scrofa









European Anchovy - Engraulis encrasicolus







Wels Catfish - Silurus glanis







Mediterranean Sand Smelt - Atherina hepsetus

Belopoptsi Dam - Sofia - Bulgaria

I had prebooked a fishing guide in Bulgaria before I started travelling about a month earlier. After travelling few almost 2 weeks, I was itching to catch some fish. My guide arrived at my Hostel and we drove up to a little lake outside of Sofia called Belopoptsi Dam (Язовир Белопопци).

We fished a sliding float to get the bait down to about 15ft. After about 15 minutes. The guide caught the first (and only) fish of the day. It was a Prussian or Gibel Carp. These are the same species as Goldfish but a different subspecies/form. They are very silver compared to the Brown Goldfish we get in England. They are very simiar to the Crucian Carp but have a concaved instead of convexed dorsal fin. They are also a little bulkier.



Prussian Carp - Carassius gibelio



Prussian Carp - Carassius gibelio

I wasn't catching fish, but was still enjoying the wildlife. There we frogs an tolds everywhere, storks soaring around as well.


White Stork - Ciconia ciconia



White Stork - Ciconia ciconia




Common Toad - Bufo bufo



Marsh Frog - Pelophylax ridibundus


We had some traditional food for lunch. Boza and a BBQ.



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