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What would you do in this scenario.

L

Lee Williams

Senior Member
You arrive at your swim. Spopper a gallon of pellet down the middle of the river, you have a handful of pellets left.

You throw the pellets into the margins where its about 2 to 3 foot deep.

You set your rods up and are about to start, you hear a splash and see a swirl where you fed your pellets and there's a complete pig of a river carp feeding on them at least 20lb. It's so catchable.... What would you do...

I ignored it.

If it goes mid river and falls for my rig fair play.. Catching that fish would have felt like cheating.
 
As Confucius might have said:

Never look a gift carp in the mouth!

It may not have been your intended target species, but a fish of that size is always worth catching and if you had the tackle on hand that was capable of landing it, as well as a bait that you knew it was likely to take, why ignore the opportunity? After all a carp in the margin has to be worth at least two in mid river...!

Dave
 
Agree with Joe, a 20lb river carp is something special, completely different from a 20lb pond pig, go for it Lee 👍
 
From years of commie fishing I now have a bit of an agenda against carp it might not have beaten my pole caught PB, so didn't really have much interest... Had it been a 15lb Barbel.. Hmmm
 
Catching what you can see isn’t cheating in my eyes.
I’ve watched many specimens totally ignore my hookbait for hours.
Their the ones doing the cheating for Pulling a bullseye on you “this is what you could of caught mate” 😂
 
Take advantage of what the river and conditions are dictating. Wow a 20lb river carp would be stunning. I bet it would rip your arm of with a massive shovel tail
 
Lee Williams said:
From years of commie fishing I now have a bit of an agenda against carp it might not have beaten my pole caught PB, so didn't really have much interest... Had it been a 15lb Barbel.. Hmmm
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Launching yourself into the margins on top of the fish and wrestling it to the bank Crocodile Dundee style would be cheating.

As would lobbing in a stick of dynamite or setting a handline or electro fishing.

Any fish in the margins is fair game on rod and line, unless, that is, it's spawning.

Was this on the Trent? I reckon catching a 15lb barbel from the Trent is maybe 'easier' or rather a more realistic target, than catching a 20lb+ river carp.
 
My mate had an accidental 20.2 common from the Trent a few seasons ago....tail walked after he lifted his rod into it. Fought like a trojan...awesome. I definitely want to catch one!
 

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David Clewer said:
As Confucius might have said:

Never look a gift carp in the mouth!

It may not have been your intended target species, but a fish of that size is always worth catching and if you had the tackle on hand that was capable of landing it, as well as a bait that you knew it was likely to take, why ignore the opportunity? After all a carp in the margin has to be worth at least two in mid river...!

Dave
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You missed out the word "Grasshopper" at the end David :D
 
cheating ? cheating ? I laughed out loud when I read that
not being funny just honest opinion anyone that thinks anything to do with getting a fish to pickup your bait is cheating needs to have a word with themselves
and I dont think I will ever see the day where a bait will be made that only the target species will pick up
 
Yeah - agree with the majority here and would have had a pop. I can't think of any definition of the word 'cheating' that can be applied to this situation.
 
Gerry Giles said:
cheating ? cheating ? I laughed out loud when I read that
not being funny just honest opinion anyone that thinks anything to do with getting a fish to pickup your bait is cheating needs to have a word with themselves
and I dont think I will ever see the day where a bait will be made that only the target species will pick up
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Bit harsh, Lee was merely highlighting a 'moral' dilemma, if you just need to LOL remember we are talking Rivers here, not Carp puddles, it's a different scenario where some of the unwritten rules are still upheld.
 
Lee, did you catch over your gallon of pellet ? after ignoring the Carp .You made the decision but to me you had also fed the inside line,maybe next time it will be worth a couple of pints down the edge. A lot of us struggle on the waters we fish and could not afford to ignore a chance of a bite.We are not blessed with the large populations of fish that waters like the Trent/ Wye offer. Saying that two summers ago I was feeding a Barbel about 10 1/2 lb and a big chub on a small hard water I looked after . I had no tackle with me and on going back to the car park a lad called Jon arrived. I gave him some of my paste told him the swim and where to lower the bait and off he went. He hooked the chub within seconds and it was his PB. Some people would think me stupid for doing that but to me at the time it made sense. Only weeks before I had helped him catch his first Barbel a fish of 3.5lb and I had seen his joy.
 
David Clewer said:
As Confucius might have said:

Never look a gift carp in the mouth!

It may not have been your intended target species, but a fish of that size is always worth catching and if you had the tackle on hand that was capable of landing it, as well as a bait that you knew it was likely to take, why ignore the opportunity? After all a carp in the margin has to be worth at least two in mid river...!

Dave
Click to expand...

Well so it's merely catching not fishing then? Why bother with a hook, use your bl00dy net 🤔
 
Bottom line........ fish it as you feel lee. It’s your session to do what you want.

Certainly you wouldn’t of got a bad vibe from here for having a go.
If I saw a 20lb carp with its head down I’d of definitely considered presenting a bait for it.
I’ve never caught a 20lb anything in my life so that opportunity would of definitely been worth it to me.
 
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