Mythical Commons
It's strange don't you think, that Commom Carp are probably becoming the least common type of Carp in many fishing lakes. These fish are no longer so common and are very beautiful and highly priced by many carp anglers. Common Carp in the UK just do not seem to grow to the same size as they do in Europe. The number of 30 pound common carp within the UK is very limited, compare this to the number of 30lb+ common carp in Europe and you begin to wonder: Why are big common carp not that common??? Nobody really knows to be honest, but they do grow to huge sizes on the continent i.e. Romania's Lake Ruduta contains 70lb+ Common Carp!!!
There are equal numbers of double figure Common Carp in relation to the number of double figure Mirror Carp on most lakes. But when you look at the number of Twenty Pound Common Carp in a lake compared to the number of Mirror Carp, there is a clear indifference. This is the weight at which most common carp in the UK fizzle out. As for 30lb+ Monster Common Carp in the UK, well these are very low on the ground, and are very highly valued compared to a 30lb Mirror Carp by most anglers. Common Carp of this size must be very special to those lucky enough to have caught one. 40lb plus Common Carp located in the UK can be counted using your fingers!!! These are fish of Mythical Proportions...
From what I have read in carp publications and from my own experience, I can gather that almost every carp lake contains a huge mythical uncaught common that circulates within myths and legends late at night within hushed whispers. This big common never seems to get landed, although many anglers say that they have hooked it, and lost it under some kind of bizarre set of circumstances. These usually take the form of "he was a foot larger than the landing net" etc... This huge common is usually described in a magnificent way i.e. "He had eye's bigger than tractor wheels", "as big as a girt pig". You might think that we are surrounded by massive uncaught commons here in Britain, why have they not been caught?, how did they grow so big without being caught? We all ask our selves these questions, but at least this mythical common gives us some thing to dream about!
Anglers Intuition
When night fishing during the summer I experienced "anglers intuition" that I was going to get some action. The night session had been going quite well, I had already had a Carp and a Tench earlier on in the night. But the weird thing about this session was when I bolted up right from sleep, heard a fish crash on the surface of the quite water and then, some how I just new that the fish would do it once more and then I'd get a screaming take. Trusting my instincts I got out of my sleeping bag and stood by my rods in wait, the Carp jumped in the same spot once more then about 5 seconds later my rod ripped off!!! Spooky, I wish I was always in tune with the fish like I was that night! The telepathic fish gave me a good scrap though, taking me into a weed bed for 10 minutes and then getting it to the margins and then cursing because my torch had fallen out of my pocket, so I had to land the telepathic psycho in the pitch black!!! All through the 15 minute fight I was shouting to my mate to land the fish for me, who was in the next swim all of 4 meters away, but as he is a heavy sleeper he didn't wake up!!!