Canal carp is one-in-a-million - Josh Cooper
“While walking my dogs along the local canal I spotted some carp next to a lock. Over the next two weeks I threw in handfuls of pellets and crushed boilies to the area with the plan to fish it on a Friday after work.
“I got settled into my swim for 6pm and cast two PVA bag rigs containing the same feed mixture of pellets and boilies, alongside CC Moore Pacific Tuna wafters.
“At 2am I awoke to a screaming alarm and ran to the rod barefoot because I couldn’t get my shoes on quickly enough! After a minute I got him up to the surface and got a peep of his white head.
“I thought I’d caught a ghost carp, but when I’d got him in the net I saw the rest of his golden body and white tail. I’ve looked online and can’t a find another fish like it – it’s certainly a one-in-a-million catch.”
Josh Cooper and his half ghost/half common carp
Beautiful reservoir koi taken on the fly!
When 15-year-old Albert Coales and his dad, Rob Edmunds, went afloat on Grafham Water, the last thing they were expecting to catch was this vibrant koi carp, weighing around 25lb.
After a morning spent targeting the lake’s zander, the pair headed to a sheltered area of the lake for lunch, at which point Albert spotted the colourful fish feeding by some overhanging willow trees.
“I told him to leave it alone, but he really wanted to catch it,” Rob tells us,
“so he had a cast, but his fly ended up in the willows! I said to gently tease it out and, amazingly, it plopped perfectly on to the surface a short distance in front of the cruising carp.”
It didn’t take long for the fish to engulf the fly, and then it was game on!
“We were lucky that the fish didn’t head for the weedbeds, as Albert was using a light 4-weight rod,” Rob adds.
“As we brought it towards the boat the bottom became stirred up and we couldn’t see a thing, but I plunged the net beneath the surface and the fish swam straight in!
“Albert was delighted and wouldn’t stop talking about it!”
Albert Coales wasn’t expecting anything like this on his trip to Grafham