Revenge of the gardener or how slugs catch carp

After a few trips to Bordeaux pit catching small silver fish and perch, I thought I'd target some of the carp with a few free lined slugs from the garden. There is nothing more satisfying than getting one back at the resident slug population in the garden than offering them to the fish. Now, I had used slugs as bait before many years ago, mainly targeting river chub but never to any success. The approach this time was to offer a 'free lined' slug on a size 12 barbless hook, straight through to 8lbs mono. In this case, I clipped a "pond chucker" self cocking float on as a bit indicator. After a couple of hours with no luck, the slug just sinking after hitting the water down to the 2 foot depth I had set below the float, I got a sudden splash/commotion as the slug hit the water. I was confused as to what had happened but decided to strike as I had seen carp swimming around. The line tightened and a big fish was on, taking off for the opposite side of the small pit. I was pretty certain this was a carp and I adjusted the clutch to allow some line to play off which was a good move as when I wound in, the fish took off for the marginal weeds, pulling line from the reel. Applying plenty of side strain, I was able to get the fish out of the weeds and up to the surface where we could see that it was a carp. It took a couple of gulps of air and seemed to be slightly shocked and not diving back down so we took the opportunity to get the net quickly under it. It was a small net, just big enough for this fish and deftly landed by my 5 year old helper :). The result a pristine 8lbs 10oz common.

8lbs 10oz Common Carp taken on free lined slug

We were in shock at catching this fish, my new personal best and a stonker of a carp. We pretty much packed up the gear after that, got a passer by to take a photo and slipped the fish back in carefully. Almost a year later, we were back at the same venue trying the same tactics and had an almost identical take/fight with another nice common. It looked bigger than the first but was in fact only 7lbs 5oz. This time around, the take was easier to analyse. The slug had landed half a foot away from a fish which had turned and sucked up the bait then shot off across the pit when it felt the hook. It pretty much hooked itself on the bolt. A slightly larger landing net this time made my 6 year old helper's life easier :).

7lbs 5oz Common Carp also taken on garden slug

I now understand why people get so hooked on carp fishing. Explosive takes and hard fights. I could get used to this :).