ANOTHER BRILLIANT DAY AT THE DOCKS

Saturday morning, I awoke to a beautiful crisp morning as to what would be another session at the docks. I had prepared the night prior to make a swift getaway from the house. Lunch was prepared, the chickpeas were put in a bag, the sweetcorn was put in along with it as well as a bait tub wriggling with fat juicy maggots!

I approached the shed to get my gear to what seemed to be a pretty chilly morning, but watching the news I realised that it was going to be a beautiful day. I took my lightweight jacket just incase, as was quite nippy.

Things were packed, and I was off, a 15-minute walk with all my gear to the bus stop where I had to get that awful London transport to the docks. The 161 bus arrived and the journey began. I pondered my thoughts on the bus, eager to get to the fishing paradise amongst the urban concrete jungle that was Woolwich Dockyard and I decided on bolt rigging chickpea and slider float fishing maggot.

I looked up and my journey had come to an end, I was there! I walked under the underpass, through the tower blocks, over the stairs and into the dockyard. I was set up and ready by about 8:45am.

A few people were already fishing on the left dock so I walked to the right hand side, where I met up with Del,an angler I knew (or Del boy) as he's just like the one from Only Fools and Horses). He said to me that because it was such a clear day, the fish were not feeding as well as they should be... confidence knocked a little... that was until he started catching loads of roach!

I swiftly set up the pod and cast out the chickpea into the margins, up to a nearby set of rushes...well...a very small patch of rushes, on the 4th step, at about 10 foot deep. The float I was fishing on bottom at about the same depth...with no result.

I opted for a change after about half an hour and I started fishing at about 18 inches deep. A few little dibs on the insert waggler was all I was getting, so I cast it right out into the middle. I had quick dib as a rudd tried to snatch my bait which then resulted in the float slowly diving to the depths of the 40 foot patch of water it was in.

Now bearing in mind I was only using a match rod, 4lbs line and a size 16 hook baited with single maggot, what happened next was amazing!

The rod almost bent double as I had hooked in to a clonking carp! It dashed for the reeds opposite so I jumped up with the net, as did Del Boy. After persuading the fish to come my way I started to gain control of the fight. 15-odd minutes later and I got my first glimpse of the fish, and what a lovely fish it was. Four swims to the right of me the fish was landed and it was a beautiful pristine common weighing in at 9lbs 4oz

Elated with a wonderous catch, and the biggest fish I 've caught so far on the float rod, I switched back to on the bottom with the slider rig as I had spooked most of the fish out in the middle. Surprisingly, the roach decided to take the maggot so I was still catching a few.

Things died and me and Del Boy got to chatting about how mad the place can be, when one minute it's really lively, to the next when it's completley dead. Alfie came along and annoyed us all for a bit, but as soon as he left me and Del got back to our gossip. I put out a second carp rod and put the float aside for a minute, when suddenly...
"BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!" A one-toner on the left hand rod on chickpea, I ran to the pod and Del came along with the net. I struck into yet another carp, and it just didn't want to get its head up! After much persistance the fish eventually rose and it was yet another carp, and a mirror this time, with loads of character to it!
The battle was won and I weighed the carp in at 9lbs 8oz...

I rebaited, recast and relaxed. Still slimey from that last carp, I sorted myself out and had a quick "noddy bash" on the float rod. I had a few nice looking roach from the dark deep margins of the dock and about 10 minutes after placing the chickpea where I last caught that carp it was away again! Laughing, I struck into a much more lively fish. Again, I could tell it was a carp, but a bit smaller and a bit more "kicky" than the others - it wasn't too long before I got it in the net and the lean mirror weighed in at 5lbs 15oz...

The day was progressing nicely with me still in shock that I'd caught three carp so far this session (which is VERY unlikely at the docks!). I put aside one of the leger rods and continued floatfishing for a bit. But the silvers had stopped feeding and me and Del hadn't got a clue what was going on. Despite the fact that during the day it was only me and Del Boy fishing, we had the whole dock to ourselves and the fish didn't want our bait!

He then decided to pack it in and call it a day leaving me to it. As soon as he left, another angler arrived. It was a junior angler, and he asked me how the day was going so far...in a surprised tone, I replied "brilliant thanks! had three carp out so far, all decent sizes and loads of small silvers, you're in with a good chance of catching!" - so he set up a few swims to the left of me and I helped him out a bit.

We were fishing just to the left of my pod and we both started catching a few, then for the last time that day, my bite alarm went in to action yet again!
Shocked, I lifted my bottom jaw up from the ground and struck, again, on chickpea, I was in! The carp gave a good account for itself to the point that I had to land it two swims to the right of me, the lad kindly took a couple of pictures of me playing the fish...

And in this one, you might just be able to get a glimpse of the carp just under the surface of the water on the bottom left corner of the pic...

The fish had finally been netted, the lad had told me it's the biggest he's seen come out of the dock in the time he had been fishing it. I reassured him and told him that it wasn't one of the big ones, but it was a nice size nonetheless, and that his day will come and he'll have one out. The Avons were zeroed, the unhooking mat was drenched and the carp was weighed, the fish this time had truckloads of character to it and turned the dial to 7lbs 10oz ...

And after the surprising end to the carp catching of the day, I decided to pack up the carp rod and floatfish for a bit until my mat etc dried. It was going to get dark soon as well. The mat had dried, as had everything else and I packed up and bid everyone farewell, returning home from yet another surprising day at the mysterious waters known as the Woolwich Docks.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Ash