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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An alternative world of carp fishing brilliantly uncovered., 29 Jan 2001
By A Customer
IMAGINE...Imagine a series of carp waters stretching for many hundreds of miles with many thousands of swims. Imagine those carp waters contained thousands of carp: doubles, twenties, thirties and even forties. Imagine that many of those carp had never seen a baited hook before.... Now let's really stretch the imagination - let's pretend that those same carp waters were rarely fished by carp anglers and that you could virtually guarantee your swim every time you fished. A dream ? Oh no! Welcome to the world of River Carping... RIVER CARPING The rivers, drains and canal systems of Britain offer carp fishing of a variable standard on waters of markedly differing character. From the industrial Manchester Canals to the Royalty Fishery on the Hampshire Avon and from the mighty Thames and Trent to the Romney Marsh Drains. From waters where a double is a good fish to those where 30lb. specimens are a realistic target and from no flow to slow flow to powerful, surging current the rivers offer every possible carp angling experience. COMPILATION No one angler could possibly have experience of the entire spectrum of river carping and in this book Neil has drawn upon the talents of those anglers who have succeeded on a diverse range of flowing waters. The compilation of venues works well and the reader new to river carping will soon realise that the tactics which will work on one river may not necessarily be the one which would apply to their own river. That said, there is enough common information revealed by the authors between the different venues that the would-be river carper now has a terrific head start whatever their local river might be. HISTORY Location is covered by many of the authors and it is clearly equally as important on the rivers, if not more so, than on the stillwaters. Baits and tactics for river carp are discussed and many of the authors give an excellent background to the carp history of their particular venue - important in gaining an insight into what the river might be capable of producing and setting the scene for their own experiences. Bill Phillips's lovingly evocative portrait of carping on the Royal Military Canal particularly stands out in this respect but it is a common seam throughout the book. ILLUSTRATIONS River Carping is well illustrated with photographs of the venues and their inhabitants. If the stunning front cover shot of Neil Wayte with a big Royalty common doesn't turn you on to river carping then nothing will.... SCOPE Some of the rivers featured in this book could warrant a book of their own, not just a chapter. In this respect my one disappointment was that 'my rivers', the Thames and its tributaries, were not covered in more detail. The balance and scope of the book is nevertheless good and well illustrates the variety of river carp fishing out there, much of it still waiting to be explored. I turned my back on 'mainstream' carp fishing a couple of years ago to concentrate on barbel and chub fishing on the rivers. Reading this book has got me interested in carping again and that is no small feat. The wonderful portraits of carping on the Hampshire Avon drawn by Andy Sloane and Neil himself had me itching to get the rods out and try for the carp as well as for the barbel - curse them both ! SECRETS All of the secrets of river carping are not revealed because all of the answers are simply not known, there is still a place for the pioneer in river carping and this book will go some way towards inspiring many anglers to take their first river carping steps. LITTLE GEM The only people who will not welcome this book are those who have quietly been catching on our rivers for a number of years. This little gem of a box has lifted the lid on river carping and no matter how hard they try they won't get it to go back on again.
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