Carp and coarse fish

These fish grub the bottom, graze weed and sift sediment. They do not attack, they taste: a roach bite reads as a few millimetres of float, and a carp can suck in and eject a bait without anything moving. That is why the delicacy of the rig matters more here than the power of the rod.

Baiting makes the difference, more than the hookbait itself. The point is not to feed but to attract and hold: small regular helpings for the smaller species, more substantial and spaced deposits for carp. A swim baited the evening before often gives more than a whole day spent switching baits.

They are, finally, hardy fish that tolerate warm, poorly oxygenated water where others give up. That is what makes them present almost everywhere — canals, ponds, slow rivers — and, for a great many anglers, the first fish of a lifetime.