CARP, CARP AND MORE CARP!

The beauty of open water or wild swimming as some perfer to call it is that every swim brings a new experience, so you can understand my delight that today i encountered one that i have never seen and will be extremely lucky to see again! Spawning carp.

Having arrived at Ellerton Lake this morning to coach...the british weather did what it does best....it rained, not a problem i would be getting in shortly anyway!

The resident father swan came to make his presence known, it was only after my swim that i was informed that he recently had tried to attack a swimmer (and not in the .....just giving you a warning sort of way) and also tried to drown another swan that had the audacity to want to share the 65 acre lake! However the mummy swan does have 3 signets to tend to and both are wanting to show off their offspring but not be approached to closely.

But close they did let me get, the occasional hiss letting me know i have ventured too close, the male in the water not a happy bird with me approaching the female and babes, his neck as thick as my arms, a steady reminder of their ability to break the human bone and with far more ease then my arms could have!

The babies as you can see are as cute as a button, fluffy grey but growing fast! It is lovely to see them though!

Typical british summer weather surrounded us, with splats of rain falling from a light drizzle to a torrent but we were going to get wet so for us it did not matter. Having chatted to the local fisherman we were delighted (well i was, Louise not so sure) to find that the large splashes being made in the lake were the carp spawning, bodies thrashing in their once a year ritual. Walking round the lake it was plain for us to see. The fish were on the surface and looked.....large!

 

I must admit never having witnessed these scenes before it was quite fasinating to see large fish literally jumping out of the water and trashing around, the fisherman however was disappointed, the fish apparently when they have matters of love in their heads dont want to take bait from a line!

Getting into the wetsuits was the right decision to make the heavens opened and pretty soon it was teeming down! A cool breeze put paid to the thoughts of hanging around on land. Walking round to where the fishman had shown us a good place to get in ( i think he was worried we were going to snap his lines) it was time to take a deep breath and get in, the fish oblivious to our thoughts or movements in the water. We had been told that they would move away the minute we got in....not so!

The fish that splashed behind Louise, i am sure was just wanting to say hi!

These rain drops rapidly turning into a small monsoon type shower, however it was Louises first 'rain' swim and she was soon loving it, the coolness of the rain making the water seem temporarily warmer.

Heading towards a shallow area in the middle of the lake so that Louise could stand and watch the fish, it was time to see what was happening under the water.

 

Pushing off into the water and the rain seemed to be getting harder....no matter, the water was warm and the entertainment brilliant to watch, 5 pairs on the top thrashing around. Heading into the weeds, it was hard to find the fish, hold the camera and move forward, to be honest i was also having a little heart pounding moment, of 'what if one of these beasts decides to jump out that water and lands on me!'. Going a little deeper and a little left of the weeds so i could peer into them rather than try to pull myself through them, dam....still no fish!

Or so i thought, looking down what did i see....fish in the form of carp, large and lots of them! They were all around us. I likened it to being in an over crowded gold fish bowl! The fish came over, i can only assume that with us dressed in black and limbs hanging down that they thought we might have been interested in the spawning process! The occasional firm caress against the leg to test our reaction then they swam round us. The  carp, i found out later were koi, common, grey and ghost. I was also reliably informed by the fisherman once i had shown him the pictures that the smallest would have been around 20 + lbs in weight, thankgod they do not have teeth! The fish were close enough to touch in the water and when i did manage it felt strangely temperatureless!

Yes they really are that big, thankfully there have been no known recorded death by carp so we were safe to just stay in the water and wonder at the specible below and around us. As quickly as they had swarmed round us they had clearly got bored of watching us trying to hold our breath or our lack of enthusiasm to join in this mating ritual and within five minutes they wandered off to find more willing partners as did we, Louise having one last pass by to see the fish which unfortunately had left for more play time.

 

Heading off round the lake to the area bouyed off for swimmers the rain intensified, it was quite amazing to feel it pelting around us the splashes they made in the water were large and vast, silently falling but faster than most household showers.

I thought i would end up having to drag Louise out of the water she was enjoying the rain experience so much!

And for those that wish to see it as we did prior to entering the water heres a small video clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epce-FUuSMU&feature=plcp

And what does the water look like when the heavens really open, well the next picture was taken on sports mode...and still did not manage to do justice to rate of rain that was falling....just another typical british summer!!!

The spawning is at best a maxium 7 day event, this year the spawnings in the north of england are occuring later in the year due to the cold temperatures however, it happened and i was lucky to witness it! What is it like swimming with beasts too big to fit on a place, well strangly enough its fasinating, to be in a 65 acre lake and not see one in all the years i have swam there is strange then to see them on mass is amazing, it was strangly calming. The fish especially at this 'special' time are not interested in us swimmers, and once spawning has happened they return to the depths not to be seen for ....well who knows how long!!! You can certainly see the attraction that diving would have! The other attractions are the wildlife, looking forward to seeing the babies grow and develop!