29th March, A cold start.

A frost overnight usually means that the Carp at Ryton switch off and fall back asleep.


This is what I was expecting today. Even thought the sun was up it was cold. I chose to fish the bank sheltered from the early morning sun, I had to fish this spot to be able to cast to where I thought the Carp may be holding up.


My Ryton 3 boilie and a small bag of pellets and groundbait was cast to a spot I've caught from before, I thought I would cast to this spot with one rod for the whole session, the second rod I would rove around with a selection of coloured pop-up boilies.


The lake remained still for most of the morning with no sign of any fish. A couple of Pike anglers on the far bank managed a good fish around mid morning and a short while after that I saw my first Carp poke it's head out of the lake. It was a long cast but I knew I could eventually reach the spot with just a pop-up. Not casting long distances all the time means that my line gets bedded down with the shorter casts so it usually takes a few good casts to free up the coils and enable me to hit the distance I need. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

The third cast towards the area was 'on the money' I knew that it would go. About half an hour later the bobbin rose and dropped quickly, at first I thought 'line bite' but it did it again and as it started to rise for the third time, I hit it. I'm not sure if the Carp knew what was happening at first as it just sat there shaking it's head before making a run for it. It gave a good account for itself and came to the net without shaking the hook loose. Mirror Carp are not very common at Ryton so it's lovely to see one.



This fish weighed in at 18lb 14oz, I've looked back at photo's from previous years and this is another new fish for me.


This fish was also the only one on a hard day.

15th March, 2009 A dream of a day.

I'm not sure what other anglers who fish for the Carp at Ryton think, but I certainly know that as a rule, it's hard going. However, every now and again, one of those days comes along when things go so well that you continually pinch yourself to make sure you haven't fallen asleep in the sun and be dreaming the whole thing.

March 15th was one of those days, it was sunny and I was not asleep.

The day started off with a Tench, the first of five to be caught through the day, 'great' I thought, the new batch of Ryton 3 boilies are still working. Nothing beats a boost in confidence.

The first Carp slurped up a pop-up at around 11am, I've never seen a run so fast before. This was a very energetic fish and after netting, it weighed in at 22lb on the dot. Looking back at some of my other Ryton Carp pictures, it's by far the best looking. It doesn't have the swollen stomach of my previous 27lb and 29lb commons, so it could be a male fish. It's also a very dark brown in colour, totally different from some of the other fish in the lake which are mostly dark golden. Could this be one of the old boy's?



At around 2pm, the second Carp of the day picked up a bottom bait fished with a small PVA bag of mixed pellets and groundbait, I was a bit baffled by the fight as it came in fairly easily, it just felt very heavy. This Common went 18lb 6oz, a female fish in immaculate condition.





Another two Carp around 8 to 10lb followed later in the afternoon after I noticed some fish picking bread off the surface near where the ducks are fed, Pop-up boilies cast to that area accounted for these.

Four good Carp and five Tench, definitely my best day at Ryton so far this year.