May day weekend

I fished at Ryton a few times over the weekend with no more than a couple of Tench to show for my efforts, I couldn't see any signs Carp in their usual places and I tried several spots I treat as 'guaranteed of a bite' but still nothing.

On Sunday I thought a break from Ryton would be good and descided to head to Snitterfield Resevoir for a few hours just to have a look around as I've never fished it before. After a bit of advise from a regular to the place, I put a couple of rods out. After a short while I had a rattle of a bite on one rod which turned out to be a small Bream, (a few more of these at Ryton would be nice!) I could see a few fish showing on the top and started to feed some 'doggy treats' into the area, a few of them were picked off but not confidently, I put a surface bait out just to see if one would take. After a few frustating swirls near my surface bait I called it a day.

Monday, should I go to Ryton and spend all day behind stattic bobbins or should I do something else, having had a taste of surface fishing at Snitterfield I felt a need to catch a Carp off the top. This is not a good method at Ryton because of the bird population but it's not impossible, the weather had also taken a turn for the worst overnight so a day at Jubilee was called for. I knew that Barry had been catching off the top all week and was going there today with his Fly rod so a Carp off the top looked a dead cert. My usual gear was packed with the addition of a fly rod just in case I had the chance to give it a go, wind permitting.

I started my session on the point of the horseshoe lake, no fish were showing so I put a rod in the near margin and another across to a bush on the opposite bank. I was warned by another angler about a snag near that bush but it had to be tried. I had a good look around for some signs of Carp on the top and found them in one corner that was sheltered from the wind, in came the rods and I was on the move. As soon as I moved, the angler that warned me of the snag moved straight into the point swim that I'd just left, strange!. I put a 'sleeper' rod into the margin of the new swim and started feeding the 'Doggy Treats', sure enough, up came the Carp. Barry was already feeding and casting a fly to a cluster of Carp a couple of pegs away so one of us was bound to get one soon, a couple of casts later I saw a fish take a biscuit just behind my in-line controller so I tightened up and was in. The Carp at Jubilee fight differently to the ones at Ryton, they stay deep and fight hard but it wasn't long before a good double was in the net.

A short while later, my sleeper rod was away with another hard fighting double.

The wind picked up slightly in the late afternoon and the surface feeders dissapeared and I swapped the second rod over to a bottom bait and put this into the margins. I had another screamer of a take just before I left and put another double on the bank.

A very satisfying day, If the fish had stayed on top longer and there was less wind I would have tried the fly rod. Maybe on the next visit to Jubilee.