Ryton Bream

These fish don't come out very often but they are there, the Ryton Bream. I've been lucky enough to have caught a couple of them in the past the last one came out during one of last autumn's carping sessions. It looked a good fish but was wafer thin and only weighed in at 5lb 5oz but still managed to scoff a double boilie bait intended for a Carp.

I've seen much bigger Bream spawning on the brushes in the shallow corner and they are big!. It's also nice to hear of one being caught, all 10lb 4ozs of it.

Barry with his Bream.

Ryton Open Day!

The weather was hot and sunny, the carp were cruising on top and I arrived at the lake without a plan. There was a large coloured bit in the middle of the lake where a group of fish were feeding and the first rod went on this spot with a Yellow pop-up. I put the second rod fairly close in with a zigged Yellow pop-up, this was clearly visible and I sat back and enjoyed watching the Carp cruise up to and mouth the bait before turning away, how many of these do we miss when we can't see the bait?

The rods were on alarms so I allowed them to fish whilst talking to people about fishing the lake. It was whilst talking to one chap and demonstrating a rig in my tank, that I saw a Carp take the close in zigged bait and bolt, trouble was, it bolted straight through several clumps of weed and went solid, after a while the hooklink gave way at the hook and it was Carp - 1, Roger - 0.

I had the depth now and both rods were out on zigs. It wasn't long before I had another take further out in the lake and again it weeded up. I stayed patient with this one and eventually it worked its way loose and I could start to retrieve some line. Barry was on hand to help land the Carp in front of a small audience. The scales pulled round to 10lb 4oz, not a monster but nice to get one on the bank for the public to see.

I did get another two runs in the afternoon and again both fish weeded up and managed to transfer the hook to the clumps of green stuff. Final score: Carp - 3, Roger - 1.

Barry had a good Carp later in the afternoon at just under 14lb.

What a drag!

I've not been fishing for a couple of weeks, other stuff that needed tending to kept me away from the lake, the Carp have also been spawning so it's good to let them get on with thing's in peace.


Preparation for the Ryton open day saw me at the lake on the Saturday afternoon/evening, I was to be fishing from the disabled peg on Sunday and giving advise on fishing the lake when asked. (Hopefully catching something too!!) I borrowed a weed rake to try and clear a couple of spots ready to bait up and try to attract some fish in readiness, this proved to be a little harder than first thought, all the rake did was flatten the weed, after a few minutes it was back as it was before raking. I still baited the spots ready and hoped that the fish would still show.

Heatwave!

What a scorcher Sunday was, I couldn't get onto the back lake till the match finished at 2.30pm, as soon as the match was over I found a suitable sheltered swim to surface fish from, I did bring my new fly rod with me but I knew the wind would play havoc with my casting and I didn't fancy getting carted off by the fly casting police so it stayed in the tube, I need to practice my casting a bit more as I always get into a tangle in any wind. The afternoon's match had been very slow and a bag of three Carp won, prospects seemed not too good but the fish were visible on top so a bit of feeding for a short spell stirred up some interest and a few fish started to suck the treats from the surface. It wasn't too long before I had my first fish on and a short while later I had a second, familiar fish, I'd caught this Common last weekend, it had a very distinctive wobble to it's spine so was easy to identify.

The afternoon heat slowed things down for a while but a few fish kept slurping in the scum layers that were collecting in the calm patch where I was fishing, I kept putting a bait into this scum line and eventually a third fish took the biscuit.

I decided to stop fishing at around 7.30 as I could feel the sun burning my shoulders and had to cover up but I did managed one more fish before I left.

A very satisfiying afternoon in the sun.

A quicky with the Biccy!

Had a very short session on Friday after work, grabbed one rod and a bag of biscuits and headed for Jubilee for a spot of surface fishing. It took a while for the fish to show on top but a bit of constant feeding brought them up. Managed one fish fairly quickly and then struggled, I was getting interest in the 10mm boilie I was using but I couldn't get the hook to hold.

I did manage to catch a second fish just before I left at nine, it's probably the smallest Carp in the lake but it still fought well for it's size.