Box Break!

Having spent all my free time over the past two weeks packing my flat into lots of little cardboard boxes ready for the big move, I thought a break would be good to clear the head and a few hours on the bank was an excellent idea. I'd neglected the fishing since we returned from the holiday in Wales a couple of weeks ago and rather than choose a guaranteed fish on the bank session like fly fishing for the Carp at Jubilee I found myself fancying a few hours sitting behind alarms and opted for a session at Ryton.

On arrival, I had a quick look around and with only one other angler on the disabled peg I had the choice of swims it's a shame the fish wouldn't make things a bit more interesting as the only Carp  both on top and visibly feeding were in front of the information desk. The first couple of casts were with zigs set at different depths to try and snag one of the cruisers milling around in the area but as more and more bubblers started to show themselves I changed over to bottom baits and PVA sticks to mask the hook point and give me a bit more confidence fishing over the beds of dying weed. 

I had a couple of very quick aborted runs which I put down to Tench and this was confirmed by slime on the hook length, I wasn't feeling too bothered by what I caught today but a Tench would save a blank. 

I had one very fast take which I did think was a Tench, it went all over the place and at some speed but the fight got heavier as it came closer to the bank and it turned out to be one of the smaller Carp, only about 8lb but welcome all the same.

As the evening went on I lost a couple of Tench at the net but still had loads of fish feeding in the area where I'd been casting throughout the afternoon, the last casts of the evening went out and I had a hunch that the left rod would go at any time as the bubbles in the area I'd cast went berserk. As if ordered, off it went and I was soon playing a Tench, I'd lifted the right hand rod off the alarm and dropped the tip into the water so the fish wouldn't get tangled in the line but I heard the clutch give out a series of ticks just before the tench surfaced so I thought it had caught the line, after netting I cut the line next to the leader to avoid any further tangling and lifted the right hand rod out of the water to assess how bad things were, they weren't bad at all, it was another energetic fish that felt like another Tench and it wasn't till it came to the net that I realised it was a small Carp of around three to four pounds and a little smaller in length to the Tench already in the net.

A great finish to the evening but someone hadn't charged the camera batteries since the welsh trip so no photo.