Ryton Carp: Trying to make them count.

Fishing has almost been unheard of since Cerys arrived, even the fishing related jobs I'd planned to do have been shelved but I have been able to squeeze in a few short sessions, it's a shame the fish haven't played along.

The first session I was granted a pass for was four weeks ago at Jubilee, I'd been reliably informed that the fish were on the top and a couple had come out on the fly so I went armed with my favourite fly patterns with the hope of banking my first carp of the season, the session remained fishless and was cut short by torrential rain, hail, thunder and lightning, was somebody trying to tell me something?

The second session was more relaxed, sat behind bobbins at Ryton, there were a few Carp around but all I managed was a single Tench that spat my boilie back at me just as I reached for it with the net, this was not good.

Third time lucky, Barry had been having plenty of luck catching Carp on most of his fly fishing trips to Jubilee so I accompanied him for an afternoon session on Easter Sunday. The weather had been scorching all week so it was a change to feel a cool breeze and have the cover of some cloud, the fish were on top but not in great numbers and it took a while to find some fish willing to feed and the action was soon to follow.

I'd been targeting one group of fish watching their feeding pattern as the biscuits drifted in the breeze and had just started casting to them when I saw a larger fish drift past between me and my quarry, I reached down for a few baits and as soon as they hit the water the fish turned and slurped one down. the moment it turned away I flicked a short cast in amongst the baits and it went for it, I missed the first take but with a quick flick my fly was out again and this time it found a good hold. The carp exploded on the surface and dived into the depths, it felt heavy but with all the loose line back on the reel and the drag tightened I had it under control. The fight was unusually heavy, normally the smaller fish run all over the place but this one stayed deep and thumped around as I slowly coaxed it to the net. It was when it slipped into the mesh that it's size became apparent, as soon as I saw the width across it's back and the depth of it's body I knew it was going to be a new personal best Carp on the fly before I'd even lifted it out of the water to weighed it,

Eighteen pound on the dot.

I'd have been more than happy to pack up and go home after that but decided to have a little fun for the rest of the afternoon catching a couple of smaller fish,