Seeds.

Got a phone call from Barry on Saturday asking if I was fishing Sunday, I had no commitments so agreed that a session on the bank would be good. The ice had cleared from Ryton, just, and I was thinking that a spot of piking would be good, Barry had a thought about putting one rod out for Carp and the other for Pike, I wasn't sure, all efforts should be in one species rather than a half effort on two species, if I was going to blank it might as well be style.

After I put the phone down, the seed that Barry had sown into my head grew into an idea of putting all my efforts into fishing for Carp instead of Pike, the last weekend in February has always been good for Carp at Ryton for me so with that weekend only being a couple of weeks away there is always a chance!

Peg one was free and if there was ever going to be that chance of catching anything it was where a load of free food has been going in. Choddy's in yellow and white were dispatched to the area and I sat back and settled down for a long wait. Bird activity was giving me the odd line twitch and I wasn't expecting a take, but one of my alarms let out a one toner and my first thoughts was that of a bird of the tufted variety but there wasn't any in the area and when I struck the rod tip gave a satisfying nod as a fish made a bid for freedom down the tree line, a little drag pressure put a halt to any plans of escape and it slowly made it's way back towards me, protesting with the odd twist and turn, it didn't feel a big fish but as it got closer I could see that it was a Carp, I muttered 'don't come off' several times as it came closer to the net and I was soon on the phone to Barry to rub his nose in it!

Pristine!

We played guess the weight and I put the fish at around twelve, Barry said eleven pound ten, the Reuben's needle pulled round and settled three notches short of twelve, with each notch being two ounces it made it eleven pound ten ounces, the jammy git!

I kept the rods in the same area for the rest of the session but had no more takes, one fish did crash a couple of times but it was just out of range from where I was, from the other side of the pool it might have been worth a chuck.