Ryton Twenty Ten Carp Account - Open!

Even though it's not quite spring, I've started my campaign for the Ryton Carp.
I started early on Saturday and used pop up boilies on one rod, bottom bait and PVA stick on the other and cast these towards areas that were clouded up by the feeding tufties, these spots have accounted a few early season Carp for me on previous seasons and even though you have to put up with the constant line bites and pick ups from the ducks it's somewhere to start. After a couple of fishless hours I moved to another swim with the hope that the sunny spells would start to warm the shallower water unfortunately the wind swung round and picked up slightly and was now blowing straight onto my sunny spot. With the wind having a cold bite to it I made a move to another swim that enabled me to cast to the calm areas sheltered from the wind with a hope that the fish would be there.
Early afternoon saw the session finish on a blank and after seeing the forecast for the Sunday I didn't think I'd be fishing again this weekend.
The heavy rain had past over our region early this morning and the wind was a lot lighter than the forecast so I made my way back to Ryton for another Carp session. I stayed on the back of the wind again and used the same combinations of pop ups and bottom baits to target the same spot's as yesterday. It was only after I made a move that I struck gold with the first fish of the day. The tufties were having a good root around the area of my pop up and at first I thought one of them had picked up my bait as the bobbin was making some very erratic movements, I picked up the rod and started to reel in the bait but couldn't feel anything, then everything went very heavy and I could feel something kick and then kite off to my left, at last a Carp!. The Carp had picked the bait up and bolted straight towards me pulling the top bead off my leader and up the main line, hence the weird indication.

A nice way of finding out how safe my rigs are!

A small Common weighing in at 9lb.

There was still some bird activity over the spot so I put the same pop up out again, I'd only just sunk the line and set the rod on the pod before it rattled off on another run. It didn't feel as big this time and after a short tussle I had the fish in the net.

The Tench at Ryton are always welcome.

Ryton 2010 Carp account - Open!

Ryton Pike - Parts 4 and 5.

Part four was last week which was a complete disaster although I did meet a fellow Leamington club member and blogger Daniel Everitt and we had a good exchange of ideas and thoughts on Carp and Zander so even though I blanked the session was most enjoyable for the information.

Today was much better, I only planned to fish for a few hours over lunch time and I didn't have a clue where to go whilst eating my breakfast this morning, I thought about the canal and Zander but didn't fancy it and settled on a short session for a Ryton Pike. On arrival at Ryton the place was fairly quiet with only the one angler on the road bank, I headed over to the opposite bank and a spot I've been wanting to fish for a while.
Rods were cast out with the usual deadbaits, one free lined with just a small weight sliding on the line, this was the 'chuck it and leave it' sleeper rod, the other bait was under a float which gave me something visual to concentrate on. Today's chilly wind was blowing straight into this peg which made the fishing a bit uncomfortable but the sun was warming on my back as it shone through the tree's. After around twenty minutes I saw a few inches of line pull through the eye's on the free lined bait but nothing further developed and I put it down to the wind, it was only when I decided to bring this rod in and recast that I found I had a Pike chewing on the bait, I think I was as surprised as the Pike!. I soon had it in the net and after dealing with the hooks we both posed for a picture.

9lb on the dot!

I carried on at this peg for a while hoping that another Pike would be in the area before moving around to the back of the island. I left at 2.30pm with just the one fish banked.