Fueled by a tale!

The pool was practically deserted today, there was one angler with family in tow, in the far corner trying for another Carp like the one he had a few weeks previously but he looked to be struggling with the weed which is by far the worse I've seen it, the last time it looked this bad was four years ago when the level was down by more than a foot. 

I did my rounds and headed off to Jubilee fueled by a conversation I'd had with Barry on Wednesday night. He'd phoned just before ten with tales of a single mirror carp he'd caught that evening, a monster at just over 23lb caught on a biscuit fly. (Monster for a fly rod that is!)

It was hot and I think the fish population of the lake were all on the top, I could see Bream, Rudd and plenty of my target, Carp. I started feeding biscuits and up they came and it was long before I had the first fish of the day on the bank and I think I've seen this little fella before.

I moved around to the point and got the fish feeding fairly close in but as soon as the fly landed on the surface they became cautious, drifting up to examine every biscuit rather than snatching them off the top. They moved further out  and I had to lengthen my cast to drop the fly at the back of the biscuits I was feeding and did fool a couple of fish into taking, they were only small commons but they really do fight hard for such small fish this is also enhanced by the use of such a fine carbon stick to catch them on, I love fly fishing for them and someone else that does is Barry, he arrived at around six and fished the point swim but struggled to connect with the takes he was getting but did manage to get one good fish. 

I on the other hand, was struggling with ducks, as soon as you turn your back they were in the swim cleaning up the biscuits but I kept feeding and the fish stayed around. I struck into one take which I could tell was a better fish by the way everything went solid, I saw it's tale and dorsal a couple of times and it was good so I just had to hang on, get it under control and in the net. Bigger fish don't seem to thrash around as much as the smaller ones that twist and turn very quickly so it wasn't an epic battle, it plodded around in front of me taking line when it wanted to eventually it gave in to the constant pressure and slid over the cord. Barry did the honours with the camera and I lifted my prize, a long and lean 14lb 4oz Common.

Tench and a Personal Goal.

Fished an early session on Saturday and after a walk around the lake and a quick chat with Andy who had just banked a nineteen pound plus common, I made my way to a swim that looked promising. I was fishing the point opposite the island and I put both rods out with PVA bags on to two spots I'd caught from before. The persistent and chilly north easterly wind was still with us and the sheltered area at the front of the island seemed to draw the fish in, there were plenty of bubblers showing and I decided to change one rod over to a chod rig to try and get a quick bite. I cast this to areas where these fish had been bubbling with the hope they would return and did have a couple of sharp tugs through the session, too quick to be liners, my hook can't have been sharp enough to snag whatever was tasting the bait. All the action came on the PVA bag and bottom bait with a single Carp, which I did mistake for a Tench until it broke the surface and five good sized Tench.

One of the tench was in a rather sorry state with a badly mangled bottom lip, it's jaw bones visible poking through the skin, not nice to see.

At the end of February I opened this years carp account at Ryton and over the next few weekends I managed to pull one out here and one out there, a few weeks ago I realised that I'd caught at least one Carp from the lake every weekend since the account was opened, since then I've still managed to catch but I decided to make it a goal to achieve this and see how far I could get. Today I reached my tenth consecutive weekend with a Ryton Carp on the bank, all be it just short of seven pounds.

I'm not one to gripe about things but something I do want to have a moan about is at Morris's. I'd left a few saplings grow there last year so they could be pruned back to provide some stalking cover for this summer, these were pruned back earlier in the year and other anglers who regularly fish this peg had noticed, some liking the idea so I wasn't just doing it for myself. I was told today that someone has cut these down and now left the peg wide open to any fish that swims past in the margins making it crap for stalking, thanks!!

Saturday Zig.

An early start today and after dropping the gear off at peg two I headed off for a couple of laps of the lake in search of a feeding fish or two, I ended up settling on peg two as the only visible signs of fish bubbling were in front of the tree's on the no fishing bank. Rods were dispatched to their spots and I set about sorting out some fresh hook links and baits ready for the first recast. A good fish crashed out in the middle of the lake and was in casting distance from the log swim on the far side so I thought about a move to be on the fish and started to pack away my gear, I glanced around towards the logs and noticed a red jumper clad angler standing there, never mind, peg two it was.
As the sun rose higher I noticed more and more Carp up on the top, there were plenty of bubblers in between them so they must have been in a feeding mood. I quickly set up a zig and put it out amongst them. Nothing happened for a good hour so I changed boilie colour and whacked it back out. Anthony had dropped by for a chat about the pegs, the possible solution being steel cages (gabions) filled with rock to replace the wonky slabs, a good idea I think. We were in the swim next door chatting about how under cut the bank was and how a cage full of rock in front of the swim would make everything more stable, Anthony went to fetch his waders from the car to have a poke around some of the other swims and I went back to my rods, I noticed that the bobbin on the zig rod was tight up against the front of the alarm but there was no line leaving the spool, I hadn't switched on the alarm so missed the initial take, I picked up the rod, slowly tightened the line and could feel a few gentle nods through the tip, I switched off the baitrunner and lifted into a very heavy lump that pulled back, now it made a run. It felt a very good fish by the way it pulled line off the spool but I soon had it under control and slowly played it back to the net allowing it to go when it wanted to, I could hear some voices from the top of the bank behind me and tried not to let them bother me until the fish was safely in the net, the Carp plodded around in front of the swim for a while before submitting to the folds of mesh, I then turned round to find a small audience watching and even had a small round of applause.
A wader clad Anthony was on hand to help with the weighing and photography as a group of onlookers watched, Anthony read 19lb off the scales, nice!

I had a Tench at around lunchtime but all the Carp had disappeared off the top and I couldn't see any signs of feeding fish, the session finished at one.