Exploring

Yesterday afternoon myself and Dan set out to explore some of the out-of-the-way River Wandte. We started off in the spot where I caught a crab on Friday, we could see a couple of koi carp swimming about but they weren't feeding (I also spotted another crab in the water). This swim only produced a few small dace. We decided to name this swim the suicide spot as it was so snaggy and the overhanging trees were so low you stood a 50/50 chance of getting your kit back each cast!

Next we started jumping pegs downstream spending half an hour in each one. Most of the swims were only a few inches deep so we looked for deeper holes with fast water, the kind of place bigger barbel would hang out. With only the odd twitch on the quiver tips I decided to walk on down and pre-bait a couple of deep holes and then we worked our way towards them.


A 7lb 10oz common, the fattest carp I have ever seen!

As it was getting dark we got to the first pre-baited swim, first cast resulted in a rod-slamming bite and a 7lb 10oz common carp. Right size, wrong species. It was a great fight in the fast water but it really stirred up the swim. Dan perservered in this swim while I moved to the second pre-baited swim, but it was soon too dark to fish unfamiliar swims... We'll be back...

We ended the session fishing in some fast shallow water near some street lamps. I noticed the water level had risen about a foot while we had been fishing, unfortunately there was so much weed washing through it made fishing impossible. The barbel had won the day.

Oh yeah, I did manage to fall over in the dark, while carrying my bag on my back resulting in being winded, smashing the maggot box (wet maggots everywhere) and I broke my scales. Still, it was a nice river carp...