Thursday 25 June 2015

Beauty and the beast....

Last evening I arranged to meet Rhys at Tithe barn at dusk, there is a night fishing curfew on there right now and it needs regular patrols to ensure everyone is sticking to the rules. I managed to get away around 6:30 so thought I’d stop off and grab a rod on the way, with a couple of hours till dusk there was more than enough time to look for a cheeky opportunity to bend Carpathia again.

I did my rounds at Tithe and once happy began looking for fish. There were one or two at the top end of the top pond among the weed, but after catapulting out some bread and being destroyed by a flock of gulls, I decided not to pursue them. As I waited for duck Jock arrived and said he’d hang on till dusk, so I left Tithe and wandered over to Carron Row.



I met Rhys there; we had a natter and set off in search of an end of day carp. Rhys had his gear with him but decided to tag along and hoped to snap a few photos for me. After a quick walk around we settled into the Willow Pitch and I fed a few spots with floating baits. It didn’t take long for the carp to appear, it was very tranquil in the fading light with carp slurping all around us.

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Zoom in (real dimensions: 799 x 535)Image

Next to the rhododendron bush I finally managed to hook a carp after quite a few tries, but it tore off at a rate of knots with me hanging on for dear life and soon after hooking it the line broke. It happens sometimes. It was when tying on a new hook that we spotted Mongroid, an old mirror, very lean, quite long, and remarkably ugly, but a character nonetheless. As ever, old Mongroid came out from under the bush and hovered up every mixer in sight, then vanished again. Quite a bizarre fish.

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Zoom in (real dimensions: 535 x 799)Image

With a freshly baited hook and a few freebies distributed we waited for it to came back out, and sure enough out it came scoffing as it went, only this time my hook-bait was amongst the free offerings and it didn’t take long before Mongroid was ploughing around under the rod tip trying to free itself. It was a good scrap taking line and arching Carpathia beautifully. It was good to see the old minger again, I think I have quite a soft spot for the unusual ones.

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Zoom in (real dimensions: 535 x 799)Image

Zoom in (real dimensions: 535 x 799)Image

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There was more activity quite soon under the rhododendron but not much in the way of cast iron chances. That’s when the freebies near the willow started to disappear. I got into position and flicked out a crust, it was very exciting watching the swirls get ever closer until finally the hook-bait was taken and all hell broke loose. It was an epic scrap and after a right old bust up we bundled a lovely common into the net.

Zoom in (real dimensions: 799 x 535)Image

Zoom in (real dimensions: 799 x 535)Image

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It was the opposite end of the scale to old Mongroid, scale perfect, pristine mouth and well proportioned, and somewhere around low double figures. We did a few photos and released her into the margin. I fished on for a few minutes more but by then I had no light left. Rhys confirmed that it was past 10pm, I couldn’t believe how light it still was. I bid my friend farewell and thanked him for the photos. Next time he has a secret pool to show me

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