Rolling back twenty years, Carp on the dry is just heart pounding stuff...

Went on a local lake this evening and invited Wess down for a evening ... the rivers are fooked and the only one worth fishing is my Wye on Sundays...

Well i have moved in my little cottage in the sticks and its taken me a while to get used to after living in the bustle of Stoke, i am now a bit of a country bum with a loud Stoke accent!

I decided to move this way as to be closer to the river Dove and Wye, and its just been perfect, i can be make the Wye in 35 mins and the Dove at Elly in 10...so yeah fishing has put me here and i am loving it...

I wandered out of my house a few weeks back and stumbled across a good sized lake that looked totally overgrown and out of sorts, well lake fishing has been something that takes me back twenty plus years, and yes Carp fishing was my life as flyfishing is now.....were there any in hear were my first thoughts and would i still get the same feeling that left me years ago when i moved onto the barbel...
I was with my two little girls and had no time to study the lake so it was just left at the back of mymind..

Last week i asked my two little girls if they wanted to go fishing with Daddy? well they are 5 and 2 years old and there faces lit up! yes Daddy take me fishing! i want a fish!!

Well i have taken them twice before on the Wye and on the Dove hoping for them to see me catch a fish, and both times i have failed due to stones being thrown at my fly!!

I planned to take them to my found gem and take a picnic to keep them calm, well this again lasted 30 mins, we ate the picnic and i picked up the rod to get in the water and  Poppy was crying she wanted to hold the rod and Annie wanted a poo!! Well that was it get the stuff and go home....i had lofted some bread across the pool to see for any signs of action, i looked as i walked away to see huge open lips calmly sipping the bread down... a sight a Carp man thrives on and a sight that made my old feeling come sailing back...get on the dry!!!
Well i had spoken to some of my old carp mates and told them of my find, yes i was going to target these but with my fly rod, yes a bit mad but i hear its something getting quite big..
I got home one night and had that urge, get out of my game fishing head and go and catch these carp Chris Yates style, nothing fancy, just fly line, mono and a loaf of bread....far from my days of delkims and rod pods....
Wess was late so i opted to stroll across to the lake and get a early look in...

On arriving there was a slight ripple across the lake, i wandered across to the back end and stubbled across a shoal of 5 carp all sitting in inches of water, there shear size was untrue, some over twenty pounds and some upper teans, creeping near them like stalking a sipping brown i tossed a handful of bread crust in the area around them, they totally ignored them at first and after 5 mins they started to swirl at them but not taking, then the lips of a huge common carp came out and slurped down a piece of bread, my heart was in my mouth, this carp was a very big fish and totally out sized all the others, they all had started to switch on to the bread and i just sat and thought out my move, i was going to target the big gun..
The common would circle around hit a piece of bread then sink to the depths, again it would just appear from nowhere and take the bread...i selected a size 10 grub hook and a looped a big crust on, a roll cast did the job and i sat and waited.... nothing for a few mins, had the rod spooked them... the huge common came straight up and supped the bread, my heart in my mouth i waited and it sunk its head down and i watched it twitch its head as it felt the line.....wack!! i hit it so hard to set the hook, the fish bolted and made a run straight into my backing!! i was hammered right over with the rod and holding this fish but it was not stopping, i soon realized i had stupidly choose my 9ft 4# fly rod, i had forgot the power of these fish and had no control, i held hard as i could and the fish headed straight for the island and i give it full power.... snap! the line bust at the hook link.... fuck me, i had just hooked a twenty pound common and made a right fook up, i needed a big powerful fly rod and felt a let down to such a quality fish, the hook was left in the fish but wisely i had crimped the barb and that made me feel better...
i sat there with my heart pounding at what had just happened....

Wess came along and i told him the story and he was also mad for some action... the fish went spooky for a good hour and came back to show interest...
I hooked a fish 3ft from the bank and this time i made sure i had beefed up and got into a twenty minuite scrap with a double figure mirror...
this was very good fun on the fly rod and wess slipped the net under a fish of top draw onditon, a fully scaled linear in superb condition...i sent memories back to my old carp days of which i loved with a shear passion..

Wess hooked another fish that give him the right run around and soon we slipped the net again under a superb double linear...

Well the night was drawing in and i sat with Wess in a superb location and we just chatted into last light, it was a joy to be out wit a mate bashing carp on the fly rod, many years ago i made huge amounts of friends in this carp game, yes i loved it but i have moved on and will have the odd go but game fishing is in my blood and always will be, it did made me realise that i am not a fly man purist and i might have slipped into a fly fishing cliche, but i see myself as a angler who has been into most types of fishing and boy have i lived the dream over the years and will never ditch a course fisherman as they are much better anglers than most fly men i see prancing around the river.....
Another bonus on the pool i noticed a sedge hatch and a buzzer hatch, small fish were rising the take these, and some looked a quite a decent size(9oz) i tried to hook them on a size 22 midge pattern, i was getting rises but could not connect, i think they could be rudd but not sure, my question is to ask if anyone knows how to connect with these fish and what they might be? i would love to catch a rudd on a dry fly..please leave a comment if u could help as it will drive me mad until i catch one...
Well was nice to be drifting back to memories of carp fishing but my heart is with my sipping Wye brown and i am loving it at the min...
Nice one
Ltd
Glen