If I could be in any one place at any one time I would be hard pressed to suggest anything that would trump an evening like this one on the Guadalhorce river. In many ways I can appreciate it more for having been a spur of the moment decision. The weather looked good, I didn´t have much work to do and so I just said to myself “why not?”

The fishing was good too. I picked up a three barbel in pretty short order. The first of these was wounded in the middle of its back around the dorsal fin. The wound looked like the kind made from above, by a heron perhaps.

I was hoping that I might come across some carp. They have been putting in the odd appearance but I have not managed to get my hands one so far this season. These evening though I opened my account.

These carp really are strong as hell and are a real handful on fly tackle. If there are snags around, you need to have a sprinkling of luck on your side. I couldn´t stop my fish until it was 20 yards away, directly upstream, and with its nose in some backside vegetation. Thankfully it had run out of steam a little bit, just enough for me to coerce it away away from obstacles it had reached. Then I managed to persuade it to come back and we slugged it finally at close quarters like a couple of heavyweight boxers before it had tired enough for me to beach it in the shallows.

The first carp of the year.

The first carp of the year.

On its way again.

On its way again.