Running the wall, and the one that got away

Nice to have a meandering run around the city in the sunshine to start the day.

Afternoon was a series of surprises. Surprise to find a group of big carp up on the surface next to a busy path. Even more surprised to return a few hours later to find them still there. Then surprise that the first time got a fly near to the head of one of the fish it sucked in the fly with no hesitation - and I managed to pull the fly straight back out without hooking it, causing the fish to depart is a sedate but suspicious manner..

That seemed like a small victory all in itself, but a far bigger carp sailed into view, I managed to drop the fly in front of it and it pursued it downwards like a submarine executing a crash-dive. Both the carp and the fly disappeared from view as separate entities, but after a second and a lift of the rod it was apparent that they were now very much one...

After that the outcome was unsurprising. Carp aren't really fast, but they have a sense of unstoppable power. The fish never looked like being turned round. It crossed the canal, bulldozed through a weedbed and kept on going. Inevitably something was going to go wrong...the line pinged back, broken, some seconds later and the leviathan was gone.