As far as I am aware this is the first Grass Carp ever caught in the River Severn. Alan said "At first my rod just twitched a little and I thought it would be a barbel just having a first nudge of my pellet bait, but then the rod went round steadily, so I struck. After a couple of nods, the line then went solid and I thought it had run me into a snag; but then, very slowly, I started to win a little line and I thought 'Wow! This is a big 'un' and I took it very steadily. After a battle of about 20 minutes I managed to get the fish to the surface and saw it was huge! My one concern was that it might not fit into my landing net, but fortunately the angler below me came to my aid and with the fish close to the bank he managed to put the net under it as it once more tried to dive to the bottom - straight into the net head first! It was very difficult to lift out of the water and I am grateful to Steve Senior who rushed over with his camera to take this shot."

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Carl Pavey got up very early on 16 June to start the new season on our river. He was fishing soon after 5 a.m. and managed this fantastic bag of 24 barbel to 8 Lbs, plus 1 chub for a haul well in excess of the magic "Ton". Carl's only disappointment was when "a torpedo" took his pellet bait and stripped off 25 yards of line without so much as a nod, then the hook pulled free! Must have been one of those hard fighting carp, methinks Carl - or was it one of the many double-figure barbel now frequenting our water? Anyway, a great start to the new season. Well done!

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