It was nice then to see the water back down the usual level

I was in two minds whether to venture back as I had caught all the bigger carp and as they say, you can never go back. However the pull was too much and the car, by autopilot, found itself back in the car park. The water had been subject to extreme flooding for the whole winter and half the banks had been under water for 4 months or more. It was nice then to see the water back down the usual level. The lilies had come up but upon closer examination the leaves looked like they had reached the surface and then something had started to make them go brown almost immediately. The blanket weed and Canadian Pondweed was really bad already, if it was that bad already imagine what August will bring, some swims already looked unfishable. The water was subject to pollution as well during the winter from a flooded sewer and the EA had said that the nitrates released would make the weed really bad, I guess they were right. I wandered round the lake anyway with a bucket of bait and peered into every nook and cranny in the margins looking for carp. Carp were clearly visible further out milling above the thick weed. The anglers there, five of them, were all the usual suspects who had been fishing the water for years, some had caught all the carp several times over. I canít see the joy in that myself much but each to their own. They reported that seven carp had come out during the opening two days, and not a 20lber amongst them. One of the thirties had come out from a floater though since then at 31lb odd and the others had been seen, so the fears of losing the bigger fish to the pollution seemed groundless. I sat chatting for half hour and in that time saw several tiny carp swim by. Another peculiarity with this lake is the sudden emergence of several carp in the 2 to 10lb size that were never seen before last year. The club swear blind that none had been put in so I guess we have an oddity there where the carp spawn; lay eggs and 10lb carp emerge from the eggs, fantastic! The amount of small carp make fishing the lake frustrating now. It’s hard enough to get a run, but to find a 5lber on the end when a run comes is most frustrating, seeing the 20s and 30s in there to catch. I strolled round further but saw nothing to inspire me and when I got to the gate one of the rather more boisterous louder characters arrived; I felt the moment had gone for me so I got back in the car and drove away, probably never to return. It is a shame because I enjoyed my couple of years on the lake and did exceptionally well in a season when the lake was quiet and not fished excessively but those times do not last so I am glad I caught them when I did. Now I have to move on. I have two options; to return to an estate lake where a new stock of carp, again after a fish-kill following a pollution, have really grown well and several are now knocking on the 30lb barrier. The other option is to fish a large gravel pit where the carp are an unknown and literally anything could be swimming in there, I guested a session there last season and lost a really big fish in a snag. This time I want to go back on my own terms as a real member and get to grips with it. The lake keeps coming up in conversation with other anglers and I have just kept quiet about the place when it does, or run down its potential. To my horror, it was even featured in a monthly angling magazine, although the article was about the huge bream it holds. The unknown pit is nearer work but the estate lake is easier to fish and considerably less money to fish. Decisions. Decisions. Whatever: I have no time to decide so I will probably start on the estate lake and go from there, either way I will be putting carp on the bank that I have never seen or even seen photos of, a nice refreshing change. Just to keep a line wet I went back to my spring venue for a couple of very quiet sessions. Both coincided with the onset of winter yet again with cold winds and cold nights. The carp as usual were very invisible but I did catch on both. The first session produced a nice 5lb 11oz female tench that fought like crazy and fell to a tiny boilie fished out to the lilies that at long last have started to emerge from the depths. I was convinced it was a carp as it kited away up the lake away from me, the rod tip thumping over. I lost another good fish during the night on that session. The next session I returned to the same swim on a very windy day. The temperature was very cold for June and not a fish showed in the evening but finally in the middle of the night one rod screamed off and again had a good fight, with the line whistling in the near gale force wind. Finally I netted another big female tench a little over 6lb. So nice to get a couple of fish on the bank but now I really am looking forward to getting back on that big carp trail.

Have fun!