With a bait under there, after snagging a rough branch, I settled back

The first session did not start well, as upon my arrival and walking into the first occupied swim I was informed that my target 30lb plus mirror that I had not caught before had in fact been caught by a new member a few hours ago. Although obviously a disappointment, this is not a lake like the North Lake at Yatley where when Basil gets caught, the whole lake is vacated whilst he licks his wounds. There are plenty more cracking fish to catch, in fact there are two other worthwhile carp I had yet to catch and I am just as desperate to catch them as well before the end of the season as this season would without doubt be my last at the lake.So, undaunted I walked round the rather busy lake looking in all the likely little nooks and crannies looking for a glimpse of a carp. I was tempted to fish the same bay that I had success from last time out but thought better of it, leaving that area to rest. I did of course put some bait in whilst no one was looking, as I did in half a dozen other spots. One of the guys told me he had seen some carp feeding under an overhanging tree but some tench had moved in since. As I had seen little else to inspire me I had a look in there. Indeed there were a couple of tench moving in and out so I thought the carp may return, so settled for that swim. I set up the minimum of tackle so I was ready to move if I saw something else show. With a bait under there, after snagging a rough branch, I settled back. As the evening drew on a few carp began to roll out in front of the swim next door but unfortunately a lad had come down to do the evening so his rods were covering that area. He himself was two swims further up chatting! Considering what happened later in the week Geoff’s suggestion of cutting his lines perhaps was not so daft as it seems, but more of that later. Just as it got dark, a carp did indeed move into the tree and start feeding so I set up stall in there for the night, it was a mild dry night so there was no need for a brolly or bivvy, I could survive under the stars. I put another rod out as near to the rolling carp as I could and before long I was asleep. The night unfortunately was very quiet and it was not until the light was just improving did a bleep from the rod under the tree make me peep from under the blanket. As I did so the bleep turned into a continuous tone, as finally something was sneaking off with my boilie. The resultant strike and fight was very thuddy so it was no surprise to see a tench roll in the early dawn light. Soon in the edge I could see it was good fish so I netted it quickly. It was very deep and a lovely dark olive green colour. I quickly weighed it. I could see it was a male and was pleased to see it go 6lb 2oz, one of my biggest ever male tench, so a sort of result I guess. It would have been fairer though if Geoff had caught it on his tench tackle as he had been having a go for them under the same tree a couple of times in the last week. I quickly gave the tench its freedom and half an hour later I wound in the other rod and made tracks to work planning to return the following day. I turned up a little earlier the next day as the sun had made a rare appearance and I wanted to have a good look round. Disappointedly there were already four people fishing in various ways when I arrived, so my options once again were cut down. However there was a quarter of the lake that was free of angler pressure so I wasted no time in baiting up a few spots. Some I had no intention of fishing yet, I was just baiting them for the summer ahead for when the going gets tough. On the second walk round I found carp feeding on one of my future spots which was encouraging and then I found four carp with their heads down on one of my usual spots. I wasted no time in getting the gear and, back at the spot, waited until they wandered off before lowering a bait in. The carp quickly returned and I knew it was just a matter of time before I got a take. Over the next hour I saw several carp come and go through the area, including the biggest carp in the lake that I had caught before but now looked very big indeed. All the carp were in spawn and all were coming out at very exaggerated weights, the morals of this I will leave until another time. Finally, as I was kneeling down peering into the water I saw a mirror come in and go down on the baits, I just started to move back when the buzzer sounded and I quickly struck. The mirror came up in the water and took off towards a nearby island, I saw the carp clearly, a high double figure fish, maybe a low twenty. I had it nicely under control when the hook pulled out. This had never happened to me in that swim before as the carp always fed confidently there. The fact that the club had cut back the vegetation severely from both the large swims on either side, and the fact that a few rigs had therefore been cast that way had a lot to do with it I think. Another cracking spot on its last legs but I guess nothing stays the same and it is still good for a few more carp, I hope! I was confident the carp would return to the spot later in the evening though so after a quick walk round again I returned and lowered a bait in again. After another few hours nothing had shown, so in early evening so I wound in and set up for the night in the swim to the left. I could cast near to the original spot from here plus I could put a bait out to the main lake. As the majority of the carp had been coming out in the evening so far, I was keen to get the baits out. This was a big mistake, it was my over eagerness to get set up for the night that cost me a big carp for, when I wandered up to the original spot an hour later, a big mirror was feeding like mad. If my rig had still been in there then a take would have been guaranteed. Naturally I quickly got a rod and lowered a bait back in there after the carp had moved off but it never returned and my chance had gone. Just on dark I returned back to the swim for the night and cast out. Two things then happened in the next hour, first my obsession mirror got caught yet again right opposite me by the same lad who was covering the rolling carp whilst chatting on the previous session, told you I should have cut his lines, secondly, the carp started spawning!The night was all quiet except for some over enthusiastic spawning on the carps front giving me line bites. In fact at dawn they were going mad and before I left for work I spent the last hour trying to get some good photos of them – What’s that about being a peeping Tom?! I left shortly after the same lad caught another carp, a mug fish of around 20lb, so it was certainly his night. My time will come, next week I hope.

Have fun!