I had to work early on the May Day bank holiday, but I was lucky to finish earlier tha expected.  Therefore, I was on the lake by the middle of the afternoon on a nice sunny day.  After a good look around, the sun had gone and the wind had picked up, after what seemed a lifetime I settled on the same swim as last week.

I was drawn back to this swim, as I had heard fish slurping all the scum line under the trees. 

Shame you can’t fish one rod in each side (bit naughty), it was a very hard choice between them.

This time both rod’s were on the far margin, some 50 yard’s apart, mind you.

At 2300 hrs (ish), my left hand rod was off and so was the fish down the margin and running towards me.  I reeled and pumped has fast as I could, the fish still found the end of a fallen tree to get stuck in and after much mucking around, there was no other option than to get my kit off (joy).  Lucky it was dark.  I have a 3 part landing net by Chris Brown.  I screwed on the last section,  so I now had a 9ft pole. The water was warmer than I thought it would be (lucky me), I knew the fish was still on as I could still feel it.  So, armed with the net and rod,  out I went towards the end of the tree.  When I was close enough, I reeled in, so the fish was at the surface, then slowly slipped the net under and let the line out from my reel until the fish was in front of me.  I unhooked it on the net, bit through the line, reeled in and made my way back to the bank.  The fish turned out to weight only 15lbs 8.  We (as anglers) must look after the fish, but I would not recommend going in after fish, as it can be very dangerous, if you do, please wear a life jacket, safety first.  Soggy and tired, I went back to bed.

(The fish was stuck at the end of these trees.)

At 0430 rod 2 was away again!  This time the fish had turned and headed for open water and then off to the snag to the right of me.  This is where I lost the fish last trip, not this time.  After a long-winded fight up and down the margin,  I slid the net under a nice 19lb 8 Common,  my biggest fish so far on this lake.

I have been a bit unlucky so far on the size,  however, God only knows, how on earth, you would get a 30+ fish in the net, in this swim.

I didn’t bother going back to bed this time, so I just sat and watched the sun come up (over a couple of cups of coffee), before it was time to get in the car and head off to work.

Till next time

Richard