After last week’s trip, I was as keen as mustard to get back down the lake and into the same sort of area – as long as there were clearly signs of carp.

I arrived a lot later then hoped for, my phone was playing up and I definitely needed that sorted before my planned 3 night’s on the bank. That’s if I can cope with the heatwave. I’m definitely not a fan of any temperature over 23C and it was a barmy 28C but, if all went well, I’d be fishing 16ft of water and that would be a few degrees cooler than the surface temperature. Which according to my Deeper was reading 26C on the surface.

The car park was empty, that’s a good start I thought. I got the bucket from the car and placed it in the swim I was looking at and then walked back to the gate, along the path looking for signs of carp in the snags. Not a sausage. Not a good start. I walked past the swim and along to the next swim, I didn’t see anything on the top. This is what happened last week. I headed back to the swim and sat on the bucket watching the open water, as another angler walked by, he was thinking of moving as there were 5 another anglers down the other end and I had spotted 2 further brollys on the far bank.

As I was watching the water, a flat spot appeared out at the range I was planning on fishing and then a couple more. Well, something was out there and as no one else was catching, it could be worth a shout. I got the kit from the car and found the boat allocated to this area, which was where I had left it last week. I sorted out the Deeper rod and headed off out into the lake looking for the point where the weed stopped and then after the harder spots.

Once I had was satisfied that I had dropped both my fox mini hex blocks in the perfect spots, I baited a line of chopped up boilies and particle etc.

Once I was back on land (which is nice as I’m not as young as I used to be and getting out of a boat is certainly much harder this day’s and I don’t fancy a swim). I flicked the marker rod out a couple of times and the bottom felt absolutely awesome. I also leaded around with each rod at various wraps until I was happy with the drop, which didn’t take many casts. There where still the odd flat spots showing and I was getting very conscious of spooking the carp. So, I decided to finish setting up camp completely before I flicked out the rods onto the spot for the night. As I was very happy with how it all went, I may just leave them out there for the next 48 hour’s – something that works extremely well on the Airfield Lake.

As the afternoon past, a couple of carp cruised by off into the corner where I was fishing last week. This felt a good sign. The wind was freshening from the North East, it was a lot cooler and due to swing around to the south. This would be right in my face, a cool evening was heading my way and with any luck a few carp would drift this way over the next 24 hours.

The night was very quiet on all fronts – no bleeps or any signs of carp. I was up early and looking out for showing carp. I’m still very confident that I’m in the right area and there’s a good prospect of a bite. It’s going to be another hot one, but the wind is due to pick up again from the south later on this afternoon, which I hope will bring the carp on.

Just after 1 pm, the wind finally shifted and I could feel a nice blow building through the bushes where I was hiding behind from the direct sunlight my bivvy was getting. I decided to take another look along the margins and also see if anything was starting to drift along here. Sure enough, I found a couple of carp enjoying the sunshine.

This is an improvement on this morning, with any luck a few more will follow and fancy a feed after dark. They where reports of rain coming, but that has changed to more eastly now, shame that would have certainly helped.

After another weed burg took one of my lines out, I decided that I needed my tips lower down and the line not so far out, as the weed should drift by my swim. I also felt a change of bait couldn’t do any harm so I switched over to brighter wafters and more fruity flavours. You just have to keep experimenting until you find the right combination. As dusk was slowly approaching a couple of fishing topped, not to far away, fingers crossed for tonight.

I need to put some thought into staying another night, it’s looking pretty dead put there and the prospects of another day in the heat. I suppose would be the same if I was at home. At the moment, I don’t feel like I’m in the right area, but I don’t believe that all the carp have piled up at the other end of the lake. After all, I’m trying to hunt out the bigger carp and not those new stocks, but you do need to think of the future of venues .

I’ve come to the conclusion that going home today would benefit me, I could spend a day with the wife before she is back at work, the kids would be over the moon. Also the weather is looking so much better at the end of the week and with any luck the heatwave will break. I do believe like humans the fish don’t like the severe weather changes and will get use to the heat and start feeding again. I also believe they can tell a weather change is on the way and they are very likely to wait until that happens before they get their heads down again. In this week’s case, this will be in a couple of day’s and based on that I think it’s time have a slow pack up and head home.

Until next time

Richard