With the wife away on a business trip for a few nights, I was hoping to get down the lake Friday evening, however as she was traveling around the M25 on a Friday afternoon, it was 50/50 if it would be Friday night or Saturday morning.

Thankfully, her journey wasn’t that bad and I arrived just after a quarter past seven. Ian had been down since Thursday morning and had managed one so far. My plan was to pitch up next to him, as he wasn’t fishing for the next two weekends and then I was off for two weekends as it is the Jubilee bank holidays and we are away in Wales camping.

The beauty of fishing this lake for so long is that I know every swim well enough to turn up and get the rod on the spot without much disruption. I soon had the rod done and spombed out some bait – I was going to be using the new hook bait from Spotted Fin.

These baits smell awesome. On the other rod, I would be using even faithful Masala wafters.

Once I had finished sorting the bivvy out and got organized, it was time for a glass of red.

It wasn’t long before it was time to get my head down and hopefully bag a carp tonight.

Just after 0630, the left-hand rod was away and I was very pleased to get this lovely 23lb 2 oz common in the net.

With the rod back out, it was time for some coffee and a burger with onions for breakfast. It’s been a funny morning, with light rain and the wind changing to the north. There is definitely a chill in the air, but the conditions are looking good for another bite during the day – with any luck.

The afternoon was spent avoiding the extreme heat. I’m pretty certain the carp will be spawning by tomorrow at some point as the temperature is on the rise this afternoon and the cold northerly wind has gone.

As the evening passed, it was getting warmer by the minute and I wasn’t sure the rods would go off again tonight, but you never know with this place.

Sometime after 3 am, Ian’s rod burst into life and began a battle with a hard-fighting carp. It was clearly determined to kite right past both my rods, which I did pick up one by one and safely resting against my bivvy. Ian was still battling away with this carp, which was determined not to come to the surface and anywhere near the waiting net. As time went by and it started to slow down and slipped over the cord.

Just as Ian was about to pick the carp up for the photo, his other rod was away. I quickly sacked the first carp up and got it in the water, then Ian netted the next fish – which was less problematic, with the exception of it trying to go under the trees to the left of his swim.

With the photoshoot sorted and all 4 over are rods back out, dawn was arriving over the forest and just after 0410, I took the opportunity to change both baits and touch up the hooks.

Time to get a couple of hours before daylight and the inevitable packing up time.

Above is Ian’s 28lber from Thursday night on a self-take, stunning lump, and the stamp of fish coming out this session is getting so much better each year.

It’s very much looking like it’s going to be a very hot sunny day, the light northerly is keeping the temperature down. No more action for me or Ian over the night. He will be very happy going into a two-weekend break, for me I’ve another two weekends fishing, then I’m off for a couple as it’s the school holidays. But I am getting ahead of myself, let’s enoy the rest of May first.

Until next time

Richard

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