After moving from Essex to wales, I thought it would be hard to find some good lakes like the lakes that I was used to fishing, well after a lot of searching I found and nice over grown 30 acre pit that looked like it didn’t get fished much as most of the swims were overgrown, this is what I’ve always looked for a lake with some unknown carp and not thousands of carp anglers, after a good few hours walking round the lake climbing trees looking for signs of carp I found a small group of fish in a little bay at the far end of the lake , after watching them for a while it became clear that there was a pattern that they would take on their way in and on their way out of the bay ,after watching them for a while I made my way back to the car and couldn’t wait to get back down the pit for a few nights the following week.

Well the following week could not come round quick enough the Monday was spent sorting out the kit and getting bait sorted, I didn’t know if these carp get caught on boilies or particle, so I decided to go in with mainline cell as freebees as most carp love this, and I would take hemp and corn as this is an all-time carp catcher. The following morning the van was packed and I was on my way to the pit. I drove into the car park I was glad that there was no other cars in there ,this would give me a good chance to walk round and find them before anyone else turned up ,while walking round the lake I had seen the odd carp jump and roll but only the odd one and they were in different areas of the lake ,so I kept on looking and after a few laps of the lake I sat down at the entrance to a big bay were I had seen all the fish when I was down last ,at the entrance to the bay there is a small island and in-between the island and the bay it is chocked with weed, as I sat there I see a fish come round the island and into the weed but didn’t see it come back out ,well i sat there for about an hour and in that time I saw 8 fish one was quite a sizable mirror ,I decided to set up as near as I could to the weed and island but without spooking the fish that was there .

I loaded the barrow and made my way round to the swim, it was time to decide what rigs I was going to use, well as I was not sure what the lake bed was like and I no there are fish in the area and I didn’t want to scare them away so I decided on 3 chod rigs with clockwork orange pop ups, all 3 rods were cast as close to where I had seen the fish and a scattering of cell boilies was put over all three rods then it was the waiting game to see if they got their heads down and if I had picked the right area well as the sun was setting I watched the carp move out one by one over my baited spots ,my confidence had been blown out the window watching them leave so now what do I do, do I move all my rods out into open water were I had watch them move to .I sat there with a brew watching the open water to see if I could see any carp activity for a good few hours when I heard a carp roll in the bay to my left so there must still be fish in the area ,this made me fill a little bit better while I sat there I heard a further 5 more fish ,so when I finally got my head down I was felling quite confident, during the night I was awoken a few times with liners so I new there were fish close to my baited area ,but as it got light I sat there with a steaming brew thinking have I got it all wrong when the right had rod gave a few bleeps as I sat up I put my brew down the rod was bent right round and the clutch on the reel was struggling to let line out as I had done the clutch up as tight as I dare so the carp didn’t reach the weed, but this fish was fighting so hard it did manage to reach the weed bed and all went solid I kept steady pressure on and I then felt the weed slowly start to move towards me I kept the rod high and the pressure on till it was nearly in the net, I then pushed the net as low as I could and as far as I could so I could be as far under the weed bed as possible then I dropped the rod and scooped up the net, I didn’t know if the fish was in the net or still in the weed on the other side of the net

I started to strip the weed from the inside of the net as I was doing this I felt the back of quite a sizeable carp so I knew that the fish was in the net not outside, after about 5 mins I had managed to clear enough weed to see my prize and it looked a good high 20 low 30. I then decided to set up my camera on the tripod as no one else was on the lake, the scales were then zeroed then the fish was ready to be safely lifted out of the water I was buzzing as I cared the fish over to the scales as its really nice to get the first fish from a new lake

After lifting the scales up and waiting for the needle on the scales to settle eventually they settled at an amazing 34lb 4 Oz, after doing the self takes it was time to watch my prize swim as I did this I couldn’t believe that I had caught one on my first trip.

I sat back down put the kettle on and smiled to myself if anyone walked past they would think I was mad ,after a nice cup of tea it was time to put the rod back out , after tying a new chod rig it was time to put the rig on the spot as I was just about to cast out again a really big fish crashed to my left in the bay so I thought I cast at that and see what happens, well after a few hours I had seen nothing in the bay were the fished had crashed so I decided to place the rod back were I had the fish this morning, ready for the following morning .well as it was getting dark a few fish had turned up in the same sort of area as the night before so my confidence was sky high for another take during the night or early the following morning, well as I got my head down for the night all I could think about was that chunk of a mirror that I had seen jump that day and were was it now,

I was awoken in the early hours by a very angry carp taking line from the same rod that I had the fish on day before, this fish had some serious power as it made its way out into the main part of the lake and all I could do was let it go after what seemed like ages I slowly started to gain some line on the fish when it all when solid so I kept the pressure on and slowly it began to move closer and closer it came when I felt a strange kick all went solid again I knew something had happened and it had, when it started to move again it didn’t feel the same when it was finally by the bank I striped the weed from around the line and I knew that there was nothing there and there wasn’t I was gutted. Was this the big fish I had seen in the bay that’s all I could think of, well after tying a new rig and recasting the rod back out I sat on the edge of my bed with a nice hot cup of tea thinking about what just happened, it was getting light now so I thought I would stay up and watch to see if anything showed ,well they did big time but not were I was they were in the main body of the lake, so I thought I would reel in the rod I had the bite on and cast at where they were showing.

well after an hour of watching the carp dancing about I had a slow twitchy take and after a short fight I had a small common carp around mid-double but I was well pleased with my first session on the new pit ,well before I barrow my gear back to the car I decided to bait up were I was fishing just to keep them interested in the bait when the fish pass through to get in to the bay and I would trickle some in other areas on the way back to the car well as I pulled out the car park and closed the gate I could not wait to get back down the pit ,as it held some amazing happens the next time I am down there