So since the last update I gave you at my new Park Lake for this season I probably hadn’t fished it for a good 3-4 months due to personal reasons and losing the motivation to wade through the amount of nuisance fish that I was catching each and every visit after my initial few carp captures. After a long hard word with myself I plucked up the motivation to get back down there and give it a good go and I’m really glad I did. I decided I was going to spend two day sessions there so the Saturday and the Sunday and get back to grips with the place. It’s just a small 3 acre park lake that no one else fishes apart from retired anglers throughout the week but mostly I have the water to myself at weekends. The carp stock is unknown but that doesn’t bother me in the slightest and more than anything it’s what keeps me coming back time and time again.

So it was the Saturday morning and just as I made my way from the car park the heavens opened basically drenching me and everything else before I even made it to the water’s edge. Great start! Trudging down the gravelly track I knew where I wanted to start the morning’s assault and that was where I had my last fish from. A very nice intimate corner bay area lined with reeds and it is only fishable from the area I was heading to or from the far bank but it’s a bit of a cast for others fishing that side. For this session I had a couple of ideas I wanted to try out baiting wise but on this occasion they wasn’t to generate anything other than Bream after Bream after Bream so that was one idea not to be revisited. It was just after 1pm and watching out over the rod I was amazed that I just saw my first carp from the Park Lake show itself and I mean properly show itself…Not once but twice. There was only one thing to do… Put a rig on its head! I done this and left it for at least 3+ hours but nothing was to come of it and also just before leaving I see another roll right along the reed line but reflecting back on why it didn’t go then I think it was because I wasn’t tight enough. Before leaving I took a further three casts to clip up and marked the line ready ahead the return the following day.

Clipping up to the distance I knew I would be happy returning the next morning to put a rig right on the spot the fish shown themselves and just sit it out. Returning on the Sunday the lake was thick with a fog and I couldn’t even see 90% of the lake let alone the reedline but knowing I clipped up the day before I was more than glad I done it as it would keep disturbance to a complete minimum on this atmospheric morning. I took around 45 minutes critically balancing out the bait and making sure everything was completely 110% spot on and proceeded to spread just less than half a kilo of bait into the area. It was time to now sit back and wait. Around 3 hours later the Delkim one toned into meltdown. My heart was rushing, these runs are few and far between and this fish did not seem happy! Surprisingly just like the previous fish I had from this area it took off like a steam train straight out into open water and proceeded to make its way into the channel that resides through the middle down towards the deeper water in front of me. By this time I had about 10+ people behind me trying to get past with prams and 3 dogs that were running riot around my feet. My 4th fish from the water was just a handles length away from being mine before it decided to tear off on a late surge on a bid for freedom. After a few minutes I began retrieving line and it was mine! Punching the air in celebration I couldn’t believe that I had just had the 4th fish from the water in my net. This was purely down to watching and watching and watching the water the day before. I could have easily missed the signs being on my phone, chatting to passers-by, making a brew.. Anything but it was one of those where it was right place right time.

To the sound of the oooh’s and aaah’s of the Sunday strollers I proceeded to lift the net and show a couple of children my prize of perseverance and explain to them what fish I had in my net. To their dis-belief that I had actually caught this from the lake they regularly walk around telling me they hadn’t seen anything ever caught as big from the water and it was nice to see the children’s reactions of showing my capture. So once all the commotion had died down I proceeded to slowly make my way back down the bank to my original location after landing it the length of the bank further down. With the fish resting I made a couple of calls for a photographer and it was my dad who could do the honours and not only that he has wanted to see me land a fish for a while and see them in the flesh as such. Around 30 minutes later and the fish happily recovering it was in the cradle and being lifted for the trophy shot. What a simply stunning fish and one I was more than happy with. A Park Lake original and another 20lb+ fish for the album. After speaking to a used to be regular at the lake he has had around 8 in the last couple of years that he fished it so weighing it up I thought to myself I haven’t had that bad of a run for what I have had considering 3 out of 4 have been 20lb+. Slipped back it was time to make my dad a brew for coming down and doing the honours on the camera and get the rod back out…. To say I was happy was an understatement.

I returned the following weekend and after again sitting it out until mid afternoon knowing that eventually they may just turn up one did and took me straight through a sunken branch and left my rig penetrating the bark. Devastated was not the word so the less I write about it the better.

Until next time.. M