Finally I had returned to work after a blissful 10 days off for the festive period, I had taken the chance of getting out on the bank for a few hours that Saturday. As mentioned in my recent update, I had been fishing a fair sized park lake which seems to be the only lake to be fishing well as of late. As a matter of fact this was one of the first lakes I had fished with a school friend of mine and his parents when I was about 13/14. I got to the lake later than I had planned. I took a quick walk, to my surprise there were only three anglers on the whole lake, considering it was 12-13 degrees followed by low pressure and a wind that had to get them stirring. I set up in a peg that was closest to an area that was doing a lot of fish during the day, but had been told otherwise by the lakes bailiff, I soon packed up and moved. With the wind still hammering the lake at 20mph+ I finally got three rods out, just. I cast to the same distance that I had fished the first swim; I did 16 wraps on the sticks, in old money 65 yards to the middle where they were holding.

I put out the middle rod and then cast the other two either side to get all on the same area in hope to induce a couple of simultaneous takes. A snowman, a hinged soft and a nifty popup rig. As you may know and I will explain I ALWAYS sharpen my hooks. An hour had passed and out of nowhere the left rod tore off. After a short lived battle I had a small common languishing in the folds of the landing net. This fish was on my ever faithful snowman setup with a small mesh bag of 4 crushed Amber Strawberry Boilies, which was then glugged in the matching additive.

The rig, bag and lead were all glugged for slow release. The fish was soon laying in my cradle and after a few self takes which with a remote is so easy,  I’d slipped the fish back and recast the rod onto the spot. The middle rod was the next to peel off, this time more of a plod than surging runs it had to be a better fish, just as I got the fish to the margins, it felt like it became snagged on something. The fish soon came to the surface and with disappointment looming that it was foul hooked, the fish surged off and the line had come free and the fish was actually hook fair and square in the scissors.

It turned out the fish became lassoed in the line. This time a white hinged soft rig was the one to trip up this lovely 18lb mirror. With my Popup rigs when I use them, I always sharpen the hook point considerably more than on my bottom bait rigs, this always adds an important edge which hooks fish first time. I have found since sharpening hooks, you get a positive one toner rather than just a couple of beeps where the fish had taken the rigs, I have also upped my lead size, particularly on this session because it became difficult trying to punch a 2.5oz lead in cross wind, I used a 3.oz lead to positively set that hook home! This fish really put a smile on my face, as I hoisted her into the cradle a stream of people came past, being a public lake there were a lot of people walking dogs and children in tow. As i unhooked the fish and got the rod out of the way, the looks of sheer amazement from passers by increased “wow look at the size of that fish” is what came. The temperature soon plummeted and no more bites for me but I was happy all the same.

After having some time out from angling it was nice to be back and doing what I love best. After a quick catch up with a good friend of mine who ended up doing the night, I was setting off home for some well-deserved Peroni and lamb steak cooked by the girlfriend’s stepdad. I think it’s safe to say since fishing this lake that catching day ticket carp of various sizes had got the buzz back, staying productive all year round it what does it for me. Thanks for reading this time round I hope that I’ll be out again soon to catch some more of these scaly stunners. All the best Ross