Something a bit different, a Fathers' Day weekend away with my son who had dabbled with fishing a bit before but was keen to learn more. And it was an opportunity for us to chat as we don't get together that often. He was fishing with a 13ft Fishtec Multi Float rod that I had given him years before, along with a Mitchell Prince reel, also a gift from me. I took a couple of small carp off the surface on the Friday evening and we then returned to the lake on Saturday morning.

Fortunately Saturday was overcast and cooler than the previous day. Richard started with maggots and was soon catching small rudd, in fact very small rudd. But we spotted carp cruising near the margins so tried the floating crust approach that had worked the previous evening. This proved to be a reliable way of tempting the carp. Richard had however initially fished the float in was what very shallow water and he tried some hookable pellets I had bought, suspecting that pellets might be a good bait on such a commercial lake.

He went on to catch carp on both bread and the pellets. His delight at catching his first carp reminded me of my early days fishing when the first fish - not a carp of course - set the spell for a lifelong passion for fishing. We fished until about 11.00 during which time he caught a number of carp and I also caught a few free-lining floating bread. All in all a very successful morning.

It was then time to go to a very nice local pub, the Axe & Compasses, where we enjoyed a fine lunch.

The Saturday afternoon/evening session effectively continued where we had left off in the the morning. Richard alternated between bread and pellet, and also tried lobworm with some success. Meanwhile I took a few more small carp off the surface with bread crust.

During the fishing I passed on some tips, including how to position the rod for best effect when playing a fish, using the clutch on the reel, sinking the landing net before bringing the fish close to it and the use of forceps to remove hooks from the thicker lips of larger fish.

Richard ended the session with his biggest fish of the evening at around 3lb, which rounded off what had been a very enjoyable day.

I decided not to fish on the Sunday morning as I had caught more than enough of the small carp. I found it a bit repetitive after a while. But Richard wanted to spend a few more hours on the lake. It was a bright sunny morning with the prospect of higher temperatures. And we learned that a match was taking place on the lake, which meant that the swim we had fished before was taken by one of the competitors. Richard was a bit disappointed but we moved to one of the swims allocated to the lodges where we were staying.

His disappointment was forgotten when he hooked into a carp after seeing them cruising in the margin. He went of to catch a second, both taking floating bread crust, at which point we decided to pack up and make tracks for home.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and I think Richard has now got the fishing bug so there is certainly going to be another outing.