Too much going on recently and I was surprised to note that my last visit to the lake was back in June!

There had obviously been a working party as the brambles had been cleared back and more swims were actually fishable. There are rarely any ‘return’ slips in the hut so I really don’t know how many people fish the lake. There were signs that anglers had been there, witness the fishing-related litter. I don’t know why syndicate members would leave litter so I suspect some of those fishing may be there as unofficial visitors. A pity, but it’s the way of the world.

Anyway, back to the fishing. I started at the NE bay dropping a bit of luncheon meat near the reeds in the hope of a patrolling carp. Nothing doing, so went to the Lily Pads swim with the intention of returning to the bay later in the evening. I tried casting down the edge of the reeds and also out between the lily pads but only got touches from smaller fish. I noticed that the luncheon meat wasn’t sinking and thought it was due to the army of small fish attacking it. At one point there was movement in the reeds that I suspect was a carp but no bite was forthcoming.

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After a couple of hours I returned to the NE Bay with the intention of fishing until about 19.30. At one point I tried dropping the luncheon meat just in front of me, at the edge of the reeds, and I again noticed it wasn’t sinking. I threw a couple of loose pieces in and these also floated. It seems that the meat had degraded even though I had frozen it after my last trip. So, I may well have been fishing for three hours or so without the bait getting to the bottom! A lesson well learned - discard old luncheon meat.

Having opened a new tin I continued to get tentative pulls. However, after a while I noticed something big moving through the reeds. Sure enough a fair sized carp moved directly in front of me and actually took one of the discarded pieces of floating luncheon meat. Frustrating or what! For the remainder of the evening carp were rooting around in the reeds but I couldn’t tempt one to take my bait. I had, however, started to get much stronger pulls on the line and I suspected that better quality silver fish had moved in. Unfortunately my carp set up wasn’t ideal for roach and the like, but just before I packed up at 19.30 I managed to hook a nice rudd that turned out to be 1lb 5oz. Not what I was after but a nice fish that saved me from a blank.

It’s amazing, when I go intending to fish for the roach and rudd I invariably get carp, and when I try for the carp, the roach and rudd feed. There’s certainly nothing predictable about fishing.