I thought I should try another pool today and as someone was in Peg 19 on Mickey Mouse that sort of forced my hand.

I had seen a good spot on the small Figure of Eight pool, in the NE corner. A bank of reeds stretched away to the left and to the right the bank was inaccessible all the way to the other corner. This made the swim very secluded; just my cup of tea.

There were carp cruising the surface, probably up to around the 10lb mark although they didn’t seem to be feeding, just taking the sun.

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I fed a spot alongside the reeds to the left, just the other side of a small lily bed. It was a cast of about 15-20 feet. I used chopped luncheon meat, flake pellets and sweetcorn.

It wasn’t long before I caught a small carp on flake, which was the first of about 6-9 fish between ¾lb and 1½lb caught throughout the session. I lost count of the actual number.

Bites then became more tentative and I thought they might be crucians, which was borne out by a nice one of 1¾lb taken on flake at 16.00.

At 17.30 a better fish, a common of 2¾lb took flake. It had somebody else’s hook in its mouth, a hair-rigged one on quite heavy line, so I guess it must have snagged the angler to cause the break. After this barbel moved into the swim and I caught three or four, probably all under a pound. I then lost a fish in the reeds, more than likely a carp, and another float went with it! I retackled and dropped from a 10 to a 12 hook.

I started feeding the right margin at this stage, literally a few feet from where I was sitting. About 15 minutes later I dropped a piece of luncheon meat in this spot. An immediate take resulted in a nice barbel of just under 1½lb.

I reverted to the reeds on the left for about half an hour and picked up another couple of small carp, then tried the right margin again. Another strong bite and my rod was wrenched around. Obviously a carp and first impressions were that it was very big. However, after a bit of a battle when it tried to get into the reeds to the left, I finally netted a very spirited common carp of 7½lb. The fish at Docklow seem never to give up. Even on the bank it was difficult to control, and even more difficult to photograph.

It was then time to pack in. I’ll certainly try the spot again and perhaps next time concentrate more on the near right margin.