On my second trip to this lake I tried a differnet approach. The previous week I had noticed activity by a central reed bed so today I legered to this spot with some success.

I had brought with me a limited amount of liquidised bread with which I baited by the central reed bed and also beyond the lily pads in front of me. I also catapulted in some maggots.

I had a reasonably quick response, landing a small tench on flake soon after I started. I went on to take another somewhat larger tench on maggots but lost two fish, pulling out of one and losing the other after it embedded itself in the lily pads out by the reed bed. I think both were probably tench, the second feeling much larger.

I also took two bream, one from the reed bed and the other from the lily pads in front of me, where I was float fishing last week. I had seen some bubbles not being sure whether they were tench or bream.

After what was quite a lot of early activity things went very quiet. Losing the good fish out by the reed bed might have been a factor.

By early afternoon I started to notice carp cruising near the surface, both in the left side margin near to me and out by the reed bed. In due course one took a piece of free crust I had dropped in the margin. I decided, therefore, to try for it with floating crust but was in competition with a couple of mallards.

I had taken the leger weight off but left the swivel link on the line. When the carp ultimately decided to inspect the bait it shied away, probably because it felt the line/link that had sunk. I tried again with a cork replacing the leger on the link and after one refusal a carp took the crust. The battle was explosive in among the lily pads and I was fortunate to get the fish in, a fine fully scaled fish of just over 9lb.

After this I moved position temporarily to the other side of the reed bed, mainly to escape the ducks. Again using the cork and crust combo I cast to the edge of the reed bed. The cork and bait actually went a little way into the reeds but I was fortunate in being able to pull them out, leaving the crust just at the edge of the reeds. It wasn't long before a carp inspected it and then took.

I had more open water in this spot but even so the carp tried hard to get into the lily pads and reeds. I managed to keep it clear of these hazards and was getting to the point where I thought it would soon be ready to net. But, unfortunately, at the last knockings it found a reed stem and the hook was ejected. It was certainly larger than the 9lb fish but by how much I shall never know.

After recovering from the dual I tried a little longer with floating crust but the ducks continued to make life difficult and I didn't get another take. But I was more than happy with my day. Once again the lake had been very quiet with only me on it for most of the time I was there.