I tried a new lake today: Fields End near Doddington. It's only a 25 minute bike ride from Chatteris so I went armed with one rod, a landing net and a small selection of terminal tackle. Oh, and a small fresh loaf for bait.

Largish fish were 'plopping' everywhere so I tried floating crust with no float, no weight: I just wet it for weight and cast carefully. Bingo - a largish carp on second cast. It headed for open water but in my enthusiasm I brought it in too quickly. It promptly embedded itself in the reeds and with light tackle I was doomed to lose it: and I did.

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A couple of casts later I managed to land the carp shown in the photograph. I didn't have any scales but I would guess at about 4-5lb.

The tench followed a bit later. Again I can only guess weight: probably about 3lb. This was caught on bread flake, bottom fished but still without weights. I watched the line run across the surface when the bite occurred.