Arrival time: 09.30
Weather: Dry and bright with a gentle westerly breeze.
Tackle: 14ft Shimano Speedmaster match rod, Rapidex 2400 centre pin with 5lb line, 4lb bottom & 16 hook. Insert waggler.
Baits: Hemp seed, sweet corn, cheese paste.
Fish: Three carp and two small roach

After a near melt down at the Chubb Stream on my last outing, when my back was giving me hell, today I decided to go to Fields End for a 'quiet' day just sitting, with the intention of catching some roach.

With the caravan site not due to open until 12 April this was a rare opportunity to fish Fields End before it became too busy. There were three cars in the car park when I arrived and around four to five anglers already set up.

Most were on the south bank with one on the west bank, these being the popular swims for carp. And, indeed, it seemed that all were distance fishing for said carp.

I set up in the NE corner, a swim I call the reed corner. The breeze was blowing into that side of the lake but that corner was reasonably sheltered. I prebaited with hemp seed, something I hadn't used since I was a youngster. And I fished with sweet corn. The target was roach. But things didn't work out that way.

I began fishing to the right margin but didn't get any interest, so I switched to the left. After a while with no interest the float zoomed away and it was immediately apparent that I wasn't connected to a roach. After a long battle, because I was unable to force the issue with my light tackle, I netted a leather carp of 9¼ lb. It was completed played out and took a long while to recover, resting in the shallow water under the fishing platform.

My next fish was a small roach, which raised my hopes that they were starting to feed. But other than a couple of missed bites, and one more small roach, things were very quiet.

I decided to try a small piece of cheese paste, which was taken within minutes of casting. It was probably another carp but the hook hold failed after about five minutes.

Resigned to the fact that the roach probably weren't going to oblige I stuck with cheese paste. The next positive bite resulted in a disaster as I had left the check off on the centre pin and the fish, unrestrained, sought refuge in the reed bank to my left. By some miracle I kept it out but the reel was jammed with a bird's nest of line, causing me to have to hand line the carp in. This wasn't easy, especially when it came to netting it, when my left hand was no longer available to control the hand-line. But against all the odds the fish was landed. I didn't weight it but it was probably around 4lb or so.

Having sorted out the bird's nest around the reel, by cutting the line and rejoining it with a blood knot, I cast out once more with cheese paste purely to record the ending of my video. As I started to say 'thank you for watching' the float disappeared and I was into another large fish. It didn't battle anywhere near as hard as the first but it turned out to be another carp, a little heavier at 9¾ lb.

While I didn't catch the target roach I really can't complain as I think I caught more carp than all the dedicated carp anglers around the lake. And my ailing back held up reasonably well, justifying my decision to sit down at the lake rather than roam a river.