Second trip to this lake. Fished the same swim as I had gained some familiarity with the layout etc. This time I took a medium carp rod with 6lb line and used a size 8 heavy duty barbless hook. I also took some scales.

Got my first bite on floating crust fairly quickly but didn't set the hook properly. Fish came off after about 20 seconds. It was very hot and fish were cruising near surface, so I stuck with floating crust. After some frustrating 'pulled out of their mouth' episodes hooked and landed the first fish: 4lb 12oz leather.

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After more misses hooked a big fish right near the margins. A real tussle ensued, resulting in a 9lb 2oz leather in the net: my biggest carp.

I then lost one in the reeds having hooked it right in the reed margin: perhaps a heavier carp rod and line is needed!

As the evening set in carp were literally rising under my rod tip and although they took crust I couldn't seem to hook them. Having started to tackle down one rose for the crust I had discarded. That was taking the p**s so I re-tied the hook and after a couple of false strikes landed a 4lb 10oz common.