After the tricky conditions experienced on 9 April, today was a distinct improvement. It was overcast, there having been storms overnight, and the breeze was light from the NE. I again chose the Reed swim as it offers such a choice of techniques. Float fishing the margin is my current default approach, but there is the option to free line either a floating or sinking bait along the reeds, or if preferred cast out further to deeper water.

I started by float fishing and had reasonably good sport through the early morning, taking the first fish at 07.45, a mirror of about 6lb that was in fact foul-hooked. I then had a tench of about 1½lb, followed by three more mirrors weighing 6lb 6oz, 11lb 0oz (photo) and 5lb 6oz by 09.15. The fish were taken on bread flake and luncheon meat - my staple baits.

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Things then went quiet until 12.05 when I caught a crucian carp of about ½lb followed an hour later by another foul-hooked mirror of 5lb 6oz. The number of foul-hookings clearly shows that the carp are very active even though they may not be interested in the bait. A nice 1lb 10oz crucian carp followed - quite a good size for one of these plucky little fish.

It then went quiet again and I went around the lake to chat to Mick, who was taking fish off the surface on biscuit. Nothing gained, nothing lost, I went back to try some surface fishing - casting out using a controller float with dog biscuit bait. After a while I got a very strong take and a big fish was on. It took a while to get it in, not helped by the fact that I managed to get the line caught behind the reel, meaning that I had to hand-line the fish in, retrieving and giving line as needed. As is always the case in the reed swim the trick is to avoid the fish burying itself in the reeds at the last minute. When I finally landed it, it weighed in at 18lb 8oz - a magnificent mirror carp.

The only downside was that it had in fact foul-hooked below the mouth, so it must have ejected the bait and I hooked it as it was shying away. Although it was a foul-hooking, I console myself that it did go for the bait and it was just a matter of timing, whereas many of the other foul-hookings are, I am sure, due to the fish just swimming over the bait.

The final bonus was that the photo, taken using a mini-tripod and self timer, came out really well, which is not always the case in such circumstances.