My weekly pilgrimage to the reed swim continues. Today things looked very promising. A beautiful morning following some warm bright days. There was minimal breeze, and what there was did not affect me.

Things started off almost instantly with a bite literally seconds after I cast, resulting in a 4¼lb mirror that fought incredibly hard. This set the pattern and I took two more fish of a similar size by 10.30.

I then switched to floating crust/pellet along the reed margin and took three more fish by 13.00, the best being a good looking common of 8¼lb (photo). I was broken by a fish as I tried to stop it burying in the reeds.

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Having pulled a number of fish out of the margins I started fishing pellets further out. I took three fish, the first a 13¼lb leather (photo) caught on my light fibreglass carp rod using a mixture of pellet and crust, followed by mirrors of 7¾lb and 3¾lb caught on pellets with a feeder rod and a controller float.

I then reverted to the margin and took a 5¾lb mirror following which I lost a fish in the reeds.

It was now about 16.00 so I decided to finish the day by concentrating on surface fishing. I started off using pellets and took two fish of 6½lb and 6¼lb (mirrors) using the feeder rod and controller float. However, I was missing too many takes so I switched back to the light fibreglass rod and started casting free-lined crust, wetting it slightly to get distance. This proved to be a killer technique as the takes were strong and I only needed to watch the line tighten on the surface. I took four more fish in this way; a leather of 9¼lb, two commons of 10¼lb (photo) and 7½lb, and a fully-scaled mirror of 10¼lb. It was only the onset of dusk that stopped things as the fish were boldly taking the crust almost as soon as it hit the water.

The tally for the day was 16 fish amounting to an astonishing 113½lb in weight.

I have decided that the feeder rod is not ideal for surface fishing, and my trusty old fibreglass rod, while a delight to use, was running out of steam when I had to stop the fish gaining refuge in the reeds. I shall, therefore, be investigating a more suitable rod.