As it turned out to be calm and warm I went over the lake for the afternoon, arriving at about 14.30.

Choices were limited as there were already quite a few people there, so I went in the reed swim as it was free, knowing full well that the risk of losing fish was high. The middle of the day is always slow so I wasn't surprised that I had to wait for any action.

At about 15.30 I had my first good bite float fishing with flake. It felt like a good fish and ran out into the lake rather than into the reeds. However, it managed to slip the hook after about a minute; perhaps I was muscling it too much.

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At 16.00 I got a good solid bite that proved to be a nice 2lb 14oz tench. Very next cast I lost a fish in the reeds. Both bites were on float-fished flake. Twenty minutes later I lost yet another fish in the reeds. Both lost fish slipped the hook as I put pressure on to keep them out of the reeds.

I had been occasionally feeding pellets on the surface but at this stage didn't get any interest when I tried surface fishing.

Reverting to float-fished flake at 19.10 I got another tench of exactly the same weight as the first - surely not the same fish?

By 20.00 there was definite surface activity and after a few false takes I managed to hook and land an 8lb 4oz mirror.

After this things went quiet so I again went back to the float and at 20.50 got a good bite and what must have been a carp shot off screaming line off the reel, only to slip the hook within seconds. As dusk approached the fish were feeding confidently on the surface but still being very choosy about taking hook bait. I did manage to hook one more and it felt like a large fish, but yet again after about a minute the hook-hold failed, the story of my recent life.

So, three landed and five lost. If all those fish had made the bank it would have been a memorable afternoon, but as it was it was just a good afternoon's fishing.

I christened a new Shimano baitrunner reel and was greatly impressed by its smoothness and engineering quality. I've read about these reels but this was my first experience of using one. I also tried fluorocarbon line for the final hook leader as this is supposed to be invisible in the water. It may just be fancy but I think I did get more takes than last week. Having spoken to another angler who had been totally unable to tempt the fish with his surface bait, perhaps the line did make some difference.