A late night meant that I got up late and arrived at the lake later than normal. I expected the reed-corner swim to be occupied and had set my sights on the reed bed at the southern end of the lake, which is rarely fished. So much for planning; the eastern side of the lake was fully populated, including the swim I had expected to fish. Perversely, my reed-corner swim was vacant, so I went there.

Conditions initially were good, so I started with the pellet waggler. Unfortunately the breeze soon started to become troublesome so I changed to a light leger. I touch-legered and was getting lots of taps and snatches on luncheon meat. I finally hooked one; a roach of about 6-8 ozs. Shortly after, at 11.35, a positive bite resulted in a fish lost in the reeds, a common occurrence in this swim. In fact I had to break-off as it left me snagged.

I changed to a 10 hook and smaller pieces of luncheon meat to give me a chance to pick up other species but nothing came until 14.30, when I landed a 4½ lb mirror.

Later I managed to get the fish feeding close in on the surface. I couldn’t, however, entice them to take the hook bait. I did get a good bite on bread crust that was slowly sinking only to lose the fish after a short time when the hook-hold failed. I changed the terminal tackle to a 12 hook on 7lb Fluorocarbon line, tied with a hair-rig loop, so I could use a newly purchased artificial dog biscuit. This done I got a take first cast and landed a 4¼ mirror. Unfortunately this rapid success was not to be repeated. Despite a number of fish boldly lunging at the biscuit none was hooked.

I reverted to leger on the 12lb line with a 10 hook and at 18.00 hooked a nice common that I estimate between 6 and 8 lbs, but unfortunately the hook-hold failed after a few minutes. Shortly after (at 18.10) a firm bite resulted in a 5¾ common.

The wind had now become quite strong and the sky looked quite foreboding (it actually rained later) so I decided to call it a day. Around the lake I didn’t see many fish caught so it seems that it was one of those ‘quiet’ days. I also lost a new pellet waggler because I didn’t close the snap-link after attaching it, which was upsetting.