After a couple of sessions fishing into a chilling wind on the east bank I decided today to take the soft option and fish with the wind behind me. The tree-corner swim is in the south western corner of the lake and the wind was south westerly. With the added protection of a bank of trees and shrubs behind, this was the most sheltered part of the lake.

This swim never seems to produce a large number of carp, but it has yielded my biggest fish to date, a 19lb specimen, and I’ve also taken a 17lb fish from the spot.

The swim is flanked by reeds but, unlike the reed swim in the opposite corner of the lake, fishing close up to the reeds is not always productive. With the lake level quite low and the weather chilly I therefore ignored the close margins. Plumbing revealed a fall-off at about two rod lengths out so I fed this area with small pellets on a little and often basis. Bait was bread flake.

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Initially I got tentative bites, which could have been roach or, perhaps, crucians. However, at 9.05 the float vanished and after a short tussle a nice 3lb 6oz tench was landed. I plodded on missing occasional half bites and it wasn’t until 12.40 that a slightly more positive bite produced a 2lb 2oz crucian carp. A fine fish, but I am amazed that while I have caught quite a number at about this weight I’ve never had anything bigger. Maybe some day!

More unhittable bites followed and other than a roach of about 4-6 oz at 14.05, things were pretty dead.

Then, at 15.00, the float went away and I hit a heavy fish. There were no dramatic runs just a heavy plodding as it circled around the swim and the immediate vicinity. When it eventually broke the surface I could see it was a good fish, I finally steered it into the net. A fine mirror carp of 15lb 6oz.

After quite a hard day this was a very welcome fish. Following another period of tentative bites I changed to luncheon meat and at 16.55 a positive bite connected with a powerful fish. This one ran out into the lake and quite a long battle ensued during which it repeatedly ran off after I had gained some hard-won recovery. It felt much larger than the earlier fish and I was speculating over its size, and also over whether it would stay on the hook after such a long battle. A chap around the bank had come over and helped me land it, whence it transpired that it was in fact hooked in the pectoral fin, thus accounting for the harder fight as I wasn’t as easily able to turn it. We weighed it and amazingly, give or take ½ oz, it was a leather of exactly the same weight as the previous carp. The chap took a picture for me.

A brace of 15lb carp was just amazing and I wasn’t really worried if I caught anything else but I continued fishing with luncheon meat. After missing a good bite because I was midway through loading pellets in the catapult, I cast again and another positive bite connected me to a good fish. This time it clearly wasn’t a carp and neither did it give the characteristic jerking fight of a tench. After a short fight a 4lb 3oz barbel was netted. It was 17.40 and with the light rapidly fading, time to pack up.

The day was hard work but what an amazing catch. All of the fish were good specimens for their species and the variety was just as rewarding as the two large carp. I only wish I had taken a photograph of the tench to complete the pictorial history of the event.

Talking to the warden earlier in the day, he told me that good perch had been taken from the lake, including one of 3lb. This is food for thought but I will have to depart from my usual bread and luncheon meat baits if I’m to have a chance of catching them. No doubt they were taken on maggot, which are used by many of the anglers, but a big worm might produce the goods. Who knows?