I thought I would grab a few hours as I hadn’t been over the lake for over a month. There was only one van in the car park when I arrived, which was encouraging, but the caravan/camp site was full. This was borne out once I got to the bank, there being very few vacant swims. I thought I would try the reeds in the SE corner. It’s the shallowest part of the lake and with the levels down this year following the exceptionally dry spring, it was very shallow indeed.

The wind was blowing into the corner so I started with a light leger but couldn’t hit the sharp taps on the rod top. I changed to a waggler and cast close to the reeds with flake on the hook. After a couple of casts the float sailed away and, having extracted it out of the reeds, a mirror of about 3-4lb came to the net at 16.45. Shortly after this a couple of chaps moved in on my right and were obviously expecting to be joined by their partners, so I could see things getting a bit noisy. They already had a dog that kept yapping and they were talking incessantly. Fortunately some people started to pack up around 18.00 so I moved over to the Tree Corner.

I carried on with the waggler but was getting unhittable bites. A change to luncheon meat didn’t help, although surprisingly a roach of about 4oz took a piece confidently enough for me to hook it. I had started putting out some biscuits with the catapult and after a while carp began feeding on the surface about 10-15 metres out. I took the waggler off and tried free-lining surface-fished crust. Second attempt a carp took the bait and after a short tussle a 6½lb mirror was landed at 19.20. The carp carried on feeding at the surface for a while but subsequent attempts to tempt them failed.

Just as the wind abated a bit and I was hoping for the margins to come alive, the rain started. It was light at first but was obviously going to get heavier. It was now 20.00 and I really didn’t fancy getting the brolly out for only one more hour’s fishing, so I packed up.

I really do think that the lake is starting to suffer from over-fishing. And I really don’t like it when it’s so busy. In fact, I think I may be becoming somewhat disenchanted with the commercial fishery scene. Things are not so bad in the spring and late autumn, and in winter it’s usually very peaceful indeed. Perhaps I will give it a rest over the summer and concentrate on rivers and drains.