After a bit of a down-beat trip to Fields End in June I thought I would see if things had quietened down a bit now that it’s September. Charlie, the owner, feigned not recognising me when I arrived. I explained that I liked it when things were quieter and that he would probably see a bit more of me into autumn/winter. He gave me a fridge magnet with their details on it, the reason being that he had used one of my photos as the background. A little bit of fame.

The caravan/camp site looked fairly well occupied and there were three cars in the ‘Pit’ car park so I decided to park at the ‘Pool’, which is around the back of the Pit. To my surprise the lake wasn’t actually that busy; perhaps half a dozen people in all. Coming in from the back placed me at the reed corner, a one-time favourite spot that I had more recently eschewed because I lost so many fish in the reeds. However, it looked very inviting, even though the reed growth had closed the swim to about half its former size. I tackled up with float gear realising that I was taking quite a chance should I get into anything half decent.

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Second or third cast the float zoomed away and after a few worrying moments where the fish fought to get into the reeds, I managed to steer a 3lb 13oz mirror into more open water. Even so landing it was tricky as I manoeuvred it into the narrow gap between the reeds. This was to set the pattern for the day. Shortly after I lost a fish. The hook-hold failed after a few seconds but from the initial feel I think it was a tench. Sure enough, at 12.50 a nicely-conditioned 2½lb tench was landed, again after some awkward moments near the reeds.

Some of the tench in this lake have looked decidedly unhealthy in the past but this one was in beautiful condition.

I had been taking the occasional roach on luncheon meat. Then, at 14.50, it was time to battle another fish out of the reeds. This time it was a 5lb mirror. This was followed quickly (15.10) by a common of the same weight. Both gave a very good account of themselves in the restricted swim.

At 17.00 my luck run out as a fish steamed into the reeds taking my terminal tackle and float with it. The fish did the usual trick of getting off leaving the tackle snagged and ultimately lost.

Half an hour later a good fish decided not to go for the reeds, thus giving me a fighting chance. After a lot of argy bargy and a number of worrying excursions near to the reeds I finally landed an 8lb 6oz mirror.

I was still catching the occasional roach and also a number of small perch. I hadn’t previously caught perch on luncheon meat at this lake and it set me wondering if the perch population had increased or whether alternative food was in short supply.

The next carp I hooked again veered away from the reeds and into open water. It felt bigger than the 8lb fish and kited from side to side, at one point being at risk of interfering with the chap some way to my right. Having dissuaded it from this direction it went left and unfortunately entered the reed bed some 15 to 20 metres away from me. Battle over! A pity really as I had already tired it somewhat. This time I managed to get my float back but lost the hook in the reeds.

The last fish, taken at 18.35, was a dumpy fully-scaled mirror that I managed to muscle in quite quickly compared with the earlier fish. I was surprised to find that it weighed 7lb 3oz.

I fished on until 19.15 at which point the breeze was finally dropping. I decided that should larger carp move into the margin I stood little chance of extracting them, so it was probably better to call it a day rather than be frustrated by yet another breakage. Defeatism maybe; or perhaps just common sense. I’m obviously entering an older and wiser phase.