Various things have conspired to keep me away from fishing over the past few weeks, so it was good to get back to the bank side.

It was quiet at the lake with probably only about five people there at any time during the day. I had the tree corner to myself. While the relatively mild period prevailed it wasn’t the best of days, although the overcast conditions should have helped the fishing. It was calm when I arrived but the easterly breeze proved a bit irksome later in the day.

I started with luncheon meat and for the first hour or so didn’t get a touch. I was feeding small pellets and eventually there were a couple of missed bites: probably roach. Then at 09.10 the float flew under and a carp shot off. I had gambled on the match rod set up as I felt that the carp were probably slowing down a bit with the cooler weather. After an interesting tussle a nice 9¼lb leather was on the bank. Thinking (correctly as it turned out) that this might be the best fish of the day, I took a photograph.

Click image to view larger version.

Not long after another good bite produced a fairly ferocious run as another carp shot off. I thought it was bigger but when landed (09.35) it was a longer and more streamlined mirror weighing 8lb.

The wind had now arrived and things really slowed down, only a small perch breaking the monotony. I opened a tin of sweetcorn to try and tempt some roach but had quite a wait before a 2¾lb tench took two grains at 11.40. A further lengthy wait produced a 2½lb tench at 14.40, although this time on luncheon meat.

Things remained slow. I had been feeding the margin since I arrived but this didn’t yield anything. To be fair the water level is as low as I’ve ever seen it, meaning that the margins are probably 2-3 feet shallower than normal.

Finally at 16.50 the float shot away and what was clearly another carp tore off. I thought it was going to be the best of the day but it was actually foul-hooked in the pectoral fin. It’s amazing how often this happens. It’s frustrating to think that these carp are obviously rooting around near your bait such that they brush the line, but don’t actually take the bait. This fish was also 8lb.

I finished off with a roach of about ½lb on luncheon meat at 17.30. The wind had freshened again following a relatively calm period so I decided to pack up at 17.45.

A bit more action would have been nice, such as getting the roach feeding more actively, but three decent carp and a couple of reasonable tench in mid October isn’t bad.