It was the end of March when I last went fishing. The weather has been somewhat wet, to say the least, but I have also been doing other things that have kept me away from the water.

It was also an opportunity to try out a newly acquired Greys’ Prodigy Rova Specimen rod. This is a six-piece 12 foot rod designed for travelling. Now in the past such rods have not come anywhere near matching the performance of two or three-piece blanks. However, this had good reviews and I wanted something I could pack in the car when going on holiday that didn’t need to be laid through the car boot and into the space between the front seats.

It was very hot when I arrived, much warmer than I had expected. In the reed-end swim you’re facing the sun and it actually became quite uncomfortable after a couple of hours. Add to this the fact that the carp were spawning, and you have difficult conditions. It’s the first time I’ve witnessed the spawning rituals. In the margins all round the lake the carp were chasing each other and thrashing the reeds. This went on all afternoon.

Click image to view larger version.

It wasn’t surprising therefore that I didn’t get many bites at first. There were some roach nibbles, but the Rova rod wasn’t quite the best for roach fishing. After quite a while (at 15.25) a positive bite rewarded me with a 2lb 13oz tench. The rod impressed me, although this obviously wasn’t a very large fish. I plodded on, taking one small roach that was bold enough to give me a good bite on the fairly heavy tackle.

At 16.15 a cast that left the bread flake very close to the edge of the reeds produced a fly-away bite and I contacted a good fish that took about 20 yards of line. At one point I thought it might cross another anglers line on the adjacent bank. After playing it for a while, however, it became clear that it was foul-hooked, this making it seem larger than it actually was. The rod was given a good test, however, and I was extremely impressed by the power and the full through action that it exhibited. It certainly didn’t feel like a six-piece rod in use. The fish was a 6lb 14oz mirror carp.

At 18.00 things got better when I landed a 10lb 2oz mirror carp (picture). It didn’t actually cause me as much trouble as the foul-hooked fish, but again I was impressed with the way that the rod handled it.

I then lost a fish after playing it for about five minutes. The hook-hold failed, which might have been due to some extent to the relative stiffness of the rod. Shortly after (18.25) another bite resulted in a fish ploughing into the reeds. I muscled it out and was quite frankly amazed that the combination of the Rova rod and a 5lb line provided enough power for me to get the fish out of trouble. It was a 6lb 10oz mirror carp.

I had set myself a leaving time of 19.00, which was a bit of a pity as with the sun going down, and the heat dissipating, the lake started to look very appealing. I’m sure more fish would have followed if I had stayed on. Next time I do an afternoon session I shall eat my main meal at lunchtime, leaving the evening free for me to fish until dusk.