Back to Earith as I thought it might be the least busy after the bank holiday weekend, and for most of the time I was indeed the only person on the lake. With no discernible wind the conditions were far easier than on my previous visit and I was hopeful for a tench or two. There was a lot of bubbling when I arrived along with carp thrashing about in the lilies and reeds. They had apparently started spawning the day before. I groundbaited and set to catching my quarry.

I started with sweetcorn and after not too long, following some non positive float movements, I caught a bream. This was to set the scene for the session with a number of bream coming to the net. I had groundbaited with proprietary Dynamite frenzied hemp with caster flavouring, mixing in some hempseed and sweetcorn. This might have contributed to my success with the bream.

It was in fact quite slow at the start, the bright sunny conditions probably not being the best. The forecast had indicated that it would cloud over later but I had to wait until 1.30 pm until that actually happened. A few of the bream were decent fish and when first hooked felt as if they could be tench, with solid resistance and a bold if short first run, but of course being bream they soon yielded and came in quietly.

I had been alternating between sweetcorn and spam but after a while decided to try a bit of cheese paste. I had brought it with me as I hadn't purchased any bread, which is usually one of my bait choices. The cheese paste produced a surprise when I hooked something that felt more combative than a bream but not powerful enough to be a tench or carp. In fact it was a fine crucian, although at the time I wrote it off as a hybrid. Closer inspection of the video caused me to reconsider and I now feel that it was probably a crucian, albeit a bit gnarled. (Scale count from video extract - 32 lateral line: 8 diagonal dorsal to lateral line)

At one point I struck and the surface erupted. I had foul hooked a large carp that proceeded to plough straight into the far reed bed, fortunately shedding the hook in the process.

As I was considering packing up and making a few 'last casts' I hooked something that I felt sure was a tench, and indeed I saw it as I was playing it. But unfortunately the hook pulled and so my only tench of the session swam away. It had taken cheese paste so I decided to extend the session in the hope of tempting another. Instead I tempted a large carp, this time fairly hooked, which like the earlier one ploughed into the reeds but on this occasion breaking me.

This was the cue to finally call it a day. Losing the tench was a disappointment but on reflection it wasn't a bad session with a number of bream and one solitary roach. There was never much possibility of getting a large carp in because of the nature of the swim with reed beds very close and large beds of lilies. So losing that last carp wasn't really a disappointment. Factored in you could say!

All in all an enjoyable time by what is a very pretty lake.