With another hot weather warning forecast for the remainder of the week, I decided to try a late afternoon and evening session at Fields End Water. I hadn't done that well there of late but was hoping that the carp would come into the margins in the evening. I got a favourite spot on the east bank where it's possible to sit on ground rather than a platform. So all was set to try out my theory.

I threw in a helping of sweetcorn as an attractor and started fishing with the same bait. Bites came quickly but my hit rate was poor. They were roach and I obviously didn't have an ideal set up for roach! But I hooked a few during the session on both sweetcorn and spam. Although I got what were probably roach bites on the custard paste I didn't hook any. The paste was however to prove its worth later. The first carp took spam just after 5pm. It tore off out into the lake, which was preferable to it going for the reeds to my right. After a fairly lengthy battle I netted a mirror carp of just over 8lbs.

The next carp came at 6:15pm and gave me a right tussle. It turned out that it was foul-hooked in the pectoral fin, thus accounting for the difficulty of getting it in even though it was a similar weight to the first. It ran off a lot of line and kited to the left, requiring me to move into the adjacent pitch at one point. Another mirror carp.

The roach kept coming from time to time and around 7:15pm I noticed some swirling just beneath my feet and dropped the float in that area with a piece of the custard paste. It was long before it was taken and a powerful fish tore out into the lake, my centrepin spinning like a top! It took ages to get it in. It presented more like a dead weight but every so often took line as it sought to keep away from the bank. Once landed (phew!) it was another mirror, this time weighing 10¼lbs. So a double to complete the session.

But that wasn't the end. Having sat down to play out the final quarter of an hour or so before packing up, another carp took the custard paste bait. This time it went to the right, trying to get into the thick reed bank on that side. I had to push the tackle to the limit trying to keep it out and fortunately succeeded. The battle was not over, of course, but with the fish now in open water it was much easier. This final fish was fully scaled and weighed just under 8lbs.

So my carp session turned out to be very successful and I was sorry to leave the lake at around 8:30 as it looked so inviting. But I was actually a bit beat after getting those four carp in. My shoulder ached for a couple of days afterwards!