Diary of an average angler

I wasn't surprised to find all my preferred spots occupied and wandered about for a while trying to decide where to fish. I ultimately went to a swim on the east bank two spots away from the reed end. My logic was that if I didn't do too well, perhaps the chap in the reed end swim would pack up early and I could shift across.

I had reeds to the left and bankside cover to my right, offering possibilities to catch in the margin. Although I took my match rod, today I decided to stick with the compact float and fish a free line with bread flake. The baker had sold out of my favourite tin loaf with the rubbery crust so I had to make do with a sliced bloomer from Aldi! It worked reasonably well but dried out quicker, making it harder to keep the crust on the hook later in the session.

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I started with a cast to the left by the reeds but this didn't yield anything. I then tried dropping a large piece of fluffy flake to the right, close in, and the line soon started to straighten on the surface. I tightened and a fish stormed off into the lake. After quite a tussle, with many surges back out into the lake, a fine fish of just over 10lb was on the bank (photo). Not long after this it started to rain lightly, then a bit heavier, and then a downpour with hail included. I had a coat, fortunately, but no umbrella. The result, my top half reasonably dry but trousers drenched.

Fortunately the warm weather rapidly dried the light Graghoppers' trousers and I could get back to some fishing. At 16.00 I took another carp from the margin, this time a mirror of 5lb 6oz. I was then surprised by a roach of around 6‑8oz taking what started out as a large piece of flake, although it had probably been whittled down.

Things had gone quiet so I chanced casting out a piece of surface crust, again on the free line. With no additional weight on the line I could only get the crust out about 10 metres, but it was quickly taken. The fish fought extremely hard in a somewhat un-carp-like fashion. It felt a bit like a barbel, with shorter powerful lunges, but I realised that was unlikely on bread. In the end it turned out to be a fully-scaled carp, long and lean, a bit like a wild carp, with beautiful golden colouring (photo).

It was now 17.30 and I continued surface fishing crust. Although I missed quite a few takes, I took four more off the surface about 10 metres out, although one was lost when the line broke. I think there must have been a weakness as the fish didn't appear particularly large. Of the three landed, the first, a 7lb 5oz leather, was actually foul-hooked in the pectoral fin, increasing the difficulty of getting it in (photo). The second weighed 7lb 1oz and the third an estimated 4lb.

By 19.00 there were signs of carp feeding close in, and after a few missed takes one took crust just below my feet. It was a 6lb fish but battled hard. I packed up at 19.40 with the carp clearly still quite active in the margins, but I had to stop some time.

It was a good day for me as I enjoy free-line fishing, and on this occasion it proved to be successful.