Since my last blog I've been back to the little commercial catching the carp on flies a few times. To be honest it's too easy and becomes rather boring after an hour or two. The average size seems to get better the later into the evening it gets. The last session for example produced a fair number of doubles to the 4 of us and one of just over 20 to my mate... quite a scrap on a light fly rod.

Saturday 3rd August - Shhh

An after work trip to the commercial unfortunately got cancelled on the Friday evening so I decided to take the opportunity to stop off at a little lake that I'd walked once a few years ago. There was a car in the car park (a rare occurrence) so I wandered down and got chatting to an old boy, a baliff as it turned out and half an hour later I had some good info regarding tickets and stock etc.

It's a cracking place, only an acre or two, but nice and clear, very overgrown and home to some old, forgotten English carp, a few of which I managed to find right in close on my stroll around. I decided there and then that I had to come down with a rod and after securing a ticket I made plans to fish the very next day.

Upon arrival I found the lake completely empty so set about having a walk and priming plenty of good looking spots with a sprinkling of pellet/maize and chops. I'd only got half way around before I spotted a bit of disturbance over the deep open water... closer inspection revealed what must have been at least 75%% of the lakes stock of carp all mooching about on the surface. I reckon there were probably 40 or so fish, most of which looked to be doubles. Now, the fish don't go big in here at all, the biggest may just scrape 20lbs but they're such cracking examples I'm happier to be targeting these than I was the infamous Newbury 40 that's recently popped it's clogs.

Anyway, I digress. After watching the lakes inhabitants for a couple of minutes I raced back to the car to grab my floater rod and a bucket of pellet, sure that the fish I'd seen would be up for a bait on the surface. I couldn't have been more wrong... not a single freebie was taken and it was back to square one.

With my tail well and truly between my legs I sloped around to check a few of the spots that had been baited half an hour previously.

The majority hadn't been touched but one, close to where I'd seen the fish patrolling the previous evening, had 2 or 3 fish polishing the gravel to get at the pellet. With shaking hands I set up my stalking rod, complete with centerpin and waited for the fish to move off before sneaking my rig in and topping up with a couple of handfuls of bait. They were a lot cuter than I imagined they would be, considering the lack of angling pressure but eventually, after watching countless fish avoid my hookbait, the greediest of the gang made his mistake and hooked himself against the 3oz inline lead. The hit and hold scrap I'd prepared myself for turned into a bit of an anti climax... the fish didn't seem to know it was hooked and just hung a few feet out of netting range before rolling over and conceding defeat. That one was a ghostie of approx 12lbs... first one from a new lake down .

The disturbance obviously spooked the rest of the shoal so I rebaited and spent the next couple of hours being completely mugged off by a handful of fish on a different spot. I'd baited both sides of the margin in this area and whichever side I dropped my rig resulted in the fish moving off and feeding on the other side. Everytime they came in they'd see something they didn't like... don't ask me what though... The fluro mainline was nailed down to the bottom with putty, all the end tackle was as inconspicuous as I could make it, there was nothing more I could do which proved extremely frustrating. 2 hours later I'd pulled the majority of my hair out so decided to give up.

I'd arranged to meet my Dad on the Kennet and spend the evening barbelling with him and despite already being half an hour late I had to check the mornings productive spot one more time. Sure enough a few fish were feeding hard and after getting the rig in it only took a few minutes for one to trip up. A slightly better fight this time and a fabulous dark and ancient looking common was in the net... I think it's probably the nicest looking carp I've had the pleasure of banking. The pics really don't do it justice.

Unfortunately the double figure barbel I'd been day dreaming about didn't put in an appearance to round off the day. In fact we didn't have a single indication between the two of us over 4 hours or so . It very nearly ended up being an expensive jaunt after I managed to leave my rucksack complete with £700 worth of camera gear in the swim. It wasn't until gone midday Sunday, 12 hours after leaving, that I realised it was missing but after racing to Newbury in double quick time I was overjoyed to find it sitting exactly where I'd left it. A lucky escape.

All the way there I'd convinced my self I'd need to shell out for a new camera... now I knew that wasn't the case there was only one logical thing to do... go to the shop and buy a new stalking rod with the money I'd "saved" . Hopefully I'll be back at the forgotten lake to christen it within a week.