Well, after three fish in the final hour on Wednesday, it was no surprise I chose to go to Willows again today. Eben better, I was the only angler there all day but I soon began to cotton on why. It might have been four degrees in the car, and the efforts of morning gardening had been exhilarating, but there was a cold northeasterly breeze, enough to create a chop on the surface and have me pulling a second coat on. I tossed out the method feeder with a pink pop-up that scored the other day and dug on my pockets for gloves. I speculated that the fish may follow the wind, so set in it's face in the south west corner, but after an hour without a bite, and by now unable to stop shivering, I moved to the sheltered side of the lake. No bites here either, but it felt tropically warm by comparison. 

After an afternoon of no bites or sign of fish life, and having regularly swapped between pop-ups and pellets, I wondered if it would come alive at 5 again. Then at 4:45, the bobbin started to creep upwards - a truly beautiful sight. With the bites on Wednesday all thumping takes, I picked up the rod and struck. Mistake. Too early. I wound in, pop-up still intact, presumably having yanked it out of a cautious carp's mouth. Grr.

Needing to be home, I gave it until 5:15 before packing up. With two minutes to go, there'd been nothing more and I was still cursing my impatience with that bite. Then at 5:14. the bobbin shot up and line was being taken and we were off. I didn't see the fish for ten minutes. It didn't feel as big as Wednesday's carp, but it was far stronger and much more unwilling to leave the water. When it finally come to the surface to eyeball me, I saw it was another mirror, before it turned and went diving deep again. On a feeder rod and 8lb line it gave quite a battle but when it next resurfaced, it came up tangled in a significant branch of alder tree that must have circled at the bottom. This added a lot of water resistance as I drew fish and wood towards the landing net, the branch being long. awkward and apparently keen to be netted first. I wasn't sure if I could get both branch and fish into the net when the worst sound in angling...no, not a flock of Canada goose crashing into my swim, but the crack of line, and the method feeder pinged over my head. I couldn't believe it. So close...and now another blank. I checked the feeder, the 5lb hook link had been the one to snap. I cursed and cut the feeder off and flung it in my tacklebox before winding in the line and throwing the reel into my bag. I was about to pack up the rod when I remembered the landing net was still in the water, that bloody branch lying across the top. I lifted it out of the water and...no...I couldn't believe it...the carp was in the bottom folds of the net, the branch presumably preventing it's escape!

It came in at 7lb 5ox - OK, not the biggest carp in the lake, over even the last two days, but the most welcome. 

The Newbury blanker? Not with luck like that.