My close-season concentration on these two adjacent lakes continues and went with a plan.

I followed perceived wisdom and  fished 6 - 8am at Alders. I had line bites and knocks every cast, but nothing took it properly.

So as per schedule, I crossed the causeway to Willows and alternated between 2 hours method feeder then 2 hours float-fished corn. The feeder accounted for three hard-fighting carp - maybe the warming water has pumped them up, as they all put up a show worth more than the 3lb 4, 5lb 8 and 5lb 0 they came in at. From my point of view, it was just lovely to sit without coat or jumper with my float not looking like the Eddystone Light battling against a North Atlantic squall.

My float sessions were short on bites, but having said that, I connected with four large fish, each of which fell off the hook after between 10 seconds to 2 minutes of 'fight'. Hmm, I'm clearly doing something wrong. I don't think I'm being impatient at the net and pulling too hard, and a size 14 hook/2 pieces of corn seems appropriate to a 5lb hook length and a soft-ish 11ft pellet waggler rod. Any ideas? I've ordered some artificial corn to hair rig, and some Guru QM1 hooks which apparently have a better hook-sticking rate. Who knows. Any other ideas gratefully received¬