Willows Lake - Thatcham

1800 - 0000

Warm and overcast with a gentle southerly breeze. 19ºC -> 16ºC. Lovely evening to be out - no dew and no shelter required.

5 Carp; 10lb 13oz, 8lb 14oz, 8lb 10oz, 6lb 5oz (& one of around a pound - unweighed!). 1 Tench 1¼lb. 3 Bream (all skimmers). 1 Perch. 1 Rudd. (Both quite small)

This was meant to be an evening fishing the margins for tench (or crucians, roach, bream, perch, rudd - anything but carp!) However the bully boy commons had other ideas - they were just insatiable. The 'bigger' eight was first cast and took an age to subdue on a float rod and a 4lb bottom - and no wonder as it was shaped like a torpedo! After hooking and losing a couple more to hook pulls - bumping another couple (possibly striking at liners) - and banking the 2 smaller ones I decided on a 'If you can't beat them, join them' strategy and started dapping bread under my (carp) rod tip. This at least resulted in a 100% hooking to landing ratio - though the double had to be extracted from the lillies where it so nearly won its freedom. After all this commotion the carp eventually vacated my swim - I had no more slurps and swirls at my bread offerings on the surface and float fishing maggot at last produced bites (and fish) that weren't  carp though they weren't exactly prolific!