The weathermen had predicted a scorcher but when we arrived at the lake at 08:00 there was a chill in the air and dew on the grass which my trainers soaked up like a sponge. With that in mind we decided to fish the right hand bank as that would be the first area to receive attention from the sun, I dropped into lucky peg 13 and my friend set up just to my left on peg 14.
I pretty much only use corn as bait at Readers these days and the plan was to fish three grains on a hair as tight to the island as I dared, thankfully for me (and my wallet) I could reach the island with a gentle underarm lob so I was optimistic that I wouldn't be adding to the collection of tackle and rigs that other anglers had lost to the island.
More by luck than judgement I dropped my feeder within 6 inches of the island, placed my rod in the rest and tightened the tip so it was just ever so slightly tensioned, no sooner had I sat down the tip wrapped right round and I was battling my first Carp of the day. I managed to add a further three more small Carp within an hour of setting up so I was definitely optimistic of having a good day.
By mid day the temperature was soaring, here we were just a few days from October and it was probably getting on for 80 degrees. It was good to top up the tan but at one point I had to set my brolly up for a bit of shade as I was starting to get a migraine from the heat and glare off the water.
I finished the day with 15 Carp up to 7 lb plus a new personal best 1 lb 3 ounce Crucian which was easily the highlight for me, well other than seeing my friend yet again nearly fall into the lake trying to stop his rod being pulled in (surely one day he will have to go for a swim?). I did lose a few fish (hook pulls) but that was to be expected when fishing so close to snags.
My friend managed 8 Carp which meant I took the point in our 'match' series (7-3 to me!) but to be fair he did catch the bigger fish with one Common topping the scales at 11 lb which fell to luncheon meat. At one point we even had three Carp on at the same time which took a bit of juggling with the landing nets but we did manage to land all three fish.
It wasn't until we had a chat to another angler on the way back to the car park that we realised how good our day had been, he had blanked!
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