Getting Down to Business - Summer and Autumn, 2004
My first ever trip was in July 2004. To be truthful, it was a pal of mine who had stumbled across the venue. He'd dragged me down there for a walk around the first time he fished it - a day session sometime in June. I really wasn't enammered with it - it was small, there was him and four others fishing it - and I could see the bottom out in front of him - it couldn't have been more than 2 foot deep where he was! Anyway, he didn't catch that time and I'd really forgotten about the place, until I got an e-mail one Thursday morning soon after saying he'd done a quick overnighter the night before and bagged a 27lb mirror at first light! That changed my thinking on the place!

So, a couple of weeks later, I headed down there with him for an overnighter. As usual, he made-up some cock and bull story about how he had first choice of swims as he'd discovered the venue and such-like - so I went a bit further down the bank. I fished across to the far margin (which must've been all of 30 yards away!) and was quite surprised when the alarm gave a couple of bleeps and the tip pulled round just on dark. There was a fair bit of weed in the lake and the fish came in easily with a ball of Canadian encapsulating it. Once unwrapped it was clear it was a nice 20 - a really distinctive half-linear. Ironically, in the short time I spent on the venue, I caught this fish twice more. On this occassion, it was 23lb exactly.
My next trip was in August. I got down there on the Friday to find another chap on the water. He had been there a couple of days and had struggled. I moved in a bit further up the bank (where I caught the first time) and did the night, to no avail. There were fish showing out in front of this other fella, albeit, he hadn't managed to tempt any. Mid Saturday morning, he said he'd had enough and was going - so no sooner had him and his barrow disappeared down the path, I was in there like a shot. To cut to the chase, I ended up having three fish - all mirrors and every one over 25lb.

3 fish in 24hrs - all over 25lb - August 2004

It was September before I got down there again. This time I'd taken some holiday from work and decided to do 3 nights midweek. I was gutted to find two other guys on there - occupying my first and second choice swims! As luck would have it, after having a chat with them, it was apparent the one in my favoured spot was sufferring. Whilst neither of them had caught, his mate seemed to be happy "just being there", but this other chap was going through therapy - he couldn't decide whether he should move or not, or try a different bait or rig or whatever. The poor sod was really punishing himself! I had a stroll down the bank and stopped in the shallows - at which point the chap undergoing therapy strolled up to join me. Turns out he had been wondering whether to move up himself - having thought he'd heard a couple of fish bosh out down this end overnight. Just as we stood there, I saw a carp's dorsal just break surface under the overhanging bushes on the far bank. I could see the shadowy shapes of what appeared to be a group of three carp in the upper layers - cruising along the far bank to the top end of the lake. I didn't mention anything, when at that point the fish at the front stuck it's lips out and mouthed a bit of vegetation that had landed on the surface! The other chap saw that and when I pointed out the other two fish with it he got quite excited and started talking about a move. He then twigged that I had seen the fish and was in the swim first, so there was every likelihood I would want to move in. I guessed that was what he was thinking, so mentioned that I was happy for him to decide if he wanted to move up there - as I'd quite happily fish either this one or where he was. He opted for the move which suited me fine. Whilst it may sound like bad angling opting not to fish where I'd seen fish, I knew the fish were increadibly wary in the shallows - whilst they visited them frequently, they rarely seemed to feed up there and used to realise very quickly that they were being fished for when leads started getting chucked in!

So, I got my stuff from the car and moved in where matey had vacated, giving him a hand with his gear to his new choice of swim. Whether or not it was because of my fairness and helpfulness to the poor chap or complete coincidence, either way, the carp gods were looking down on me as within 30 minutes of getting the rods out the left-hand rod was away. I had literally just netted it - or, more correctly - matey and his mate had just come down and netted it for me, when the other rod went. Within three-quarters of an hour of casting out, I had two fish on the bank. The first was the 26 I had caught on the previous trip (which I nicknamed "Casper" - as he seemed to be quite a "friendly carp"); the other being my biggest from the venue to date at 27lb 8oz.

27lb 8oz Mirror braced with 25lb 6oz Mirror within an hour of casting out - September 2004

I went on to have a further 5 fish that trip.......commons of 23 and 27lb, plus mirrors of 20, 25 and 29lb. Incidentally, all of my fish thus far (and all of the fish I went on to catch) were caught on a variety of baits (note that there were quite a few bans on the venue) - the common denominator that I am convinced led to my catch rate far-and-away exceeding those of any of the other anglers on there, was a result of me "tipping" whatever it was that I was fishing with. Generally, the "tip" was used to critically-balance the presentation.