Hello old friend!

Just one of many stunning doubles I caught in an evening

Hi guys,

With it being half term this week I was hell bent on getting some family time in with the wife and kids but in all honesty the weathers been a little crappy at times and none of us have been particularly enthusiastic about doing much.....I decided I'd pop out on my own for the night on Tuesday and toodled off down to one of my club lakes. I've not night fished the venue before, so it was an interesting evening.

The lake is set in stunning forestry land and despite having a path around it that attracts all sorts of dog walkers, bike riders etc etc...it's actually rather a lovely place to stay. The only real problem being the hideous midges that drive you to insanity! Luckily I was prepared this time around and went fully armed to the teeth with some serious midge and biting insect spray!

Beautiful surroundings

I was a little late getting a rod out due to 2 chaps being in the swim I really wanted, but they were lovely fellas and even offered me some coffee. Top chaps! I got my rods out just after 10pm and it wasn't too long before I was into my first of the night....a lovely low double ghost common....Things progressed nicely and by the early hours of the morning I was up to no less than 11 carp to mid double figures. When I awoke from a rather restless night I bagged a further 3 carp. Well chuffed with the results!

I had a quick few hours poaching on Wednesday evening on a little section of a local river i'd seen a while ago. The river flows through some wild fields and despite lots of research there was nothing to say it wasn't fishable. I gave it a blast on my 6ft 3wt fly rod and a few grey dusters and bagged a handful of lovely little browns in the fading sunlight.

I love wild browns!

Mathew and I had a day out on Sunday as well...We decided to do a session up at Glycorryg after the rainbows but we failed miserably and despite almost 5 hours of trying, we failed to see more than just 1 fish get caught by a 1 of the 14 anglers on the lake! Very poor fishing.....We then left the venue empty handed and £30 down to try our luck on the lakes around my village in the Garw.

We tried 3 of the 4 lakes and eventually found a handful of stunning chunky browns to try for in the extremely clear mountain water. We tried and tried and tried but despite throwing everything at them they just wouldn't hit the flies! Very frustrating to say the least.

Mathew had a cracking evening on the bread crust

After that we then decided to go to our club lake to see if we could bag a carp on the fly instead....This too turned out to be an impossible task and after an hour and just 1 fish to Mathew and 1 bumped off to me, it was time for a change of tactic. We both switched over to a bread approach and Mathew got into fish after fish. I struggled like crazy and managed to bag just 1 fish all evening, Mat had about 9 I believe. Well done fella, totally out fished again!

Friday arrived and Natasha asked me profusely if i'd take her out fishing for the afternoon. She can be very persuasive at times but it doesn't take much to get me out fishing! We popped over to my bolt hole venue first to try and catch some rudd off the top. This went quite well with a plenty of fish to about 12oz falling for Tasha's float fished bread. She then took a couple of micro sized carp which got her in the mood to catch something bigger!

All good fun for Natasha

We decided to up sticks at 5pm and down to the club lake that I caught the grass carp from last week. We set up a floater rod with just a hook on it and fished around for about 2 hours with very little to show for our efforts. The fish were very shy and just not in the feeding mood. I half felt it was time to call it a day around 8.30pm as the weather was cold and damp. Minutes later the day cheered up no end as Tash spotted the big old grass carp mooching past her rod tip some 10 feet out in front. Without further ado she plonked a mixer just in front of him and the rest is history!

The fight was epic and in fairness a lot more exciting than when I caught him last week. He didn't want to come in for love nor money! The rod was buckled double and Natasha did her best to keep in touch with the awesome beast.

I wasn't really prepared for catching fish that size and stupidly I'd bought just a river pan net I use for barbel with us. Luckily the chap next swim down from us came over and lent us his net and a helping hand. Thanks Mick ;) After a major tussle lasting about 8 to 10 minutes, Mick netted the fish for Tash and we all let out a huge cheer!

Awesomeness in hoards! Natasha could hardly lift her prize! 22lb 6ozs of pure gold! Well done sweetheart x 

I checked the fish over and confirmed it was the same one I'd had last Thursday. Natasha was shaking from the excitement and I couldn't believe she even managed to hold the fish up for a photo! Despite it weighing 22lb 6oz! Well done little miss great angling! Daddy is extremely proud yet again!