Cracking day at the club lake

I decided to get out and try the new pole so took it to the club lake to see how it might cope with the latest influx of Bream which have been stocked. Some of them are over 6lb and you're always in with a shout of hooking some of the carp which (in the last week or so) I've managed to land at 12lb+, which was some going for 10s elastic (here's one I beached earlier - after it snapped my landing net handle like a twig):

Anyway, I duly arrived at the lake and spotted that one of the favoured pegs was vacant - in fact, lots of pegs were vacant with only 2 or 3 anglers on the bank. I'd trawled through my boxes of floats earlier in the week, looking for something a little more substantial than the usual canal-type thing. I found a number of old Trabucco 4x18s from Wrighty's 'Sale' box and a couple of Preston Green grammers, so with a dose of 'hard as nails' and some Sensas flame orange paint added to the tips, I decided to make the session a rig making outing as well.

Not long after I arrived, Ping rolled up behind me and settled on a nearby peg. He was soon shouting over to me that he might be in a bit of trouble. Given that the biggest elastic he had was a 6 latex, it was no wonder he was in trouble - a carp of around 6lb was leading him a merry dance all over the place. He eventually steered it to the net and I walked over to look at it. With the fish dispatched to the water he was soon in again - this time it was something much bigger - armed with waiting my camera I walked back to get a picture of Paul with the fish.

No sooner had he bagged that mirror, he was into another one, which was a real animal - leading him all over the place. After a good scrap, it slid into the net and I took the obligatory photo:

I didn't manage to land a carp, despite hooking (& losing) at least three. I had much more success with the tench and bream, including a number of decent slabs around 5lb. Definitely one of the better days on the club lake.