Well it’s been quite a 24 hours since I last wrote, the lake went dead still at dusk, not a breath of wind and not a single sound anywhere, you could have heard a snail fart, the fish were quiet up to about 11ish with one or two fish rolling after that I think I must have fell asleep. I awoke to a screaming Delkim at about one in the morning.
It was the tiger nut rod down in the margins that I had almost forgotten about, and there was one angry carp on the other end given the speed it was going. No time to put on the wellies I grab them as I sped as quickly as I could to the rod. The fish was still going strong when I pulled into it, but it was going through stumps which wasn’t good news. 
I tried putting the boots on but it’s no easy task one footed, holding onto a powerful carp and on a 45 degree slope in the pitch dark. I gave up and put the rod in the rest got the boots on and then decided it would be better to walk down the margin rather than get in the boat. I was opposite the fish but it was almost solid I could still feel it trying to power away, I walked further down the margin then back again, it felt so close to coming free. Then the line appeared to be going in a different direction, it was off but there was a fair old weight on the other end, the fish was trying to make it all time into the other snags. I gave it everything hoping the hook hold would be okay this really was a good fish; next thing to think of was that the landing net was back at base so I had to slowly lead the fish back on the surface as much as I could, it wasn’t happy that was for sure. I made it back grabbed the net and the fish was by now tiring, me too, boy was the adrenalin pumping the fight must have taken half an hour. 
In the net it looked a big deep mirror and similar to one I had caught 18 months ago at 45ib but it looked bigger now. Sacked in the deep water, I walked down the margin a put the rod back in place, no further action though in the night, heard a few and had a tench at dawn on the 10m rod.
I had heard the forecast on the local radio for Saturday and Sunday was rain so wasn’t expecting much on the Friday, especially not after the snow, but it was a beautiful sunny start to the day. I gathered the photographed gear up but firstly weighed the fish it was a different one to the 2008 fish with lovely starburst scales on both sides, the other fish just had them on one. At 50.08 it was a truly beautiful carp and I was just hoping I could get the photos right. It was a shame i’d not caught it 24 hours later as my good mate Mickey B would be here for a week’s session, still that was to look forward to. The sun continued in the morning and i managed to charge the phone and computer up as I had written about the previous day, although it wasn’t quite powerful enough to do the solar shower so that will have to wait. 
So what will happen tonight all the rods have been redone and it’s looking good again, after yesterdays wish list nearly 100% right I’m hoping for a nice 25 year old blonde babe and a 70ib common tonight, oh well I can dream.
Today’s on the bank tackle test – Nash landing net float and net mesh
I was hoping to get hold of a Pursuit landing net for the trip as my nets were looking slightly tatty to say the least having been nibbled on by mice, rats, etc on the bank but with none available i settled for a couple of new meshs. Still these done the trick and turned old sad looking landing nets into first class nets again, what i liked was how soft the mesh was and nice and deep which i really like especially when landing fish from a boat. The colour is great, being a good carpy green and hopefully one day they will be able to make them with an anti rodent proof odour so that i don’t have to get the needle and thread out half way through a session sewing up holes!
The net float was also another useful addition to the landing net, my old net float was about half the size which was fine and done the job but this new one being bigger was a lot easier to use when out in the boat landing fish. This can be a tough job at times especially if the wind is blowing a you are out then on your own. The trouble is that you have the fish nearly ready for landing, rod in one hand, landing net in the other and then at the last moment the wind blows the boat off course you have to correct the outboard but have to drop the landing net. Without a decent float it can easily drift away and if you don’t have one at all your net sinks before you realise, so a very useful bit of kick to have.
