I arrived at the fishery late afternoon as I knew the park would start to quieten down around this time. After a good walk around, I decided against fishing the snaggy areas that I tend to favour, as I had spotted some fish held out in the open water area near the main area of the animal park.

The wind was blowing a westerly and trickling into a bay, where I could spot the odd fish holding around a set of lilly pads. I really wanted to catch one of the immaculate ghosties that reside in the lake. I’d been lucky to have a few in previous sessions to 23lb, but I had yet to get amongst the lakes larger residents.

My tactics and approach were my trusty hinged stiff links tied using a 15lb Disruption boom section, 20lb Trip Wire hook section, a size Covert 6 incizor hook with an ABS pop up from Active Bait Solutions. The lake is littered with obstacles and lily pads, so I spooled up with trusty 15lb GT80+ main line, which I knew would help me stop the fish gaining the sanctuary of any snags.

After getting the rods out, I put around 30-50 boilies around both rods and set my traps for the night ahead. As I was about to put my head down to get some shut eye, one of the rods was away. After a few minutes, I slid the net under a common carp of around 15lbs.

As I was dealing with the common, my other rod in open water tore off and after a good fight, a low double figure mirror was soon being returned. That was the start of things to come and I landed five carp in total that night, all weighing around 14-16lb.

At first light I could see that the wind had changed direction and was blowing in the opposite direction, heading back across the lake. I had a feeling that the carp might have followed it, so I decided on move as it had gone very quiet in the area of lake I was fishing.

With all my gear packed away, I decided to fish the swim people call the concrete swim, due to a slab of stone where a crane used to operate from many years ago. This area commands the main section of open water, with access to loads of features. I had islands and pads to my left and islands to the right, with approximately 4-5 ft of water and the bottom was very clean and hard.

Using the same tactics, I soon had the rods out and felt them go down with a thud and spread around 30-50 boilies around each hookbait. Within the hour one of the rods was away and I instantly felt I was into a better fish. After a good fight and trying to take me between the islands, I slid the net under a Tri-Lakes ghostie that was just shy of 20lb.

During the next few hours I landed a further six fish, all around a mid-double mark. The weather started to change and it started to rain heavily. I got my head down early that night and it poured down all night. Things were strangely quiet and by dawn I hadn’t seen or heard anything. The rain finally subsided and the lake was like a sheet of glass. I only had three hours left as I had to be packed up by 8.30am. I put the kettle on for the last time and out of the corner of my eye I saw a carp roll to the left of the island. I decided to reel in and cast to the showing fish and within 5 minutes of putting a bait on it, the rod was away. After gaining control and leading the fish away from the islands, I slipped the net under a beautiful ghostie. It looked a good’un and on the scales it went 25lb 10oz!

I had achieved something I set out to do, which made the session even more special. A big thank you to Kevin and Jackie who keep the place beautiful as it was when I fished it 6 years ago.