St. Ive’s itself is a venue steeped in carp angling history, and is home to some stunning original big carp that have grown up to the 50lb+ bracket, a stock that also includes a few very elusive up and coming fish which have barely seen the bank. In fact, ever since I saw Dave Lane holding the awesome ‘Fat Lady’ I always dreamt about fishing St Ives Lagoon...

I had had a pickup and whilst the hooked fish was trying to make the sanctuary of the snags to my left it must have picked the line up on that rod! What a palaver, and by now I was sh*"£ing myself at the thought of losing my third fish in a row...

Back to the summer of 2016; I had just received the email that I had been waiting for, for a very long time. It was confirmation that I was finally being offered a ticket on the Wasing Estate’s Cranwells Lake, and with it the opportunity to fish for The Parrot...

It was early February, and as the days were starting to draw out that little bit longer, there were the first very subtle signs that spring was just around the corner and everything was starting to come to life once more; and I found myself once again hatching plans for a full on no [...]

The fish took a good 50-60 yards of line on its first run, before hitting the surface. The battle was far from over and we spent the next 10 minutes playing tug of war, until she began to realise I was the stronger opponent...