Having just bought our first house and all the stresses to go with that I was much In need of 3 nights down the syndicate!! After a quick coffee at the lake/syndicate owners house I made me way down to the lake arriving mid morning. Car was parked up and It was time to have a good walk around, with no signs to go by I decided to settle on the largest swim appropriately named ‘the double’. With the weather looking very unpredictable the titan was the first bit of kit to get set up. This proved to be a very wise decision as 30 minutes later the heavens opened. Onto to getting those rods ready, my rig of choice over the session was the super reliable go anywhere rig consisting of the Ashima C430 Goliaths in size 8 along with Ashima rig ring, small piece of Ashima shrink tube to help kick the hook around and also the awesome Ashima Ground-Hog 15lb Rig Braid. With a small Castaway 35mm PVA bag protecting the hooks I put the traps out on the money! finally adding a generous kilo of freebies over each spot and I was ready to begin the relaxing!

    The first night quickly arrived and so did the ducks!!! At first they didn’t seem interested but by 8pm they began diving down on one of the spots, nightmare! Out came the laser pen and It did move them on but 15 minutes later they where back, anyway this laser show continued every 15minutes for about 2 hours when I had to get some sleep. As you can imagine beep beep … beep beep .. the ducks where back again and again, by 2pm I’d had enough and reeled in the right hand rod (little f**kers).
   Big yawn the next morning after a bit of late one carrying out Somerset’s new laser show, and unfortunately no action from the left hand rod. With some fresh PVA bags made up I put both rods back out ready for the next 24hrs ahead. Well .. I could go on about every fart and bubble but tbh you’d get bored of reading so basically Friday passed with not even a sniff or sign of a fish.
   However Saturday was a different storey with a 9am wakeup call from a single beep and the indicator dropping right back as the fish made its way quickly towards me, after a lengthy scrap under the rod tip a stunning linear glided over the mesh. With the hook hold treated and the scales zeroed for the sling it was weighing time, could it go 20, ooh so close 19lb 8oz. With Neil (lake owner) on hand we did some photos before quickly slipping her back. i was buzzing, finally the first fish of 2016 from the syndicate and still another night to go.
   With the rods back out and more freebies over the top it looked good for another, but for me the day flew by with no action. However Glyn another syndicate member fishing managed to winkle out ‘Single Scale’ @ 29lb 14oz’s which I helped with photo’s, a stunning fish and great to see it putting the weight on!

   It wasn’t until the final morning when I decided it was time for a change! With bright sun light predicted on and off for the rest of the day I just had to get the gear packed up except the rods and move to a swim called ‘the lazy’. Now this swim is situated right next to a shallow 4ft bay which I believed the carp would be moving into later in the day due to the warmth of the sun.
   BINGO! BEEP BEEP .. BEEEEEP, the left hand rod screamed off after just a 3hour soak in the bay and after what felt  Mike Tyson pulling on the line she finally drifted over the net. Well .. could it be .. the lake owner arrived and confirmed it was a fish called ‘Moon Scale’ which had only ever been caught once since its 1lb stocking back in 2007! I was literally over the moon .. poor joke? yeah maybe your right but what a smile on both mine and Neil’s faces. After the usual treatment of the hook hold it was time to get the scales out … 25lb 8oz’s! A stunning fish and one I’m going to remember for a very long time.

Now I know I’ve mentioned this before In my reports but effort really does equal rewards, would I have had a fish If I had stayed In ‘the double’ swim, I feel not. Don’t let an hour’s packing up deter you from finding those fish! Until next time thanks for reading.
Lee Hulbert @fixedoncarping