Keeping it under your hat!

Fished Straits on Sunday afternoon, upon arriving the lake was packed! After a walk round I found large groups of carp down the carp park end and decided to fish tigers to the large clear patch four swims down. I didn't have to wait long for a fish with three within an hour and half(12.30 - 2pm?) 9lb ish, 12.4lb & 12.8lb all commons. But all this action had pushed the carp out off the swim area and with other anglers going home I moved further up the lake. I fished the area which is only a rod length out and a few foot deep, but this area had recently produced two stunning nice sized carp which looked to be uncaught this year! You can normally watch them feeding over your bait but the days angling pressure had made the carp a little more nervous, so I watched the rod a little further up the bank. After a couple of hours the rod took a couple off hard knocks and suddenly the line eased away. I could tell instantly the fish was a good size and she battled for a good ten minutes or so, with some strong runs. The fish went to 19lb on the scales and was maybe one off the original stocking, very dark colouring and a massive mouth.