We were spring cleaning the cabin and putting the final touches together when our first guest’s for the season arrived namely Samantha Collins Ratcliffe a tf gear consultant and her husband Scott. The weather had remained constantly hot to my amazement over the last 3 weeks so I thought there was a good chance of putting some nice fish on the bank, as there had been no frosts for over a month and day time temperatures had been soaring to nearly 30 Celsius.

Indeed the fish had been crashing all over the lake especially on the plateaux prior to Scott and Sams arrival. It was like being at Windsor safari park again watching the dolphins jump as I did as a boy, only with carp, as I worked away preparing the swims.

Scott and Sam opted to fish swims 5 + 6 respectively following our inspection of the lake. I opted to test fish swim 4 as it had newly been constructed and never fished. It consists of a large over hanging tree with plenty of surrounding lily pads, gravel margins, silt patches, weed beds and hard clay spots with a depth of one meter in the margins and an average depth in the swim of 2 meters. It a real carp anglers dream with so many carpy looking spots. The rods were positioned and I baited quiet heavily with my own frozen bait which I roll on site.

As I sat back listening to the birds singing in the tree tops one of my rods began bouncing on the pod and the high pitched scream signalled a fish. I had only been fishing for just over an hour, what a start I thought.

After a spirited fight I put the net under a good looking mirror of 25 lbs she was slipped quickly back and shortly after another followed this time a common of 22 lbs. Not bad for 2 hours fishing the next day I planned to do the night!

Great weather greeted me again when I woke, unfortunately work was on the agenda for the day but in the evening I could get the rods out for the night I couldn’t wait!

The rods finally went out by 7 pm again good beds of boilies were put out, one rod I was fishing in deep silt, one in the far margin on a gravel spot and one in a small gap in the weed bed. This was to be a truly memorable evening for me.

The action started after only 45 minutes the far margin rod was away as I bent into a good carp a smile light up my face. I quickly moved her away from the danger of the far lily pads and into open water where I safely playing her under the rod tip when I heard my other half walking down the steps ”got one she said” “Yep” I replied “almost ready for the net and it’s not bad either”

Just as I was getting ready to net the fish my second rod screamed off. I looked at Cheryl “grab that rod babe” as she picked the rod up and tried to hang on I quickly netted the first carp and took the second rod. Luckily the fish came back through the lily pads easily but again I knew I was connected to a good fish as I could feel it wallowing, an instant sign in my experience . I said to Cheryl to go and ask Scott and Sam for a net as I already had one carp still in the water in mine. They returned 10 minutes later by which time I had the carp beat after it had abused my arm a few times.

Sam slipped the net under the mirror which I could see was a thirty instantly. On the mat he went and as I slipped the hook out beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppppppppppppp, I can’t believe it 3rd rod away, this one is a real charger not happy at all to be seeing my side of the bank. Sam slipped the 2nd carp back in a sling as the carp had not been weighed or photographed yet and I commenced battle with a very powerful common carp. My right arm was feeling the worse for wear by now but I didn’t care… a hat-trick! I had never done this before in 20 years of carp fishing, I’ve had two on at the same time on a couple of occasions but never three!

Again Sam netted the common, we weighed and photographed this one first 25lbs of pure fighting muscle what a beautiful fish we all agreed. Next up came the one in the sling that I had a brief look at while unhooking it originally, a stunning big framed mirror and my first thirty of the year at almost 34lbs. I was chuffed and still one more fish to sort out and I haven’t seen this one yet!!

It turned out to be a scatter scale mirror again in pristine condition weighing in at 28 lbs 8 oz to complete the trio.

The rest of the night proved just as hectic taking 7 fish in total for 13 hours fishing. These ranged from 20 -34 lbs.

I fished a couple more evenings when Scott and Sam was here, just for 3 hours each session and added another 5 fish to my tally including another two 30’s. In total I fished for 23 hours and had 14 fish including 3 30’s with an average weight coming out at 26.…………

Truly a session to remember!