Well, it’s been an interesting couple of days. With one eye on the weather, I had my gear ready for a quick overnight session, hoping to take advantage of the falling air pressure, and relatively warm temperatures.

Wednesday night seemed to offer the best conditions so off I went, full of confidence for someone on a run of 3 blanks. Setting up in the usual swim (am I boring?), it was hard to imagine the brutal frosts of 2 weeks ago - the temperatures were almost ‘warm’. My rods had been in the water less than an hour when I had a real screamer on the rod cast to deeper water. I picked up the rod and carefully disengaged the baitrunner to cushion the run of the fish, which was moving at some pace. Due to a sunken tree to my immediate right, I quickly applied side strain and moved as far to the left of my swim as possible. I managed to stop the initial surge and gain back some line on what was obviously a good fish. Even with my constant side strain, I couldn’t help but anxiously glance at the snag…

After a little stalemate, the fish steamed off on another run that bent my rod double and engaged the tightened clutch. I knew I was in trouble as it kited around to my right, and sure enough I felt the sickening grating of my line on the tree branches. I kept my rod tip as low as possible and released my grip on the spool in the hope the fish would run out into open water and free itself (this had worked the one previous time I had a problem in this swim) but sadly it seemed the fish wasn’t moving. After applying some pressure again, I decided to set the rod on the pod again and leave it with a slack line.

To cut a long story short, the fish never came out, and despite all my efforts it eventually got away, and I sat, gutted on my bedchair thinking just how powerful that run was. Even my twenty hadn’t run like that…ah the ones that get away.

I eventually regrouped and cast the rod back out, with the solid plan to walk my rod and net to the next swim if it went again - you’ve got to learn from these things I suppose. Whilst the wind battered by trusty Big Z brolly camp and the rain lashed down relentlessly, I tried unsuccessfully to sleep.

It was around 4am, when I woke to a single beep on my margin rod. Before I had chance to roll over and focus on the bobbin, it slowly rose to the top of the rod. Scrambling for my boots it proceeded to fall equally slowly back to the muddy ground. I continued to extricate myself from my bivvy to investigate, and noticed the rod tip twitching, so I picked up the rod to find a fish attached and trying as hard as it could to reach the bottom of the lake. It was clearly only a small one, and I suspected a Tench, but I was delighted to find a beautiful plump Mirror Carp of around 3lb attached.

Perhaps I’d gone from one of the largest fish in the lake, to one of the smallest but at least I’d broken my blank spell and gone some way to avenging the loss of the previous evening.

I also fished the following evening, but the temperatures were falling and the fish seemed to have switched off again, as I caught nothing but some much needed shuteye. So it was a crazy week, and I’m struggling to stay awake tonight, but as the last of the warm weather disappears, at least I have one more fish to my name…and more fodder for those long winter nights. Just how big was that fish?

Stumble it!