Carp Fest at the Park Lake.

 I couldn't call this post anything else. The last couple of morning's that I have actually not attempted to throw my phone at the wall on the 430am alarm have been great fun, ample chances and whether it be tentative slurping of the crust or mis-calculation of my strike has seen me achieve much less but a good return nevertheless.

 Even early on in the morning, long before the sun breaks the treeline the carp are all over the top, probably mopping up Daphnia and bread from the day before from the bird feeding public. The fact it is a public park puts some people off, for me it is a massive bonus, simply because the fish see bread and other foods like rice, chapatis etc all the time. This is effectively matching the hatch!

 Though these carp aren't afraid to eat bread there is more often than not a boundary within which they will have it no matter what, inside of 20 yards they are wary that it may be a trap, get past that invisible line of confidence and the takes can become much quicker and bolder, for me to achieve this distance I use a controller float ( at the moment these are the Korda Intercepter 15g ).

 It took a little while mind you to get my first take and it was in the shape of feisty 14lb+ common which was a nice start. That start didn't take long to get better either as I then managed on the second attempt a pristine common of 16lb 4oz, glistening gold in the early morning sun.

16lb 4oz

 Not long after that carp a breath of wind crept and made presenting a bait at distance became a little bit more challenging. The pieces of the jigsaw fell together quite nicely after fluffing my lines on three occasions in just twenty minutes leading up to my last two fish, before I packed away and headed off to work for the next 11 hours.

A nice old mirror of 18lb 13oz

My best of the morning weighing in at 22lb 2oz

 Not a bad haul for 2hour and 20mins :)