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Yep. It meant more than the mirror I had the night before which I didn't photograph.

I tie the line to the dogs collar then throw a stick

8mm parachord is the stuff if you ever want to replace the whole stuff. Twice the frame length and width plus about a metre and a half is about right if you want it well tensioned.

So after the common I was limited to a couple of afternoons/overnighters due to a trip to Cuba with the Mrs, this took us into July. The fish I caught on this trip is an absolutely awesome looking kipper and was a bit dissapointed with the photos tbh (dodgy self-takes) but there you go. Enjoy: Since catching the big common last month I've only managed a couple of overnighters on the bank and while I've not caught anything I've put the time to good use through observation. It's become clear all this hot weather had changed the habits of the fish and while they've been easy to find in the day it's not been so easy to catch them in those areas. I had a pretty good idea of where they could be caught having watched their movements during my short sessions. On Saturday I was able to get out for another overnighter, only one car in the car park when I showed up, lovely...... As usual i found them straight away in a particular area but with the knowledge gained from previous sessions I knew that setting up on top of them was not the one. It really does take a leap of faith to walk away from a swim in which there's clearly loads of carp but that's exactly what I did, instead choosing to head towards the area I suspected they were feeding in. The swim I chose looked, for lack of a better word, completely dead, and I couldn't help but wonder about my sanity as I set up. I took advantage of the absence of carp by having a really good lead about, and after an hour or two I had the swim mapped and found what is probably the best spot I've ever found on this water; it was rock hard, clearly something had been digging around, a natural feeding area maybe? Confidence for the night ahead increased as did the amount of bait I planned to put in. Out comes the spod and 3 kg of boilie and pellet later I whack the hook baits out and sit down with a cold beer. I was a little restless during the day and evening I have to admit, normally I'd be up trees, on the move, looking, searching...... but on this occasion I suspected the hard work was done and I just had to sit tight until bite time.... around 5 - 7 am. As it got dark I saw a few fish moving which suggested that my thoughts on location might be correct. I stayed up quite late and at around 1 am I got my head down having seen the odd fish but not as much as I'd hoped. At 3:30 am the rod on the new spot signals a twitchy take and I'm on it in seconds only to be disappointed that it's a tench. The moon is almost full and the sun is threatening to breach the horizon already so it's light enough to recast immediately. Two attempts and it's bang on the spot. Back to bed. I'm struggling to sleep so by 4 am I'm back out of the bag just having a 'quick look' for carp (one of those quick looks that goes on for the rest of the day lol). I know I need more sleep but bite time is approaching and I want to see what develops. I see very little, a few tench, and I'm getting worried that my theory is completely wrong so doubts start creeping in.... wrong spot? too much bait? etc, etc.... until about 5 am when I see a carp pop its head out maybe 10 yards behind the new spot. And another.... And another.... The next couple of hours is brilliant, I see a bunch of carp head-and-shouldering behind my spot and they appear to be getting nearer. At about 6 am I see one of the real monsters nut out, defo a 40+, and I'm smoking like a chimney trying to stay calm. It gets later, and later and before I know it 7 am is approaching which tends to signal the end of bite time..... and the sightings are starting to slow down. It hits 7 am and I've not seen one for a while, I'm guessing my chance has gone, very disappointing, so I head back to the brolly to see if I can sleep. I lay down and.... BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..... off it goes! Into the waders and I hit it - straight into the weed and it's locked up. I've just moved to drop off leads however (don't normally like to drop them but a lot of fish are being lost recently so it's mandated) which helps no end. I tease it out with relative ease and pump it back. I have to say it behaves well once hooked and the fight aint spectacular, which I'm not complaining about with all this weed around. Within 30 yards it's up near the surface and I tease it over the absolutely savage marginal weed beds and straight into the waiting net. Sigh of relief, job done, get in! Peering into the net I see it's a proper looker, a very dark double row linear, clearly a male fish, torpedo shaped, long and solid. Good size too, maybe a 30.... It turns out he's one of the oldest fish in the lake, one of the originals, been fished for since the first anglers hit this lake, a slow grower that's been steadily increasing in size over many years. He's a rare one, a once a year fish at most, so I'm feeling rather pleased as you can imagine. On the scales he goes 30 lb 6 oz, the first time it's done 30, which adds to my good mood. The fish looks awesome in the morning sun, black down it's back, rosewood down it's flanks, and an almost mustard shade to it's belly. It's top half is like a fully scaled, as is it's front end and tail, with just a broad area either side of it's belly clear of these big golden scales. They really do not come much nicer that this, I'm well happy, so I take one last look before sending him back. The view of him snaking his way back out through the marginal weed forest is pretty breathtaking. Lovely. I hang around hoping for a late morning bite which doesn't happen so I go home. Job done, happy days, I bloomin' love carp angling........

After a break and now cominf to back to fishing. Im making the choice to not weigh any fish. Because that way im.hoping ill just enjoy the fish for what it is rather then the lbs and ozs? Anyone done the same?

We all like to read stories about fish of monstrous sizes. It seems every lake contains a whopper that a few people have seen but has never been caught. Some stories are told by respected anglers which gives them some credence, others by younger and more inexperienced anglers and the size gets higher by every pint downed! Twice in my angling experience I have "witnessed" fish that would make the record books but on both occasions I realised that all was not what it seemed. The first was whilst fishing a water in the Cotswold Water Park fishing on Hills Pit. At the time it was crystal clear and I would stalk tench by watching them pick up my sweetcorn baits fished on a float and well over depth for a bit of casting weigh. One day whilst fishing I caught sight of a fish coming along the marginal shelf. My jaw dropped, it looked absolutely huge, far bigger than anything I had caught previously. I watched it for a good 10 seconds and couldn't believe how big it looked. As it got closer, something didn't look quite right and then I realised it was actually two tench swimming in perfect unison but about a foot apart and they had overlapped giving the impression of one big fish. They literally swam under my rod and continued on their journey, oblivious to the near heart attack they had given me. The second was on the Throop Fishery on the Dorset Stour. Again the river was crystal clear and I saw so many big chub that day that 5lb'ers seemed to be the norm. I fished an area called the Highbank later in the day and it gave me a superb view of the swim, I could see every bit of gravel on the bottom. I put out a couple of droppers of hemp and corn and the chub downstream seemed to notice straight away. I cast out another dropper and a chub of record breaking size appeared from the streamer and made a beeline for it and ate the hemp out of the dropper before the current could take it away. My knees knocked and my mouth went dry at what I had just witnessed. Then as I looked closer, I realised that is was a silvery common carp probably just into double figures and I managed to calm down. There must be countless tales of similar events or unexplained mysteries that turned out to something more explainable, anyone else got any?

Corrr that’s a big girl 👍

I find I weigh the smaller species of fish Bream, Tench and Roach to the oz but large carp round it off. I weighed a large Mirror I caught in France on 3 different scales to try an get it to 50lb but it wasn’t happening lol so I rounded that off to 49 lb.

12lb tench jeez that much big huge

I don't weigh every fish, although I do weigh a fair few. Pike I tend to weigh if they look close to or into double figures, and carp on Bromeswell I weigh if they are around my estimate of 8lb, which seems to be an above average size for that water. Roach if they are close to a pound get weighed, and bream my figure is above 6lb. Tench, I aim for anything above 6lb, so they get weighed, and chub my figure is 3lb. In terms of pounds and ounces, and 'largest' fish or personal bests, the smaller species get accurate weights to the ounce, but carp and pike get rounded down. So my Alton pike this year bounced to 20lb 8oz, but I'll take 20lb as its weight. My largest carp was 33 and a bit, but to me its 33lb. Bream and tench are a bit of a mix though. My largest tench is 12lb 2oz, but if it goes 9lb and a bit, i'll take 9lb. Same with bream, my largest is 12lb 4oz, but I have had others that I accepted 12lb as the weight.

Must admit I weigh everything, I like to put a weight to a fish and I do enjoy every fish. Some of that is also down to the fact that the lakes I fish/have fished, the owners want to follow fish weights/growths etc so I do it instinctively. Though I've seen other anglers, mates even just slip fish back without weighing. If you feel that weighing a fish takes something away from the capture then that's your choice. Each to their own I guess.

Mine is like that, but as soon as she finds a job i do it, then they all build up, then as soon as I ask for something/to go fishing it's an OK. My motto is, sooner to do it, then it's done sooner 😁 I've only got to Jetwash the paths round house and finish front pointing(friend maybe paid to do this now).

Another day another stunner, great stuff yonny

Proper wood carving mate. Once again weight is immaterial. Result

The Beauty of my system is some goody-goody takes pity on the dog and untangle and disposes of the line... Everyone is happy I got rid of the line the goody goody is happy they’ve done a a good turn and the dog has had a run

Don't you have then reel the dog in though to get it to come back 😂