dayvid

Rich , i wish ,,,,,, thats probably about £0:05 of Gold in the pan , now take in the the 900 mile round trip , i seem to at a bit of a loss 😄 
Great fun though and i shall return. 

Went to Scotland to do some Gold panning in the rivers and burns for a couple of days back in September. and yes Yippee i found some . 

I like the Anodized black swingers by fox , but theses keep doing what they are meant too.

My Personal Best is over 40lbs , my BEST fish is 23lbs 12ozs caught around 25 years ago i guess , i remember every thing about that capture as it was my first 20 and can still see it all in my mind , that fish will live in my mind forever.

Wish i could have joined you all , Excellent you all had a great time .

My Personal Best is over 40lbs , my BEST fish is 23lbs 12ozs caught around 25 years ago i guess , i remember every thing about that capture as it was my first 20 and can still see it all in my mind , that fish will live in my mind forever.

Wish i could have joined you all , Excellent you all had a great time .

I think it's fair to say none of us would be very good influencers/bloggers. Not sure why, but I think this maybe my longest write up. 
Sorry if I'm waffling on.
Hopefully one of the others can fill in some of the gaps??
So, we arrived Friday morning to glorious weather, carp showing all around the horseshoe shaped lake. 
A bit disappointed to discover we would need our own boat to get to the island swim. 
Walked the lake a few times, and did a draw. 
Surprisingly, we drew 1-5 numerically.?? It seemed a good omen.
In 2nd place I was lucky enough to pick one of the favoured swims. 
It had a bit of everything,  overhanging trees in the margins, 2 channels opening into the rear of the lake, off the back of the island with a long chuck of around 20 wraps.
Rods set up, time for the marker to find some spots. Oh!
Every chuck for the first 20 minutes plugged in thick blanket & Canadian weed. When I say plugged, I had to line the rod up with the lead and walk backwards??
This wasn't going to be as easy as I'd first thought.
Luckily it was clear in the channel to my left around the lillies, so put a bit of bait out & a rod on each side of the channel. 
I flicked around a light lead with 1 ft zig on the 3rd rod to try and pick off the fish that had been fizzing in the swim.
@kevtaylor went in next to me on the gate swim, with the road bank to himself. Fish showing at range, but not safe to fish for them due to the channel & island.
Rods out, set up camp, sun was out.
Just messaged the others how nice it was to do a bit of sunbathing & it poured down for half hour😄
We ordered the kebabs that Elmo kindly went to collect, had quick munch, beer and a chat. Then back to matter in hand.
Elmo had a mid double that night, fishing in the garden swim on the opposite side of the lake to me. Well done mate.
Next morning, no shows in front of me so I went for a wander. 
@chillfactor had a small tench & similar issues with the weed, that we were told was upto 8 ft deep!!!!
@dalej2014 was having a nap, so went round to see Elmo. Interesting to watch his approach with the boat and Deeper. As far as I could tell, the baitboat was a very effective way to fish this venue.
I could just see @chillfactorwith a nice bend in his rod, so made my way back to see his capture. Which turned out to be another little tench with 10 times its weight in weed.
Headed back to my swim with Elmo to find @kevtaylor bent into a lovely looking mid double mirror. Nice one.
We ordered fish n chips, delivered to the gate. Chewed over a few stories between us and thoughts for the night ahead. 
I had a lead around at the long chuck and found a clear spot. Put 2 rods out there and about a kilo of chops.
Woke up Sunday about 6.30, looked around. Beep, pause then a screamer, the bobbin hit the rod hard and I soon had the 19lber on the long chuck. It was an unusual scrap as the fish tried to bury itself in the weed. But I had a good hook hold and soon had it in the net.
It was a big relief having been in the favoured swim and not caught yet. Everyone had had a carp (or tench)  by then.
Elmo & @dalej2014 were heading home that day and everything went really quiet. The wind had picked up & changed direction. That was enough to make @kevtaylor & @chillfactor make the move to the middle of the lake.
@kevtaylor had quick payback with his mid 20 cracker. Well done sir👍& thanks for getting out of bed to take a few pics of my fish.
I didn't have much activity in front of me and considered moving, but felt it was silly to move having caught this morning. So I continued to keep the chops going in every few hours on the long chuck, occasionally a sprinkling on my margin rod.
The lads had spotted an otter causing havoc at their part of the lake at dusk.
I was woken around midnight to a screamer on my margin rod. Without my head torch I proceeded to trip over my other 2 rods and grab the screamer. I had a lovely bend in the rod, but something felt strange. Rubbing almost. I played the fish until I saw the surrender of his mouth out of the water. I couldn't quite net it??? I jumped in and scooped the net under the fish. I could then see that during the fight my line had wrapped around an overhanging branch. Fish secure I cut the line. 
Quick weigh up without my glasses looked around 14lb. Quick mat shot, didn't seem fair to wake anyone up for this little fella.
All quiet for therest of the night and morning. I had small fish showing on the long chuck, but no bites. Slow pack up and home for dinner time.
It was the first time on this type of social for me. It was kind of like meeting up with old mates after so many years on the forum. 
I'd definitely go again, take care gents and be lucky!

Ahhh the peacefulness of being alone on a lake. 

Ahhh the peacefulness of being alone on a lake. 

Ahhh the peacefulness of being alone on a lake. 

Ahhh the peacefulness of being alone on a lake. 

Thats artificial grass from some football pitch from the continent , its amazing stuff and doesnt get hot 

Ahhh the peacefulness of being alone on a lake. 

Ahhh the peacefulness of being alone on a lake. 

Ahhh the peacefulness of being alone on a lake. 

Just about to weigh a Carp and the second rod goes off , zip it up in the sling and drop back into lake , play second fish net it,     and then the third rod goes off , 
The next hour was spent weighing ,photographing and resetting rods back out .

Glad to be out.
 
Loads of BS at work & family,  so feels a real tonic to be here

Me and 2 others tonight. Heaven.

Trying out my new rods for the first time. 
They're a lot stiffer than what I'm used to, but definitely getting more distance. 🤞

This from Fenland on Monday, around 4:30 ☀️😁

He came with it hates it was all sore and rubbed in due to living in it. Not anyone's fault he really is a dogs dog great with people but can be very protective of me, very good carp dog to be fair he sees the swans off my margin rod without barking.
Loves sitting behind the rods