24 Hr Session on Peg 1/Peg 5 -Tue 15/4 - 16/4

In stark contrast to last week's manic session, this week was a bit of a "head-banger", although it eventually reprieved itself, to some extent, in the later stages.My early morning departure from a frost cloaked Sheffield, gave way to continuous blue skies and bright sunshine, albeit with an accompanying chilly wind, that didn't abate for the whole session (classic high pressure conditions).Instead of putting my trust in proper observation and water-craft , I opted immediately for the Capybara Peg 1, simply because it was now available and I fancied something a bit different.Also, I figured that the carp would be sunning themselves in the warmer, shallow water during daylight hours. This turned out to be an elementary mistake - had I done my homework correctly I would have discovered that Dave had ended a very successful 6 day session in there, on only the previous day. It seems that the fish had been well and truly 'hammered' (an impressive 51 runs) and had shown their distaste by retreating to the more protected inner sanctuary of the central islands. Although the occasional carp betrayed it's presence by raising it's head above the waterline, such activity was well beyond the confines of safe angling. To have put a bait into such areas gave no realistic chance of landing a carp and would have resulted in the inevitable snagged/lost carp, a risk I was not prepared to take!Anyway, the outcome of my cautious approach, was that by 4.00 pm my carefully and safely placed baits had prompted no action whatsoever and a move, seemed like the only sensible option.So, by 5.00 pm I was set up in Peg 5, with three rods splayed out across the patch. After a wait of nearly 2 hours and just when I was resigning myself to a blank session, a twitchy take on my left hand rod resulted in a 6 lb 10 oz linear. Three more singles graced my landing net (5 lb 10 oz mirror, 7 lb 0 oz common and 3 lb 12 oz common) before anything bigger came my way. In fact at 2.00 am I had just put my rod back in it's rests and started putting out boilies with a throwing stick, when it was away again, this time with a 13 lb 0 oz common that, after a protracted battle, eventually succumbed. At 3.45 am a screaming take and a heart stopping fight ended in disaster, as the energetic culprit crossed my other line and the hook pulled in the margin.So the final, hard earned tally was six carp banked and one lost."It's all well that ends well", so they say!

Best fishes, Kelvin