Apologies for the wind noise, there was a bit of a breeze...

The session was pretty slow during the day so I took the opportunity to get my head down as I was shattered after a brilliant session at Todber Manor the night before.

So I baited up two spots, slept for most of the day and got the rods out on darkness. The action was relentless but the size of fish was pretty small... Loads of sub 10lb commons! By midnight I was dropping so I baited up once more, got the rods in, set an alarm for 7am and crashed out...

The wind had dropped early morning and I was rewarded with two bigger fish within 30 minutes of casting out! Baring in mind I only fished for probably 12 of the 24 hours, I had 12 or so fish and was fully rested for the next venue - not a bad stop gap?!

Once again, all the fish fell to my custom 'signature' boilies in either 14mm or 16mm. So as always, massive thanks to Innate Baits, the boilies really did the business.

An early start saw me on the road by 7am, my thinking being I could beat most of the traffic coming in/out of Bristol and be at the fishery by 8.30am. Luckily for me, the roads were pretty easy probably due to it being the 1st week of the Easter break (where do all the cars go?!) and I arrived on time and raring to go.

Once I'd got my ticket I headed down to the lake for a look around and to see what swims were free. True to form, all the 'easy' swims (i.e. the ones you can pretty much fish from your car!) were gone which is fine by me - the fish know which areas to avoid! After a bit of a wander round, I settled in a swim directly opposite an island point on the nearside bank which was empty of anglers apart from a single swim right down the other end of the lake. With no fish showing themselves, I figured the island and reed lined margins was as good a starting point as any.

With the far bank being busy and it being the Monday after a sunny weekend, I wasn't in too much of a rush to get rods in the water. I had a feeling the lake would've had a hammering over the last 48 hours and I was more than happy to slowly set up and get the rods out at a leisurely pace, the main focus being to watch the water for signs of fish to either cast or move onto. After a chilly start it was rapidly warming up and my thinking was that if the fish weren't up on the surface, they probably wouldn't be feeding on the bottom till later in the day when it cooled down.

I decided to put solid bags to the island point and a likely looking spot on the island margin. With the third rod in the nearside margins, I set about sorting the rest of the gear out. Over the next 6 or so hours not a lot happened rod wise but I did start to see fish! They were crashing to my right in a bay past the next swim and out towards the island point. As I had the time, the marker rod came out and I mapped out the swim, making notes of the spots I'd seen fish and getting the wraps counted for where I wanted to potentially fish overnight.

At around 4ish, the rod out towards the island point ripped off - 1st fish on!

After a short fight, the 1st mirror of the session slipped over the net cord. A good looking fish of around 14lb which I guessed to be the average stamp in the lake. Video done, the fish went back, the rod went out on the same spot and I went back to water watching.

More and more fish were crashing in the bay to my right, so much so that I decided that it was worth baiting up and setting up one rod to fish that area. It was late enough in the day to take the gamble that other anglers weren't going to arrive and set up to my right or in the swim on the other side of the bay... From my swim, the fish were crashing between 12 and 14 wraps out, a bit of a chuck into the oncoming wind but completely doable with a PVA stick rather than a solid bag. So I popped the marker float up in the next swim inbetween 12 and 14 wraps, baited up pretty heavily with boilies, got a rod on the spot and waited.

Frustratingly, the island point rod produced 3 runs over the next hour or so and each one ended up in a lost fish! Time for a rethink as something was going wrong... I'd been advised to use small baits so stepped down from a 16mm boilie to a 14mm, dropped my hook down to a size 8 and slackened off my bait runner. I usually fish them pretty tight but I had a feeling the fish were getting bumped before they had a chance to run.

Speaking of boilies, this is probably a good point to mention what bait I was using. I've been a field tester for Innate Baits for a year or so now and had success where ever I've taken their quality boiles. However, this trip was a little different in that I'd been luckily enough to roll my own bait using my own custom recipe! We've been calling them 'signature' for the moment as the recipe is unique to the angler. My personal recipe was a spicy fishmeal base with tuna, chilli, robin red and a few other 'secret' ingredients. I have to say, the smell and colour was spot on, exactly what I liked and having had one fish already, I was hoping they'd produce a lot more over the next couple of days.

Anyway, back to the fishing! The adjustments to the rigs, baits and set up seemed to make all the difference as the left hand rod where I'd suffered the missed runs sprang into life. A nice fight later and a beaut 17lb mirror was on the mat, happy days.

As the island point seemed to be 'the spot' I decided to get the spod rod out and get some bait going in. The light was rapidly fading and I figured getting a concentrated bed of bait in the same spot before total darkness set in was a good idea. So 10 spods of boilies and hemp went out and I started getting ready for the night.

Having seen so many fish crashing down in the bay, I was slightly surprised I'd not had a pick up... As luck would have it, just as I began toying with the idea of a recast, the right hand rod absolutely steamed off!

Another cracking fish, a stunning mirror of 17lb.

And after that, the flood gates opened... I had my 1st common, an immaculate beast of a fish that was just under the 20lb mark.

Then a couple of mirrors, a scraper 17lb and a smaller 14lb.

It was getting relentless... If I wasn't typing up rigs, I was spodding, or tying PVA sticks, or mixing more stick mix... It was near impossible to keep all three rods in the water so I dropped down to two in the end as it was more manageable!

One thing that did surprise me was the unhooking mat iced up! I didn't think it was that cold, but with a clear sky and a pretty much full moon the air was very thin... Not that it seemed to effect the fishing at all!

I had another couple of smaller commons, a nice low double mirror and then a real supprise - a 15lb catfish that took me all over the lake!

By the time the sun came up, I was exhausted. I reckon I'd had around an hours broken sleep and the bivvy was a mess of tackle, old rigs and bait - too good! The action seemed to die off slightly as the sun came up, so I decided to bait up and rest the swim for a while while I watched the sun break the horizon. It looked like it was going to be another beautiful day.

The rods went out and I climbed into my bag completely knackered but absolutely buzzing. I must've been asleep for about an hour as it was full sunlight when one of my alarms sounded. To be honest, I really thought it had to be another anglers and it took a good 10 seconds for me to realise it was actually mine! I managed to blunder out and grab the right hand rod but as I started to steer the fish back into my swim, the left hand rod started to run... Amazing!

It's easier to say than do, but the advice is always to concentrate on the fish you're playing when you get a double hook up! Somehow, I managed to get the 1st fish in (a small common) and then grabbed the left hand rod to see if the fish was still on... The line was pretty slack as after an inital run to open water, the fish had run towards me and to be honest I thought I'd lost it. But as I took up the slack, it started fighting back! This one really went for it (or maybe I was just knackered?!) but after a hard fight a 20lb mirror slipped into the landing net. What a chunk!

It was with great reluctance that I packed down... My ticket was for 24 hours but after that session, I would've quite happily stayed on for another day!

A big thank you to Todber Manor - the fishing was fantastic and the facilities are top notch. I will be back, maybe to try out Big Hayes or to have another go at Little Hayes as it was just too good.

And a massive thank you to Innate Baits. The boilies really made this session and I can't wait to find out how they work on the next couple of venues planned for this trip.

But this Sunday was a scorcher and having got some new baits to try out from Innate Baits, I was super keen to get out on the bank. The only option was a sneaky overnighter as there were plans for the whole weekend and I need to be back home by 8am for work the following morning, a local venue was needed.

I've fished Windmill Fishery 3 times in the past and being around 15 minutes up the road (and most importantly, on a route that Bristol Water don't appear to be (yet) destroying with road works...) it fitted the bill. It's not the most picturesque water but it's slowly coming into it's own and with fish reported to 20lb with a couple of bonus 30lb (if you believe the website!) there's always a chance of getting a fish on the bank

So after a beaut afternoon in the park with the family, I loaded up the car and arrived at the fishery around 5.30...

...to find the lake completely empty! So many of the waters around Bristol are rammed pretty much all the time so it was a result to find I had the pick of the swims. Even with the choice of the whole lake, I decided to set up in the swim I've fished in on my previous visits. It's a cracker as it commands the canal running between the two bowls, open water in front of you and an island to the right.

The first job was to find some spots to fish. The first one was 12 wraps in front of me, right in the middle between the bank and the island. There's a slightly deeper spot there that I've had fish from before and it's a good spot to start. The second spot was in a margin bay on the island to the right, 7 and 3/4 wraps out. And the 3rd spot was to the left in the canal, again a spot I've had fish from. Although you can only use two rods, I always think it's worth having 3 spots baited so you can toggle between them depending on when you get bites.

With the weather being as it was and the fact we were at the end of a weekend (so the lake had possibly seen some bait?) I decided to go light on the spodding: 7 over the long range spot and 3 on both the short range areas.

I've really got into solid bag fishing of late so both rods went out with a bag filled with 'pimped pellets' and a Blueberry boilie on the hair. The pellets are a bit special having had a mix of various oils, powders and liquids soaking into them for a week... They smelt amazing, really carpy!

In the past, I've not had an early run on the lake and this session was no different. It wasn't until around 8.30pm once I'd set up the bivvy, got dinner on and sat back to enjoy the sunset that the bobbin on the right hand rod shot up to the blank! Initially, the fish didn't take any line and seemed to be attempting to head round the island point at the far end of the lake... However, once I'd bent into the fish it slowly began coming towards me and a short fight later there was a plump carp in the net.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get any footage of the fish as my video camera decided to stop recording. I've no idea why, it's the 2nd time it's done it to me and it's bloody annoying! So you'll have to take my word for the fact it was a common of around 16lb, which is the average size for the fish in the lake.

After the fish was slipped back, I had to have a bit of a rethink about the longer range spot as I had some new neighbours. They'd set up pretty much directly opposite me and were non too keen on me casting into their 'area' (I spose it was closer to them than me but then they weren't here when I arrived?!) With the light falling, I decided to bring the rod shorter into the bay but stick with the same bolie. I fancied a change on the left hand rod though and put that out with one of the new tuna washed out pink popups. They smell and look perfect: a good tuna 'hum', almost white/pink and 10mm in size. Both went out with a bag of pimped pellets and I set about getting to bed.

The next run came at pretty much 2am on the nose and I managed to get this one on film, even though in the rush to get out of the bivvy I forgot my head torch and nearly ended up in the water trying to land the fish ;) A mirror this time, again around the 16lb mark.

As I was up, I decided to redo both rods. As the right hand rod came in minus a bait, I decided to put both out on the washed out tuna popups. I don't think there are crays or nuisance fish in the lake but I have suffered from missing baits in the past... Maybe I need to look at bite indication? Very strange...

Luckily it didn't take me long to get back to sleep and I woke up at 5am to a stunning sunrise.... and a bite! This time on the right hand rod, again on the pink popups. This fish was slightly smaller than the other two, a common of around 14lb but it gave me quite a run around the lake, probably one of the best fights I've had from a Windmill carp. This one was slipped back and I crashed out yet again.

I was up at 7am to pack down (the new bivvy is brilliant!) and was on the road by twenty past, back home by 7.45am and at my desk by 9am. A pretty much a perfect quick overnight session!

I've not been on a 'proper' carping session for quite a while now due to my recent obsession with Pike fishing but with spring in the air that's all due to change. This seasons challenge is to do more overnighters and get some bigger fish on the bank and to make that dream a reality I'm gonna need to get out to some new venues.

I'd heard about Oak lake at Lakeside View Fisheries from Terry Smith at Innate Baits a year or so ago. It's 10 acre water down near Cullompton in Devon and from the info I'd managed to find on line, there are some fantastic carp to be had.

The lake has 17 swims but only 14 are in use at any one time meaning everyone has their own 'space' - some thing I find very attractive as crossed lines and casting into other peoples swims is top on my list of 'un-carpy' habits attributed to anglers of the carp fraternity. It's a new lake around 3 or so years old meaning there's not much in the way of bankside cover so most of my fishing would be at a reasonable range... which is great! Having stepped up my gear recently I'm desperate to practice my spodding and accurate casting. Wrap that up with 400 carp in the 12lb to 35lb bracket and you've got a spot on venue to start the season with.

So, back to the Saturday morning. Even though I'd prepped everything the previous evening, it still took me an hour to get on the road... It doesn't matter how much I refine my gear, I always seem to have loads! But good news was the rain had eased off and as I got onto the M5 my phone politely informed me that 'You are on the fastest route and your route is clear. You should arrive at 7.20am'.

After negotiating the lanes of Cullompton I finally pulled into the farm at 7.40am (Google didn't plan on a coffee stop...) and got my 1st view of the venue. Even in the grey, cold, windy and rainy post dawn it looked good!

The complex starts with Birch Lake (the 3 acre runs water) on the left and then Oack lake to the right which also has the onsite lodge containing a kitchen, seating area, shop bathrooms and showers. There are a couple of stock ponds behind Oak lake but apart from that, the waters are surrounded by picturesque farmland and rolling hills. I was beginning to chill out already.

Now I'm not too in the creature comforts when I go carp fishing (Sky TV, hot tubs and onsite catering is not what I'm looking for...) but one amazing service this lake has to offer is a quad bike with a trailer that Peter will use to get your gear to your swim - amazing! Having said that, I'm still a fan of barrowing around a little gear as if gives you a chance to view the water so while Peter set off in one direction with my heavier items, I set off in the opposite direction with my bag and rods on the barrow to my chosen swim.

Where to begin?! I had a bit of a plan in my head so I put it into action: stage one, get the bait sorted.

I'd brought two different types of boilies supplied by Innate Baits, the tuna and the rednut in 15mm. As I'd decided to go the washed out bait route for this session, half of each 1kg bag went into a 1 pint bait tub filled with lake water to defrost and soften up.

Next up, spod mix: super simple, 2 pints of hemp (again frozen solid!), half a bag of frozen sweetcorn and a pint of mixed pellets. A handful of ground bait to stodge it up and 1/2 a pint of lake water and this was left to bed in, with the only other additive being a good lug of hemp oil that would be added once things defrosted. I've been using hemp for ages now. It really compliments the spod mix and has the added advantage of putting up a slick when the fish graze over the bait. It's also usable all year round as it doesn't gloop up like many fish based oils.

And finally, where to put the rods? I had a big expanse of open water to my left, the island point directly in front of me and more open water the right. As swim 10 to my right had two anglers already in it, I decided to concentrate my efforts on the island fishing both rods on a baited area.

It was semi pointless getting the marker rod out, the wind was so strong that accurate casting was going to be a big challenge. So instead I used a single rod, casting to a island and slowly clipping the line up until the lead fell about 1/2 a rod length from the far bank. Although I wasn't getting a 'donk' on the lead (the lake bed is a soft, karki coloured mud) the drop felt pretty good, I'd estimate 5ft bang on the island shelf, dropping a little bit deeper at the 1/2 a rod length mark. A channel perhaps around the island? Sounded good for a bait.

The cast was exactly 9 1/2 rod wraps and that put a bait to the right of the island point. The other rod was 11 rod wraps and that landed the bait into a little bay on the left hand curve which was almost sheltered from the wind. I figured I'd vary the wraps every other cast to move the bait forward and backwards.

Now 9 1/2 wraps is by no means a 'big' cast' but with the cross wind, it was bloody difficult! After two failed attempts for each rod I managed to get the baits where I wanted them, both with PVA bags of pellets, boilie crumb and one of each different boilie on the hair and then got about spodding out some bait. Again, the cross wind played havoc with the accuracy and of the 10 spods I put out over each bait, I'd say 4 landed bang on the money...

I watched the water like a hawk over the next 10 hours, only recasting my baits 3 times a piece and topping up the swim with a trickle of bait either with the spod or catapult. The rain stopped and the sun came out but that cold wind was a shocker...

With nothing to report I got dinner on the go and then re did the rods for the night, finally getting my head down at around 9pm. I set an alarm for midnight and drifted off to sleep...

But it wasn't to be. I woke the following morning around 8am feeling slightly dejected. It was a bright morning but that wind was still strong. So I decided to reel in, take a walk to the lodge to do my washing up, get breaky from the car and catch up with the other anglers. As it turned out, the fella to my left had got one during the night! We had a good chat about this and that (he recognised me from my YouTube videos!) and by the time I'd got back to my swim. it was around 9.30. The rods went out, the breaky went on and I sat back to watch the water.

The other thing I was watching was the weather: it was sunny now but set to chuck it down around 1ish. As I looked round the lake, I noticed that several of the previously ocupied swims were empty and a plan began to form in my head. There was little point plugging away at this swim, if the fish weren't here in the windy conditions yesturday, they probably wouldn't be here today. So my plan was to get the bulky gear packed down, get it back to the car before the deluge and then treat the rest of the day as a short session, maybe trying a couple of swims rather than staying put.

After a tour of the lake swims 15 and 16 tickled my fancy. 16 Was directly opposite me at the other end of the island but 15 had access to the island point and, with a beefy cast, access to a sheltered bay near the island.

The left hand rod out to the island bay was more off a challenge. After 2 test casts I worked it out to be 14 wraps - far further than I'm used to fishing! This was going to be my 'all in' spot and I set about dumping 10 spomb fulls of my spod mix on the spot. Luckily for me, the wind had dropped making things a bit easier and 7 of the 10 spombs landed on the spot. Next up was the rod: this went out with a solid bag of pellets, a big glug of hemp oil and a tuna boilie on the hair. Amazingly, I got it on the spot 1st chuck! Happy days.

Interestingly, the angler who'd spent the morning a couple of swims to my right in my old spot suddenly leapt in to action and next think I knew, he had a fish on the mat! Amazing result as when I'd spoke to him earlier, he was saying he'd been down every Sunday for the last 7 weeks and not got a thing...

By this point the weather had completely changed again. The wind had gone, the sky was grey and threatening rain and the temperature had gone up a bit making it feel almost muggy. I was fair bushed so decided to shelter from the rain and get my head down for an hour before waking up to move the rods or get ready to make a run for home...

I'd been dozing for around 20 minutes when out of the blue, the bobbin climbed on the left hand rod in the island bay... As I came to my senses, the clutch started to scream and the rod tip started to pull round to the left into open water.... FISH ON AT LAST!

The moment I had the rod in my hand I could tell this was a decent fish. Half asleep, legs shaking I slowly pulled the rod tip round in a low arc, trying to direct the fish and bring it up to the surface. After 10 minutes or so it was slowly coming into the near margin where it decided to kick off a bit! But in the end, it slipped over the net cord and I gazed down into the net to see an absolute (well, by my standards!) monster splashing around in the shallows.

After a bit of mucking around with weigh slings and cradles I managed to weigh and get a good look at the fish. It was a thick set mirror of 24lb on the nose and I was buzzing! I've not held a fish this size up for the camera before and it's actually not as easy as it looks! But I managed to get some snaps, a bit of video and get the fish slipped back.

After that, there was no chance of sleep, the adrenalin was still flowing. So I got the rods out for what would be the final hour or so of the session and sat back to chill for a bit. Interestingly, a group of anglers on the far back on the other side of the island gave a shout they were into a fish! So that was the remaining three anglers on the lake all catching within 20 minutes of each other... A really short but productive feeding spell!

There were a lot of thoughts floating around my head as I packed the gear down. I'd been saved from a blank by my new personal best Mirror Carp and had a great time. There are a million things I'll do differently next time, including hopefully getting down during the week (when they allow 3 rods!), being more mobile, getting more accurate with the spod at range, being less active during the day and more active at night... the list goes on!

Can't wait for the next trip. I noticed on Facebook that a 29lb mirror came out during the week so that's something to aim for!

But magically there was a gap this Friday with child one out on a sleep over and no plans for the Saturday! Weather wise, it wasn't looking too clever: the rain was set to kick in around 2am, getting heavier around 4ish and then petering out in the morning... But what the hell! It's rained pretty much every session I've been out on in the last 2 months, so why should this trip be any different?!

I decided on Windmill Fishery out on Henfield Road, heading out of Bristol towards Westerleigh. I'd fished there for the 1st time back in June and had a good session. It's not an easy lake but in a way, that's what I fancied: somewhere that's a bit of a challenge where I could push my self a bit and get a decent nights sleep.

Due to work, I didn't get to the fishery until 7pm and the sky was already darkening. The lake was completely deserted... Result! I had the place to myself ;)

As it's not an easy lake I decided to hedge my bets and head to the swim I occupied on my last trip. It'd done me well on that session with three fish coming out. The spot itself is right in the middle of a junction that the canal joins the thin end of the lake into the 'bowl' with the island at the larger end. As there's not much in the way of features (the margins are impossibly shallow) it made sense to pick a swim that commanded a lot of water and therefore options. It also meant I didn't need to do any feature finding as I'd already mapped out the swim and knew the depths and spots where fish had come from before. The good news was the water level (a real problem on this lake) was up at a reasonable but still not full level and that meant the deeper holes I'd found before would be deeper still and would (hopefully) still be a holding point for the fish.

It was a bit of a rush to get the rods out and the swims baited before darkness descended - the long summer evenings are going and it was pretty much completely dark by 7.45pm... But I've set the bivvy up in the pitch dark before and the gathering rain clouds where an incentive to get the job done quickly ;)

I was pleased with the set up and everything felt good for a bite: one rod went out with a Sticky Baits 'The Krill' boile in a PVA bag of pellets to the swim directly in front of me towards the bigger bowl in the lake and the 2nd rod went out in the canal with a small white popup, again in a PVA bag of pellets and hemp oil. A few scattered freebees around the spots and that would do it.

So I got my head down!

For once the weather report was spot on and the rain started at pretty much 2am on the nose. I'd had liners all evening with nothing more than slight twitches on the bobbins but at 2.30am the bowl rod signaled a dropback bite. I blundered out of my bivvy and managed to get to the rod to see the bobbin hit the deck and then... nothing. I couldn't see anything in the water in the dark so I had no idea where the line was so I took a chance, picked up the rod and stuck into thin air! A bit of frantic winding later and I connected with the fish who must've picked up the bait, hooked itself and then instantly run towards me and then right down the canal!

To be honest, I don't think it'd realised it was hooked until I put some pressure on the rod at which point it kicked off and began to put up a fight. It's always exciting hooking into a fish in the dark as you've no real idea of what you've got until its on the mat. This one was certainly 'plodding' which is always a good sign. After a bit of a stumble down the bank and a few lunges at the net a beaut mirror carp slipped into the net! Start to finish, it could only've been 10 minutes at most but when you go from fast asleep to putting what felt like a good fish on the bank, it's pretty exciting!

The fish turned out to be an in pristine condition mirror carp that took the scales round to 17lb - not a bad start to the session ;)

One thing that struck me was how large the mouth was: you could've fitted a tangerine there!

Fortunately for me, the fish had been kind enough to come in a gap in the rain. But by the time I'd slipped the fish back, set about getting the rod back out, rebaiting and getting back to bed it was hammering it down...

After a good few hours kip I had another another drop back bite at around 5am, just as a bit of light came in to the sky and the rain stopped again. This was from the same spot out in front of me, again on the Krill boilies. As with the last fish, it zoomed off down the canal and after a short scrap a nice 15lb common was sat in the landing net.

It actually looked like it was going to be a nice morning as there was a real orange glow in the sky over the lake. But it soon turned steely grey and as before, by the time I'd sorted out the rods again it was chucking it down. But having had two fish, I wasn't too bothered! In fact, it was great to crawl back into the sleeping bag and fall asleep again...

I woke up again around 9ish after the canal rod had registered a few beeps. Shooting out of the bivy to check the rod, I noticed that the tip was springing back and forth - an aborted take? Around 10 minutes later it seems the fish came back for another go as the rod just screamed off! This time though, rather than skooting down the canal, the fish headed out into open water towards my other spot.

This fish was very angry and put up the best fight of the three that came out in this session. Another 15lb common, too good ;)

The sun came out after that and the bites dried up with it. I packed down in the sunshine and left around 11ish having had a brilliant session: a perfect mix of much needed sleep, relaxation and some cracking fish!