I got to the first swim, aptly named 'the beach', and literally dumped my gear, so I could have a quick stroll of the lake. After walking round, I noticed fish activity in three areas; cruising fish in the shallow end of the lake, bubbles towards the deep end, and carp revealing their heads and shoulders towards the centre of the lake. As this seemed to be somewhat of a hot-spot for the fish to be, I put my gear in a nice double swim in which I could access most of the points that I wished. After I catapulted a liberal amount of Nash Scopex Squid out, I also chucked a few method balls down to my left, as there was a set of pads, which to my knowledge, most other anglers ignored, as it was 'to close' to where they were fishing.
 
I set up a method on one rod, consisting of Nash Method mix, crushed boilies, pink salmon, sweetcorn and some salt and pepper. This was soon cast to pads, with a handful of boilies chucked over the top also.
 
On the other rod, I set up a Nash inline lead with about 1m of leadcore, and a nice blowback rig with a long hair, capable of holding to 15mm baits with ease. I did just this, and I also added a 5 bait stringer, hopefully to fool one of the carp into dining on my little bed of munch. After much leading around, I identified a gravel bar roughly 20 feet from the bank. I cast my bait there, and was confident with both setups, and their whereabouts.
 
After a long, wet couple of hours, my persistence HADN'T paid off. I recast the method, put a stringer on my other rod, and I stared. I saw no fish activity whatsoever. I reeled in my method, and went for another walk.
 
As I approached the shallows, I saw a man fishing what looked tight to reeds, with another rod out in the middle. I left him to it, as I heard some extremely loud snoring. I then went straight to deep end, missing out the middle part of the lake, as I saw a nice fish crash on the surface. After looking for about 10 minutes, I went back to the swims which I had missed out, which were straight opposite my swim. I stood, unintentionally ignoring the lake, but looking at my setup from this side of the lake... my bivvy was wonky. I quickly returned to the lake, and I looked in the margins, to try and find evidence of fish. There was an overhanging tree in this swim, and it looked to be about 4 feet deep, as my eyes scanned along the margins, the closer I got to the tree, the harder I found it to see the bottom. It must get deeper under the tree.
 
When I got back to swim, I instantly saw a carp crash about 3 quarters of the way out. I cast my stringer straight on its head. I sat back, and started drifting off, when an almighty roar came from my Neville. I was finally into a carp! This lake was not famous for the size of its fish, as its lake record was a scraper 25, but the fish were old, dark and in perfect condition. The lake though had maybe twenty fish over 20 pounds, which was good enough for me.
 
Once I got the fish in, I was buzzing that I had managed to winkle a carp out of this notoriously hard lake. It went 12 pound on the scales, by no means big, but it was a mint conditioned common, still with its curtain, most likely uncaught, as this water is still under investigation from a few carpers. I called my dad, and he came down just after work.
 
I was staring at the far margin when he arrived, and I said to him, " can you see that tree branch moving?". The tree was obviously slightly submerged, and I thought I could see it knocking. I had to put a bait there, especially as I saw a massive swirl right underneath it shortly afterwards.
 
It was a difficult cast, maybe 50-60 yards, and there was a little hole in the tree, and if I could place my bait there, I had to be in for a chance. I put another stringer of Scopex Squid on, and I cast it... straight under. Yes!! I was so glad I got it there, and my dad being a big head, said it was just an average, run of the mill cast...
 
I placed the rod on the alarm, turned to get a drink, and it was off. That was quick!
 
I played what felt like a nice fish for about 10 minutes. Half way through the fight, it kited hard right and entered the only set of pads in that direction... nice.... but to my amazement, this donkey shot straight out the other side. Result!
 
Once I eventually got the fish in, I knew it was a 20. now I was really buzzing! My dad put it in the sling, I hoisted it in there air, and he read out the weight;
 
" 24... 24....24... 24.2."
 
A new pb! I really didn't know what to do with myself. By this time, a few other anglers came to see the fish, and none of them had seen the fish before. It was one of the lakes originals, that was obvious, and the fish could have been nearly 50 years old!

My dad didn't know the carp either, which was amazing, as he has fished that lake for over 30 years! A new pb, on my first trip to my target water. Could it get any better?