The week has began with glorious sunshine and the warmest weather so far this year. With little wind the lake is like a mirror under a cloudless blue sky. Indications are that the carp are actually getting ready for spawning as several male fish have been leaving a trail of milt on the mat. It also seems that way with the bulk of the 22 carp caught so far being the smaller males with the big girls noticeable by their absence. Plenty of 20’s up to 25lb or so but nothing bigger so far. Young Chris, a trainee gaemkeeper from Cumbria has set a new pb with a really pretty 24lb mirror and his friend Robert has also had a new pb in the form of a mint 25lb common.
Regular visitor Dave has amused the lads with tales of the terrapin that he reckons is swimming round near his swim !!! No one else has witnessed it so the mystery remains with Dave being accused of eating local mushrooms and hallucinating. We shall see.
Cumbrian Dave found a snab just off Sams swim and proceeded to dive down to find the culprit. We were all amazed when a succession of very old fence posts started surfacing and we finished with a boatload removed from the area. They are possibly over 100 yrs old, certainly smelt like it, and suprisingly had never been a problem to the anglers fishing that swim. Better out than in !!
With rain and cooler temperatures once again forecast for the next few days it is likely that thoughts of spawning will be put on hold and the bigger girls will start feeding….lets hope so.
Young Chris and his new pb.
Robert and his new pb also.
Le Moulin du Mée Weblog (www.carpdreams.com) 
We had cooler weather and rain forecast for Essex too, but I’ve woken up this morning to blue skies and sunshine, and a gentle warm breeze – so perhaps they’ve got it all wrong and you will be blessed, finally, with a decent spell of settled weather!
How have the new baits been doing Jim? (I noticed that big cat liked the maple fudge!)
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Both the new baits have caught well with little to chose between them. Not surprising as the base mix is exactly the same with just the attractents being varied.
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Well hopefully they will be hard on these by the time we get there – still won’t leave home without that pot of pineapple pop-ups though! Need to start tying some rigs later this week, do many people fish solid pva bags or is spodded bait effective? (the spod does seem to spook them a bit in fairly shallow water sometimes, or at least it does where I fish here)
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I would suggest not spodding Graham as it just creates to much disturbance. We will bait up by boat which is quick and the carp are used to the boat travelling around so do not spook so readily.
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Ok, that sounds like a great idea – cuts down on the gear we need to bring too! As newbies to your lake, I’m not sure of the etiquette here.. does a bottle of something cover boat hire? 🙂
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Well isn’t that just typical,those fish know that I’m over on Saturday. You had better tell them Jim to put all thoughts of spawning out of their minds until after the 17th or my gear will be missing a 70cl bottle of something only fit for human consumption.
Chris
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Well Graham………………..etiquette always demands a bottle of finest malt !!!!
Seriously though the baiting up service is just part of what we do to try and make your stay a sucess Graham.
Chris……….the above DOES NOT apply to you as the malt whisky is the price you pay for a friendly, happy, helpful fishery owner instead of a miserable old sod !!!! You should know that by now old chap !!
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Now that is Blackmail Jim!!!, and just to cheer you up even more it’s Torrential Rain over here at the moment but very Mild.
How are Tim & Dave doing? any more breakages to report.
Chris
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