Return to the valley

I visited the lake in the valley for the first time in six years tonight from 5pm to 9pm.

All quiet down there not a soul about, only the steady.hum of the generator keeping the trout fattening pond aerated disturbing the tranquillity. The were no anglers on the trout lake
Even the birds were noticeably quiet, except for very early on a buzzard was mewing around the woodland behind me.
Apart from that no obvious change. It appears the lake bird life has done well though with a family of young mallards, I counted 13 parading around, and a good show of young flitty moorhen.

I settled for a swim at the far end of the lake, the first swim I ever fished, next to the reed bed and lily pads.
There were still multitudes of rudd around,so I elected to fish the plastics, changing later to hooker pellets.

All this size

My first fish was a roach, followed by rudd and roach almost continuously before hitting my first crucian which weighed in at 14 ozs, no sign of growth as all that followed were about the same size!

Occasionally the ease of catching was interrupted by the carp tearing around on my light tackle, they were all around the six pound mark though.... for now.
Talking of carp, once again I was reminded that this is the only fishery I have seen carp tail walking. I wonder why they do that? Must try and get a photo, I need to be be quicker though.
So first trip over, not certain if I can stay later into darkness. Must have a word with George the farmer, as the access road does go past a couple of the farm cottages, so he may not like late travellers.
I'll probably have a dawn session next time out.