Despite the cold weather an early start Saturday morning saw me to a lake targeting roach.

After a quick look around I decided on a swim and rigged up using 2lb line and a small pole float positioned off the rod tip in about 4 foot of water.  Feeding regularly with sonubaits hemp and red maggots saw some good roach grace my net the biggest weighing 1lb 6oz.  My dad who had decided to join me fared slightly better with his biggest weighing 1lb 8oz. 
   
The wind strengthened and I decided to switch to the waggler, which brought a flurry of small roach.  Again the float sunk out of sight and expecting a small roach to be the culprit I was surprised when the rod bent over.  For a moment I thought I had hooked the bottom until it started to move.  It was obvious a carp was responsible and after much abuse from my dad who found the whole episode rather funny, 25 minutes later I slipped the net under a fish far bigger than both of us had first thought.  Weighing 22lb 6oz it was a nice bonus on a cold and wet day.