I had to look back in my fishing diary from 1986 to help remember some of the details of this session. The years blur but the diary confirmed it as June 16th 1986.
As a kid back in the 1960's i used to visit this pit to catch the Roach and Tench it contained. It was only a few miles up the road just outside the village where i lived and a short bike ride would soon see me on the banks bright n' early ready for dawn.
So back in 1986 some 20 years on i decided that i would spend the first day of the season back beside it's banks, only this time fishing for Carp as a dozen or so had been put in a number of years previous.
It didn't take long to get my first one and by at 4:30 am i had this mirror of 9.12lb in the net, caught on a homemade popup over my liver boilies. Unbelievably i caught this same carp again at 8.00 am on a floater. In the next few hours two more followed to the same method. By lunch i had packed up, loaded my bike for the short cycle ride home and once again glanced back and said my goodbyes. I haven't been back since, but one day maybe...