After a couple of hours at this swim with only skimmer bites, I decided to move to the other end of the lake, to another known hot spot, on the back of the cold wind. It looked reasonably promising, and I caught three small fish. While I was sat there, I noticed a dead fish floating on the surface, and recalled that some guy had told me that the lake had an otter problem.
As the light faded I started to get bites from carp, and had a couple on briefly before they spat the hook. Then I had an almighty take, the fish making a dash for the tree that I was fishing against. It felt big and powerful, and then it snapped me. If I'm clever I should learn a couple of things from this.
Firstly, it is a balancing act between getting so close to a snag (in this case an over hanging tree) that you are almost guaranteed to get a carp interested, and actually landing the fish with out it making it to the safe haven of that tree. Secondly, again, it is a fine balancing act between going so light with your tackle as to increase your chances of a bite, and your tackle actually being strong enough to land the fish.
On both counts I think I got it wrong this evening, and will need to think on my feet a bit more in future. Anyway, it was a good day, very cold, but things are looking up on the big carp front.
