Having secured a ticket for a local estate lake I set about thinking how to tackle the first session.

With bags, bait, rods and reels in the car and about to set off, my wife said, “Why don’t you take Mel?” Which translate to ‘if you are having an afternoon off, take one of the kids!’

So back in the shed to grab the stove, kettle, mugs and hot chocolate and we were off.

As it was late March, I decided a pop-up and combi-rig would do the trick with the lake bed unknown and also I had mastered the Albright knot and keen to see if it would hold in battle.

Lake side; brolly up, rods out with white Mainline pop-ups and a little PVA bag of goodies – the nice thing about having a little helper was explaining what I was going whilst setting up, and this gave me time to really think and consider exactly why I was approaching the session in this particular way.

After an hour and one hot chocolate the inevitable question came, “Where are the fish and why haven’t we caught anything?” So to keep Mel amused I suggested we have little walk up and down the bank dropping Dynamite Crave boilies in where she thought the fish might be – under trees next to sprouting reed beds.

Another hour passed and the biscuits were disappearing fast, as were the boilies into the margin spot.

A change was required so I reeled in both rods only for a fish to show, much to Mel’s delight, on the far bank just passed our original spots. So we switched to a pink pop-up, because “it looks pretty” and cast the right rod at the showing fish. Then on the margin spot to our left went a part drilled out Crave boilie with some cork on a KD rig. The traps were set.

Within a moment the left rod ripped off and a near double common graced the net. Trickling bait in over the last two hours had paid off and Mel and I were very happy.

Having dealt with the common, I cast out the margin rod again. I have yet to master ‘the drop’ but I think the lead hit a fish on the way down and I was just putting the rod onto the alarm when the line tighten and I was into another fish.

This was a bigger fish and while landing it Mel shouted, “Daddy, the other rods is bleeping!” A drop back on the pop-up. With a second low double common in the net I reached for the right rod not expecting anything to be there. Winding down I connected to an angry low double mirror that was not happy to be hooked or share the net once landed!

My first every double take and double smiles all around.