I had a difficult choice to make last Saturday. Go shopping in the wind and rain, or go fishing. No contest really, so I sorted out my gear on Friday night and left first thing.

I arrived at a small local water at around 6:30 and it was blowing a hoolie wit gusts up to around 50mph and raining cats and dogs. Still I figured it should make for a quiet day on the lake (in fact I didn't see anybody else all day, other than the bailiff). It should also make the fish easy to find. A wind like this on a fairly mild day, and they were bound to be right on the far end of the wind. I had a quick scout around, just to make sure, and was right.

I got my bivvy set up in record time and pegged it down hard against the fierce wind.

A few handfuls of pellets and chopped boilies went in tight to the margins under an overhanging bush and another few went about 10 feet from the bank into a 3 foot wide channel I have fished to in the past.

I put a single Carple Steamer Lobster on a simple Snakebite rig and dropped it into the margins by hand.

The same setup went on to my other rod and this was cast into the channel. I was just settling into my Terry Hearn recliner when my alarm screamed and the line sped off my Shimano baitrunner on the margins setup. The result after a short but spirited fight was a 9lb 4oz mirror. A nice start to the session and it was still only 7:30. The next 3 hours accounted for a further 5 mirrors culminating with a fish of 12lb 2oz. All of these fish had come from tight to the margins.

I had not had a peep from my other setup, but I was confident that there would be some movement through the channel. However, as I had returned the 12 ponder, my micron screamed. I scrambled over to my other rod and struck hard. I knew straight away that this was not another mirror, as they tend to be strong but slow on this water. This fish raced right across the lake in just a few seconds. It put up a great fight, but I eventually slipped my landing net under a beautiful, full-bodied, dark gold common. It weighed in at 20lb 8oz.

The rest of the day produced a further 5 high singles - all mirrors again. I was soaked through to my boxers, but happy and satisfied with a great day. Around 100lb in around 9 hours. Mind you, that was poor compared to the £300 my wife spend in just 4 hours at the sales!