Well, we've had some rain lately! I got down to Golden Gates in the pouring rain and put on the water proofs. I wanted to walk around and find some fish but the rain looked set in for the day. To be honest there wasn't much to go on.

I'm not the type of angler that asks others if they have caught. I like to use my own water craft so in the end I opted to set up on the new south west wing in the open water end of the lake. I got the rods out, two on 6 ft zigs and one with chod fished with cell hook baits and that rod was cast to a spot some 45 yards out in the lake that I'd previously caught from in the summer.

I had just sat down when a mate turned up demanding a cupper. No sooner had I put the kettle on the chod rig was picked up and after a short fight I slipped the net under a lovely looking carp of about 18lb. A quick photo and the chod rig was cast back out and another 100 cell boilies were fired out over the top of the hook bait.

At about 10:30pm two carp rolled over 30 yards out. I quickly moved one of the zig rods to the showing carp and within ten minutes the alarm went in to melt down! I leaned in to the carp and took things easy on the zig due to the 9lb Guru hook link and size 10 floater hook. I manage to slow the fish down and quickly and I soon had it under control. Five minutes later I had a plump 30lb mirror in the net. I had a few photos and put her back.

Over the next hour I had two more takes resulting in me losing a 20 at the net and one that came off as soon as I picked the rod up. Both takes were on zigs. Feeling fairly fed up at the loss of two carp I went to sleep around 1am (with the hump).

At first light my middle alarm let out a few bleeps that had me ripping the zip open on the sleeping bag. I was just thinking it was a liner when the rod tip pulled down and the spool on my reel was in overdrive. I walked down to the rod and the line was being ripped from the spool and at one point I was worried the carp was going to cross the lines of the angler next to me! The harder I pulled the harder the carp pulled. However, I somehow managed to turn the carp. Over the next 15 minutes the carp tore up and down and if I had lost it I would have thought it was one of the big commons so when a lovely dark mirror rolled on the surface I was really surprised. I slipped the net under the carp just as the first rays of sun light hit the bank. At 28lb 8oz she was a lot lighter than she looked, but what a powerful carp! I was soon watching her swim off after a mate had done some photos.

It was two days later that I found myself standing amongst thousands of other people in London at the start line of the London Marathon. I won’t bore you with too much of this but I’ll tell a few highlights:

The first 13 miles went past so fast I was pulled along by crowds and was really enjoying the run. I was somewhere around the 19 mile point when the wall hit me like a ton of bricks, at 23 miles I was now running like I'd been to the toilet in my pants and was thinking, ‘Why the hell did I start this?’ At 25 miles every bit of my body was hurting but my right knee was in major pain and I'd seen at least ten people passed out at the side of road getting care. The end was now in site and who should come running past me but some guy in a teddy bear suit! No way was I going to be beaten by a 6ft Teddy. I had to find that last bit of energy to get over the line before him. Great almost beaten by the care bears!

My time was 4 hours and 30 seconds. Most importantly I raised about £2,000 for St Lukes Hospice. Lots of that was thanks to the donations of carp anglers on Facebook and friends at work so a massive thankyou for getting behind me!

So it's now the day after I'm hobbling about thinking I wouldn't mind getting under the 4 hours mark! I've only got a week till Golden Gates shuts and one more fish would be nice. I'll let you know what goes on before the season ends.

Till next time

Dave Levy