A day's floater fishing with Chris Ball

Last week I received a message from my friend Chris Ball. I asked when he was fishing next and he told me he’d planned a day’s floater fishing at the Linear complex near Oxford the following day and that I was welcome to join him. I cleared it at work and with the Mrs and replied back that I’d meet him there at around 9:30am. 

I arrived on time but Chris beat me to it and was already walking around searching for signs that the fish would be in a good mood. I found his car before I found him, it was parked in front of Brasenose One, and the carp were heavily spawning in the reeds right in front of the car-park. Not a great sign but when I eventually caught up with Chris walking around Hardwick he assured me that there was no spawning activity, I think due to the deeper nature of the lake. After saying hello and having a quick chat we got the essentials from the cars and headed to the lake. We spotted a few fish in an early swim and fired out some bait. The fish here didn’t seem too interested but I decided to give it a try whilst Chris moved further up the lake. I made a few casts and had one enquiry to the hook-bait but after half an hour or so I moved on.