Had a call from Paul Golds who had phoned to me ask where he could catch some carp over 20lbs in Portugal - now I wouldn't normally provide information about where I take my customers as it has cost me thousands of pounds in fuel and 18 years hard work looking / fishing around the Algarve, South of Portugal.

But as a local Paul had already been trying hard to find bigger fish on his own, but as I have found, many of the more accessible waters currently only have carp to around 17-18lbs and having been catching these,  he was looking for something bigger.
He is also a good bass angler as well, taking fish to 14lbs on the west coast of the Algarve.

Joy: Paul had a one day trip to the small water I recommended and in poor weather had 3 good runs on single day trip in winter, not to be sniffed at, resulting in this nice fish of 26lbs which is just average for this water.

Despair:  - one other fish felt very good but came off during playing it to the net!.

Overall a good result for a day trip on a new water.