Having got myself setup with 4lb "eyestrain to knot" line, a waggler, a couple of garden pea size weights and a miniscule size 18 hook.. first task was to cast.
So I give it a few foot drop and an OHT, sending my float high into a tree over hanging the lake. Great start
. Now normally if your snagged you can just pull it out.. with 4lb line you have to talk to it nicely and tease it out.. which I eventully did as the float and hook flew back towards me at a rate of knots and ending up in the tree above my head..... I'm starting to think I'd be better off at home 
After a while observing Keith casting I tried again using a gentle "flick" and succesfully launched my float about 20ft away. Perfect !
Within a few seconds my float was dipping under the water and it was Fish On ! I was amazed at how much bend in the rod a 3" fish can cause !
This lake has swarms of small fish (Keith did tell me what they were, but I forgot.. red fins like a perch.. but not perch).... whenever anything touched the water, be it flys or maggots the whole area would bubble with life. Apparently this is good, its called ground baiting and gets the fish on the feed... not that they need it. Having a bite a minute is fine by me, without chucking more maggots out to encourage them even more...
Every now and then you could see some quite big carp swimming about (mirrors, common and koi apparently). They would go up to your bait, take a sniff and swim on past. It seemed alien to me that Kieth should know most of the fish having caught them at some point, "oh that big white one is quite shy etc) I did manage a 2lb common carp during the evening so it wasnt all bad
All in all, it was an enjoyable first venture into coarse fishing. I do like the style of fishing but would prefer a bit more of a challenge (ie something to deter the minnows or whatever they were)... I did say to Keith after that I felt I should of put a size 10 on and a bigger bait. .. to which he replied thats what he had been doing with a size 12 and sweetcorn or triple maggots... cheers then
I think next time I venture out coarse fishing I want to try a river, hopefully that wont seem quite so much like shooting fish in a barrel. It did cross me that the lake is probably over stocked for it's size, which although keeps the fish coming (good 3 dozen in a few hours).. it did become a little frustrating not having a bait out long enough for anything of decent size to find it !
cheers
Simon
But £60 a year is a fair price for a 12 acre lake and they will probably have other waters to fish aswel 
park lakes are usually free to fish 