July2026 Part 1 – Phew!

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As previously mentioned I do not seem to cope very well in very hot conditions in this country so the heatwave we have been experiencing has seen me in doors with the curtains closed and fans on for most of the time. However I have ventured out on two occasions, both time to a venue I last visited when Gareth fished a junior match there and as he has just turned 40 that tells you how long ago that was! The venue is Devizes’ lake – Crookwood. It is off the beaten path somewhat and if you can brave the narrow lane with farm vehicles coming towards you it is relatively easy to find.

Tuesday the seventh sees me arrive to find a match taking place! Fortunately the opposite bank was not used and better still in shade! I settled on peg 56 which turned out to be about 4 feet deep at 10m.

I set up two rigs, a catch all rig involving 0.16mm Tornado to 0.14mm hooklength of same to a 16 and a heavier margin rig for next to the bush with 0.20mm to a 14. Floats were both home made, a “chianti” style on 10m taking a number 6 and 3 no 8 shot, the margin rig a BGT1 variant taking 3 no 8.I cupped in three balls of Swimstim green groundbait liberally spiked with micros and a good pinch of 4mm and corn at 10m. Within a minute the swim was fizzing and double maggot produced a lot of ghost bites with the maggot untouched- I suspected small fry chasing the maggot around causing the bite. Eventually I had two small roach, at which point I changed to corn. The float was still dancing around but now when you got a positive bite the fish were larger. I did also try expander that got interest but the fish were slightly smaller. I finished up the 3 hour session with the shade disappearing and a net comprising of 5 roach, 5 skimmers, 2 perch (one of 0-14) a solitary bream of 2-04 and a hand sized mirror carp that was returned immediately as per the rules for a level 6-00.

The following Tuesday I returned to Crookwood fishing peg 53, again in the shade! I Fished 9:15 to approx11:30 with the same approach although I only set up the same rig on the 10m line, ignoring the margins. Once again the introduction of bait turned the swim into a veritable jacuzzi!

For once I had taken my pole bump-bar and after two small roach and a rudd on maggot went on to the corn with the bump-bar allowing me to keep the float accurately over the feed despite the breeze. Expander was tried again and once more produced a slightly smaller stamp of fish. The highlight of the session was my first tench of the season a tinca of 2-04 which along with 10 skimmers (best 1-04) gave another level 6-00 total!

Still not been on the river and will probably wait until the rain arrives but will continue with High Penn and Crookwood in the meantime. I may yet get a hankering to give Viaduct another go!

June 2026 part 2 – Weather!

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I am going to stop mentioning the weather as the weather gods are not happy with me! Following the thunder and lightning at Viaduct we then get a period of red hot temperatures plus more thunderstorms! Basically June the 16th came, that magical day with the opening of the river season, so what did I do… I didn’t go fishing! Experience has told me the first day on the river is never great but allied to that we have a river that is very low with hardly any flow and bright sunlight – a blank waiting to happen so I opted out and then the real hot period struck!. Yes I could have gone but these days I don’t deal with the hot weather in this country very well – China and Thailand seem to be no issue????

So my latter part of June has been curtailed to just one short visit to High Penn on the 28th. I had decided to set out to fish every peg during the season and as such set up on the west bank second peg in. I took my pole and fished 9:30 to 11:10 but the day did not start well with my 10m and 11.5m sections being jammed inside one another so it was 9m or not at all. No photos for this session and I had left my keepnet at home due to the hot weather so aimed to put any fish back asap. So plumbing up at 9m was just as it got deeper, I needed another section at least to be comfortably in the deeper area but that was not going to happen!

Fishing with a 1g Paster on 0.12mm to 0.10mm to an 18 with the bulk set 18 inches from the hook and a dropper 6 inches away from the hook I began with two balls of groundbait mixed fairly firm to try and get down past the rudd laced with chopped worm. Hook bait was double maggot and predictably the first fish was a rudd, after a couple more some perch appeared, switching to worm I had a roach and a micro perch at which point I thought to myself -“lets try something different”. I had in the past bought a series of jars of what are essentially flavoured and coloured translucent jelly pellets.

I have been using the bright yellow honey flavoured ones off and on during different sessions and have caught on them so I decided to give them an hour to see how they went. Immediately first cast there were constant dips as small fish investigated. Now I have to explain that these jelly pellets are about the size of a 4mm pellet and are perfectly round but after being in water for some time expand top a 6mm size. Eventually the float buried and a rudd came to hand. Basically I ended up with 6 rudd, 6 perch and 3 roach for about 1-04. Half of the fish were caught on the jelly pellets- including the perch!

In the meantime Gareth had made one of his flying visits to Vietnam as he had some time off for the Dragon Boat Festival in China. He visited the same place as previously and between having a nap and fishing for part of the second day racked up 21 hours of fishing time and caught 21 fish.

The first session, another 6 were taken in the second shorter session.

Bait for the non-predators were either stale cake from a bakery molded around the hook or if fishing up in the water the cake was used on the float feeder and rice paper on the hook, predators were taken with fish chunks.

Must make more of my time in July!

June 2026 Part 1 – It’s summer?

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June kicks off with me driving down to Viaduct for a Tuesday open on Campbell. Now before we start I have to admit I was under no illusions that I would struggle against the regulars but I wanted to see if fishing Chinese paste in a match would produce! Draw puts me on 131, all alone with nobody I can see on my bank as there is a bush blocking the view some 40m away – yes I had a lot of water!

Look carefully at the weather in the photos – it lasted for about an hour then we had thunderstorms, hail, driving monsoon type rain. Fortunately in one respect the wind came off my back but left me with the only water without ripple on the lake! At the end of the match I had 2 inches of water in my bucket! Anyway I managed a couple of skimmers and a carp at 10m fishing paste with a Chinese float (bottom end only) before the heavens opened. The right margin looked inviting but produced a solitary bob, the left margin gave me a carp three small roach and three further skimmers. All bar two skimmers came to the paste. I was nowhere to be seen in the match with the two carp weighing 13-03 and the silvers 13-04 for a 26-07 total, only about 150lb short! My kit took 4 days to dry out!

A week or so later I ventured out to the K&A fishing the short pound at the end of the Willows. I fished 10:20 to 11:20 on the whip, in the time nine yes boats went through so the canal was flowing like the Trent most of the time as the locks were in almost constant use. When I managed to get a little bit of still water for more than a minute, I got a bite, ending up with 2 roach, a gudgeon and 3 skimmers, one about a pound the rest small as you can see from the total of 1-04. Again double maggot produced whereas single was studiously ignored.

Saturday 13th sees me drive up to Meadowlands for a Maggotdrowners match on Warren. Peg 36 was to be my home for the day .

The left margin was alive with carp, coming right up to the platform, 10:30 match starts- not a carp to be seen! Basically set up three lines, a margin, one 5m out from the margin which was to be my paste line at 45 degrees to the platform and one directly in front at 10m. Groundbait went in at 10m and 5m line, while a toss-pot of micros and 4mm and a couple of kernels of corn went in on the margin line just past some inviting grass growing over the water. First hour was okay with 4 skimmers and a carp from the margin. m line on paste was dead and 10m line produced one skimmer. Decided to stick to the margin and added another skimmer and a carp. Things then went quiet and had a cast with a method along the bank into the corner bay to no avail. Put paste on down the margin and lost 6 foul hookers two pulls after crazy first runs then 4 “dinner-pate” scales. Managed to get a few more carp out before the end of a frustrating day! Nothing on the 5m line and 1 skimmer on the 10m. Weighing showed 8lb of skimmers and 31-03 of carp for a 39-03 total.

Monday 15th (new river season eve!) went up to High Penn for a couple of hours on the pole to use up some bait. Set up in the furthest peg on the west bank and found 8 -9 feet of water at 10m. Fishing corn on a 1.5g Paster float and 18 hook had a nice time with 12 roach and 20 dumpy rudd for a weighed 6-07.

Gareth in the meantime adds another new species to his list in China – a climbing perch.

May 2026 final part- the return to normality!

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So the return from the China excursion sees me catching up with the mundane aspects of life before heading off a week later to the Kennet and Avon at Semington in preparation for the return visit of Clive, aka Sidestream Bob. Main duty was to cut out two comfortable pegs but I managed to fish 10:05 to 14:05 trying a few different things. I was feeding 4mm meat and had not taken any worms or pellet, just maggots and the meat. Tackle was identical to previous visit with a 1g Paster on 0.12mm to 0.10mm and a 16. Two balls of groundbait introduced at 2+2 length and a few cubes of meat loose fed (later started to loose feed maggots) only topping up after any boat went through. Bites were fairly consistent with me ending up with 31 skimmers (best 2-04), 4 perch, 16 roach, 6 gudgeon and two rudd. An hour on the meat produced the best roach of the session at 5oz and a solitary skimmer.

So Monday arrives and Clive texts to say the traffic is bad and he is still 15 minutes away so for me to go ahead and he would join me when he could. I set up in Clive’s swim from the last visit leaving my previous swim for him. I had just finished setting up when Clive arrived, greetings completed I said I would watch for the first hour then start fishing. Clive admitted to being a bit rusty but was soon getting bites over the worm and caster laced groundbait and by the time I started he had got into a more comfortable rhythm. However, the canal was in one of it’s moody days and it was hard work compared to previous visits, nonetheless Clive managed to winkle out a respectable net of 3-14 including a net perch while I could only get 3-04 before two boats killed my action. I ended up with 20 skimmers, 8 roach, 1 rudd, 5 perch, 1 ruffe and 2 gudgeon.

Wednesday sees me go to High Penn for a brief session of 2hours. I had taken the seat-bag and a waggler with just maggots as bait and some left over casters. I settled in to the first swim on the North bank accessing via a fairly steep slope that in wet conditions would be problematic! The fishing was easy although the bank did not suit the seat-bag and despite making a makeshift stone platform it was very uncomfortable. The stamp of fish was generally good and the 21 roach, 31 perch and 2 rudd I estimated at 8-03 given I was doing a weight count in ounces (131oz) along side my fish tally.

Sunday sees me return for a couple of hours in the morning before it got too hot. This time I opted for the first peg on the West bank but took a seat box and pole for a change. Fishing at 10 m with the bulk set at 3 feet from the hook with three droppers below I fished and fed just maggot, no groundbait. The weather was having an effect as the bites were slower in coming but I still managed 18 perch, 7 roach and 5 rudd for approx 4lb.

That ended up being the last session of the month as the high temperatures were not conducive to me going out and fishing! June sees a trip to Meadowlands for a Maggot Drowners match and before then I have booked in to a match at Viaduct for a change of scenery and approach!

May 2026 Part 3 – will I catch?

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So Monday sees us back at the grass carp lake and this time we went on the far side bank of the first “lake” as the pegs we fished before were occupied, in fact the whole place was busy as it was the May Day holiday.

We collected a couple of boxes ourselves and set up in the same way with one notable exception – Gareth had now acquired a 7m whip that had been delivered to the apartment within 24hrs of ordering! We struggled to get a bite and there were no signs of bubbles like the last visit, the guy fishing where we had been last time had a few fish and when he packed up we decided to move into the area. I fished the same peg as last time and Gareth went to my left, away from the corner. Still no bites and then the son of the owner came around making his rounds on his electric cart and asked if we had any luck. On hearing we had nothing he got Gareth to show him the rig and he then proceeded to take the hook length off and put one of his own on which had significantly larger hooks. He said the pellets were right but use them for feed – he then got a bag of paste from his cart and made up a big ball of paste for us to use. He then attacked the rigs by shallowing up and reducing the weight until the float settled with two paste hook baits in place. He then put the depth back so the bottom ball of paste was just touching bottom. After this he did the same for my rig and used our pellets to put a couple of big handfuls out. Casting- we had been swinging out underarm but he said to cast overarm. The paste was soft but firm and stayed on the hook remarkably well, with the float rising when the paste came off. Now that is real customer service! As a consequence in the hour or so we had left I managed to miss a glorious bite, Gareth missed two but finally connected with a good fish that turned out not to be a grass carp but a black carp weighing 5-03 or 2.345kg which saw Gareth get 20 yuan back.

So Tuesday, my last day for fishing, arrives and I am on a two day blank streak! Back to Nanlan we went and although I missed two bites early on and Gareth four it was clear that the heavy rain had cooled the water as there were no cruising fish in sight. Gareth then managed to hook something that doubled his rod over (his was longer and more powerful than the one I was using) and ripped line from the clutch before pulling out. Apparently there are grouper over 100lb present! Heavy rain then started and it got busy as new fish were stocked and that usually meant a load of anglers rushing to the places where the fish went in.

Some grouper in the 4-5lb range were getting caught by sticking the rod under the walkways, releasing the line and withdrawing the rod then feeling the line for the shrimp being taken. Most were using light drop-shot style rods with multipliers so when they hooked a grouper the rods were bent double! The heavy rain continued and we were not getting any action so we decided to return back home.

After having lunch delivered to the door! Gareth took me back to the river where the visit started but this time you could see the bottom clearly. Fishing the same whip but this time without the isotope I had 90 minutes of fishing, 75 of them in the rain! It was interesting to see large circular craters in the river bed which Gareth informed me were tilapia nests. Indeed you could see larger tilapia in one or two, I managed to hook one of the bigger ones but it dropped back as Gareth was trying to hand line it up the wall! In the end I managed 27 small tilapia but saw several larger fish including carp just out of range. With the rain not easing we waited for a slight break in the weather and packed up.

Next morning (Wednesday) I was picked up by the taxi at 5am (10pm Tuesday UK time) to start the journey back home, 25 hours later after a transfer in Beijing I stepped through the front door-knackered! The traveling to and from China accounted for 12 806 miles while travel within to the venues took the total to a minimum of 13 000miles. Was it worth it – you bet! Putting the obvious family visit aside the opportunity to fish in a different environment using different tackle and tactics for new species will always be worth it. The blanks, well it is called fishing not catching and even blanking you gain a lot of experience and memories.

Now need to get back to catching some fish over here but I have brought back some paste I will try!

May 2026 Part 2 -Something different again

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Saturday sees a five minute car ride to a grass carp lake. Again we pay by time in this case the standard is 6 hours and rather than a refund per per there is an option to keep the fish or sell it back to the fishery at a rate per pound depending on the species. The lake was split into two by a causeway with a bridge over the connecting channel, the far part of the lake looks busy while the nearest half only has one fishing on it so we opted for the quiet lake and settled into a corner area. We had folding stool to sit on but the owner brought around seat boxes with whip rests for us to use. They really look after their customers as you will see later.

The owner even set up brollies for us when the sun came up! Now Gareth was using a 5m whip and I had a 6m whip, the water was about 10ft and we were using 1g floats with the standard double hook rig with grass carp banded pellets.

There was plenty of action on the other lake, particularly near the bridge area, after 2 hours I had a bite, the float bobbing and slipping away, a strike felt like I had hit a brick wall as the whip arched under the water and then came pinging back. The fish had snapped the 15lb braid hooklength! Gareth then told me that there were grass carp up to 25lb in the lake! At this point I swapped to a 10lb mono two hook rig and about an hour later the float slides under and I connect with the fish and after ten seconds the hook pulls – a size 6 !! A further hour passes Gareth misses two bites and I get another bite only for the 10lb hooklength to snap!!! With little more than an hour left Gareth sets up a 3m whip to fish paste in the corner margin with a dibber UK style in order to save a blank! That worked as he had four F1 type carp, a bitterling and a roach(?), he got me to have a go and a F1 type duly obliged so blank saved! The frustrating thing was that the fish were there and were bubbling all day although I did miss7 bites that may have been small fish.

Sunday morning arrives and we are off to the main river in Zhongshan, the Shiqi. So far all our travel has been done by taxi with impressive short waiting times for them to arrive. So we set up open end feeders on telescopic rods fishing segments of worm with a pink coloured groundbait in the feeder. We were positioned about 7ft above the water on a promenade with a flower box the water side of the railing.

Gareth was straight into fish and had nine silver bream and a small asp while I managed top miss five bites and blank much to the amusement of my daughter-in-law! That afternoon plans were changed as a major thunderstorm hit and moved along the coast and many venues closed as a result. We did manage at about 5:30pm to drive in their car to Nanlan to fish a salt water lake stocked with a variety of fish including bass. We started off with it being fine but about 8 heavy rain set in and although we continued for a fair bit the action slowed right down. Initially we were getting bites on shrimp- attached with a band and shrimp hook set up, with an electronic lighted bung float set as a slider at about 5 feet (the length of the telescopic rod I was using. For some reason my missing bites is increasing with ELEVEN bites on shrimp all missed, Gareth missed 2 while bass of 3-4lb were constantly seen moving around. We could have stayed until midnight but gave it until about 10 as it was so wet.

So Sunday was a blank day for me with 15 missed bites – must do better. As you can imagine I took some flak for missing so many, LOL. Last two days to follow- will I catch?

May 2026 Part 1 – Something different

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Before I left for China I managed a couple of outings, the first sees me return to the same peg at Rowde fishing the 5m whip from 9:45 to 11:45. Plenty of action with 17 roach, 28 skimmers,2 rudd, 2 gudgeon and a perch making up a net of 5-02. Double maggot accounted for speedy bites but small pieces of worm provided better samples but longer between bites.

My second visit was to high Penn fishing 10-11:45 on the first peg on the East bank. Tackle was the 15 ft (4.5m) waggler with a 4AAA insert waggler with a no 6 and two no8 droppers in the 10feet+ of water. Hook-length was 0.10mm Shogun line to an 18 hook and double maggot. I fed two balls of groundbait to start and 1 further top up after an hour with loose fed maggots every 4-5 minutes. This approach resulted in 19 roach, 21 rudd and 15 perch for a 5-04 total the rudd were small being 2 or to the ounce.

Wednesday 29th (morning) sees me catch the bus to Chippenham to get a coach to Heathrow, from there a flight to Wuhan transferring to a further flight on to Shenzhen. Then a prearranged taxi ride to Zhongshan to be met at my son’s apartment at 10pm Thursday. A lift up to the 11th floor of the 34 storey block to drop my luggage off, a quick change of clothes and we are off for a quick hour session on the local river!

Fishing from a wall about 10 feet off the water with a 4m whip and a BGT float with an isotope set at about a foot deep baiting with worm I soon had 3 tilapia coming to hand plus a Nile tilapia. I also managed a new species both for me and Gareth – what the Chinese call a big mouth carp.As we packed up we shone a light into the base of the wall to see a large carp- unfortunately or perhaps fortunately it ignored the bait!

Friday morning comes and I don’t yet feel the effects of the journey which was just as well as we were heading off to Zhuhai to fish a tilapia commercial. Now when I say it was different from ours it really was- firstly you pay the equivalent of £30 for 4 hours but you get a refund for each fish you catch, needing I think 8 fish to break even. You “draw” via a random number generator two pegs and you choose which one you fish. Given that situation Gareth had spent some time creating two sets of tackle as we could be at opposite ends of the lake, as luck would have it we ending up drawing numbers that let us fish next to each other. The rules were strict in the sense of maximum whip size was 4.5m, no braid or elastic and two hook system with paste the only bait allowed, but you could feed pellet. I was fishing a new 3m medium heavy whip with a 8lb main line to a two hook 4lb hook-length that was attached via a rubber O ring to a swivel on the main line. Gareth had prepared two types of paste in preparation, the darker one was allegedly for tilapia, the other was made from ground down pellets, both had additives .

The pellet paste mix
The tilapia paste

You start straight away as you are timed from the point you pay. Now the fish were to be kept in a 1m square net anchored to the side of your platform which had it’s own umbrella. It was a real experience watching the Chinese anglers fish but one thing that was universal was that if someone lost a fish the banter would start – “why don’t you go home, you won’t catch”, “Oh what a shame” you get the idea! The guy on my right managed to land two but lost about four, the one on Gareth’s left landed one and lost six! But they are tilapia I here you say they are small- oh no … average size is 6lb they don’t stock anything less than 4lb!

So how did we do? Well Gareth landed two and lost two I had 1 and lost one when the swivel opened up after which I dispensed with the O ring. The one I did land only just managed to get it in the net- an 8lber on 3m whip- yes it was exciting! Photos are difficult to take as my fish only just fitted in the net and they have spines and sharp gill covers and teeth! I just wanted to get mine safely into the “keepnet”.

Gareth's 6lber
My 8lber

At the end of the session they come around and lift the net to see how many fish and record it on their app. Payment is all done via phone apps and by the time we got to the lane out Gareth had been refunded for the fish caught. It had fished poorly compared to normal as the weather was cold for the time of year although it was mid 20s! The results of sessions are posted on Wechat and the best on the day was 14 fish, a couple of days earlier the best was 64 for an estimated 650lb!!!! Apparently the same individuals are usually in the top 3 for the day- it is their way of making money as apart from being refund for the number of fish they also pay the top three in each session a prize! The following day our fish would have put us in the top 10!

Part 2 will follow a grass carp lake!

Chopped worm my way

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Firstly this is chopped worm fishing for silvers not carp which is a different ball game but that is not to say that my way won’t work for carp. Chopped worm fishing can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be but I am going to outline what I do in three different scenarios- canal, lake and river. Before that -the worms. I now use medium denrobenas as it gives a wider variety of thicknesses but chopped lob worm in the winter can be devastating especially in very clear water.

Canal

This is in respect to normal canals not the deeper canals as found in Yorkshire or the Gloucester canal. I differ in many respects to most who fish chopped worm on a canal

both in terms of tackle and approach. I have two main approaches but both involve the pole, the first when the water is coloured can see me use a float of anything up to 1.5g depending on depth and tow with a long bristle- usually one of my Paster floats, the second when in clear mode (mainly winter) sees me using a 0.4gfloat with a standard bristle – the “Peatmoor”. Line in summer is 0.12mm to 0.10mm, in winter 0.10mm to 0.08mm, hooks are usually 18 or 20 with occasionally going to a 16 in deeper areas. Shotting is bulked with one no8 or no10 dropper(winter).

I do not set up a separate area for the chopped worm, generally I set up a line down the deepest part of the canal starting with groundbait and loose feed, usually not introducing any very finely chopped worm for an hour or more. When introduced it is cupped in on the same line neat (NB I do not wash the worms first) along with the medium it comes in. The thinking here is that the worm juice is soaked up by the medium rather than just being washed away.

The key element of this type of fishing is finding what size/thickness the fish prefer – size matters! I start with about an inch of the head of a thin

worm and if bites are not forthcoming I will use an inch from the middle of the worm before trying the tail segment. I rarely use more than an inch as I find anything longer results in the end being taken without the hook being anywhere near the fishes mouth so a strike at what appears to be a positive bite just results in the worm being pulled of the hook! I will try different thicknesses of worm until I find what the fish prefer.

Fishing the worm can fall into two distinct approaches. Bream and roach I tend to try and keep the worm still, perch I try to give movement by very carefully and slowly dragging the float either against any tow or then with the tow, occasionally lifting just the float out of the water and letting it fall back down. In both cases I tend to be 2-3 inches over depth. Worm on the canal tends to be viewed as a bonus fish approach but I try to use it to maintain catching while also having good chances of picking up bonus fish. One word of caution as regards feeding- I tend to feed the equivalent of two pinches of chopped worm initially and will not introduce any further until bites slow down/cease I then will cup in the same amount and fish that out while expecting fewer bites in winter from the second introduction, after this I will reduce the amount I put in as I find in winter especially it is a case of diminishing returns.

Lake

Tackle is similar but if there is a good head of bream I will mix micro pellets with the chopped worm 50-50, this is handy if on a commercial where they insist on the worms being cleaned first. Again the thinking is that the micros will soak up the worm juices as well as being an obvious attractant for the bream. Generally I will fish it the same way as the canal with the recognition that the depth is likely to be greater and I will try movement even after bream often moving it against the tow. Depending on the depth I will for deeper areas mix chopped worm in with the groundbait especially if there is a lot of tow on the water as I do not want it drifting out of the swim.

River

Depends on the flow! Basically two approaches, chopped worm in groundbait cupped in or bait-dropper used for neat worm. Often the bait-dropper is used after the initial feed as a top up. Floats are anything from 1g to 4g+ depending on flow and depth with line upped to 0.14mm to 0.12mm or 0.10mm in winter hooks anything from a 16 to a 20 depending on size of fish expected. I will try letting the float trot through at speed of flow, then try holding back and letting go and finally holding it dead still to see how the fish want it. Worm size is where it may surprise you – it stays at an inch even when after big fish on the river. I remember a winter league match on the Bristol Avon at Sutton Benger when I was well up the section (may even have won it) and had a bream, an eel over a pound and some perch . The guy on the upstream peg was telling his companion after the match that I was fishing just like him with “a dirty great big worm” but he couldn’t catch anything on it. I did smile to myself as the dirty great big worm was a segment from the middle less than an inch long!

That is my approach to chopped worm fishing, not saying it is right or the best way but it seems to work for me.

April 2026 – Only one

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After the debacle of Boddington I managed a short session on the canal at the Magpies on the last day of March. I ended up taking the pole and the Bowood box as I was intending to fish chopped worm. On arrival the short term moorings were almost empty but the rest of the pound was being used although I did manage to get a spot about 25m past the bench where there was a 20m gap between boats. I set up with a 6-8 hollow elastic (Chinese approx 1.6mm) and opted for a 1g Paster float on a 0.12mm mainline to a 0.10mm hook length holding an 18. Two balls of groundbait with chopped worm were cupped in and I started on double maggot which resulted in 4 small roach. A swap to worm for the rest of the two hour session sees me pick up 15 skimmers, 8 roach, 2 perch and a rudd for a 3-03 total. Several bites missed with them just hanging on to the end of the worm and one good fish pulled out of within 3 seconds, probably a better perch.

I returned a week later this time just with the whip and stool for a very short session (10:05 to 11:40), fishing 50m past the wooded steps with my usual 5.4m whip set up. This time I did not take any worm, instead concentrating on white maggot over an initial two balls of groundbait. The session started with a run of roach then the skimmers moved in, ending up with 11 roach, 11 skimmers and 4 rudd for a 2-02 total.

Moving on 6 days I decided to go to Rowde for a change, if I could park, as the lay-by is often full, with a back up plan of continuing on to the Magpies if needed. As it turned out there was plenty of room and even more surprising was there was nobody fishing on the left of the bridge at the foot of the Caen Locks. This was a new section for me so armed with the whips and stool I decided to give it a go.

Looking towards the flight of locks
My peg!

Plumbing up I found I had a lot more depth than the Magpies – about 4 to 4.5 ft. Fishing the same rig as before I started with two balls of groundbait with chopped worm then I had a quick roach or two on maggot before losing 5 on the bounce. This led me to go up to a 16 as I think the fact I was sitting quite high of the water was having an effect. I began alternating between worm and double white maggot and was getting plenty of bites but missing a lot more than usual. I lost a couple of skimmers at the net as I had only got the short travel handle that lives with the whips and It was only just reaching the water. I hooked into a much larger fish that felt like a proper slab of a bream only for it to pull out when almost at netting distance – the bream and skimmers do seem to have softer mouths. Anyway I fished from 10:10 to 12:05 and ended up with 6 roach, 21 skimmers and 2 perch for a 3-10 total.

Only one post this month as I leave for China on the 29th and return on 6th May, so will do a longer piece then!

March 2026 Part 2- I don’t believe it!

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To kick off the rest of March I head for the Three Magpies with the whips and pike rod. Well they didn’t like the sardine so no pike again but maggot on the 5m whip fared a little better with eleven skimmers six roach and two perch of 1-04 and 0-15 for around 4lb in total.

Saturday sees me driving up to the Glebe near Hinckley for a Maggotdrowners match when everything would count. I drew peg 8 which I have drawn before so I had a rough idea of what to expect and set up a feeder/bomb, a long pole rig with a 0.8g homemade slim rugby ball float on 0.16mm line and a 16 hook, a 5m rig of similar specs but with a 0.5g homemade float and a margin rig on 0.20mm Shogun to a 14 with a homemade BGT style float. I started off cupping in 3 balls of groundbait with micros some 4mm and corn on the 11m line and went out on the feeder. I also started with a single ball on the 5m line and drip fed 4mm over the top with the occasional 2-3 pieces of corn. Two hours later and not having had a bite on either the feeder/bomb or the 11m or 5m line I finally managed a bite on the 5m line which turned out to be the biggest one I had at 9lb. The skimmers then moved in sporadically and with no further carp I turned to the margins.

The right hand margin looked the better of the two as it was slightly deeper and had some enticing strands pf vegetation in the water while the left had a pollarded tree in the water. However I fed both with micros, and corn along with loose feeding 4mm pellet. As it turned out apart from one skimmer from the right hand margin all the action was in the left hand one as a series of carp ended up in my net but I had a run of five foul hooked carp that came off apart from a dinner plate of a scale! I took a chance in the last 45 minutes and put in a lot more groundbait which did not work as I only had two more carp, one was still being played at the whistle! The scales arrived and my 5 skimmers/bream weighed 9-01, first net weighed 36-04 (I only clicked 30) and the second net 28-00 ( I clicked 23) to give a total of 73-05. The only other loss apart from the 5 foul hookers was a carp that came adrift as the elastic and line jammed around by toss-pot.

Following Wednesday sees me drive up to Boddington reservoir to make final preparations for the silvers match I was running on the Saturday. I set up on peg 37, just at the top of the slope as I had booked pegs 34-45 for the match.

Before it got silly!

I set up with a 6m Chinese whip and a 1g Paster float top tackle the 10.5 feet of water with a 0.12mm main line to a 0.10mm hook-link and 18 hook. Putting in three small balls of firmish groundbait at the start with just a sprinkle of maggots and loose feeding a pinch of maggots with the occasional squash ball sized ball of groundbait I managed to scratch about 20 roach out on double maggot, they would not look at single. I only intended fishing for three hours and I stuck to that as by the end I had finished my flask of coffee during the sunny spells between the wintery driving hail stones! The roach I did get were of decent size.

Saturday arrives and I am left with the last peg in the bag which turns out to be 36!

I set up the same 6m whip rig and also a waggler with a homemade float taking 3AAA with the bulk around the float and 4 droppers. Fishing in a similar way I was biteless until the three hour mark when I had a bite on the waggler at 20m and missed it! Ten minutes later another bite on the waggler and missed again and that was it for my match – a blank! We also had the full spectrum of cold, sun, snow and hail! The match was tough for everyone with some tipping back 2/3 fish while the sections were won with 4lb weights although most who did weigh in were around the pound or solitary large perch. A very disappointing outcome given what it is capable of.

Meanwhile back in China Gareth has been fishing the Shiqi river with chopped worm in a feeder catching a variety of fish including silver bream and the one below which I think the Chinese call a white trout of approx 2lb.

My next match now is not until June although I should have had one in May but have pulled out as Gareth has invited me to China for five days fishing during the May day celebrations there!