Now Viaduct has some very large carp (for match fishing) and even at an average of 15lb the winner would have caught 31 fish, about 6 fish an hour or a fish every 10 minutes. If the average was smaller then the speed required becomes mind boggling  to achieve the winning weight. As an angler who has fished a lot of matches in the past I can only dream of that scenario but would I want to do that every week? As age creeps on and the aches and pains increase the number of matches I fish decrease, coupled with living on a pension I now need to be selective of which matches I fish. My focus has turned more to matches where there is a decent group of anglers who are willing to share their experiences/tactics and where if very lucky I might get the odd section pay out, hence this year I am predominantly fishing MFS matches and have declined the offers to fish in teams in the winter and summer leagues in the area.

Which brings us to Bowood. One of the reasons I fish only a few matches on carp orientated  commercial venues is that generally if the float goes under it will be a carp, and being commercials the frequency of bites is high given they need to draw anglers to the water in order to make money. It could be termed easy, predictable fishing but the good angler will always out perform others by reading the water and being in tune with what the fish want on any given day. Bowood on the other hand is not easy, to start with it is a natural venue, little angling pressure, full of weed and clear water but it’s allure is that you never know what it will be if and when the float moves.

The visit of Gareth from China illuminates this to a degree. We spent 15 days on the trot fishing Bowood for different lengths of time and at different times of day – here is what happened:-

July 29

Arrived at Heathrow, got back had a short evening session on peg 9(me) and 10 (G), a tench of 4-2, two roach and a blade fell to my usual approach of starting on maggot and moving on to corn, with the tench taking corn, the others maggot, Gareth ended up with 7 roach and 7 skimmers for around 4lb.

July 30

Another evening session peg 8 for me and Gareth went on 7. Again a solitary tench on corn of 4-11 plus the customary 2 roach and a rudd on maggot. Gareth loses two good tench in the weed and saves a blank with a rudd.

July 31

Same pegs mid day to tea-time session, I lost a tench in the weed and blank saved by 2 roach and 4 rudd for 6oz, Gareth had 2 roach and 10 rudd for a about a lb.

August 1

With the water getting clearer we moved up to peg 11(me) and peg 10. A solitary tench of 4-0 joined 6 rudd, 2 roach and a bream for me while Gareth at last got among the tench and managed two of 5-11 and 4-6 plus about a pound and a half of mixed small fish.

August 2

Pegs 9 and 8(G) this time evening session of a couple of hours. No tench, I had 8rudd for a lb and Garerh managed a mixed bag of roach and perch for a pound and a half, also losing a pike of about 6lb.

August 3

Pegs 8 and 7, midday to about 4:40pm. This time I had three tench of 3-12,4-3 and 3-8 as well as losing a further two in the weed, plus 8 rudd and 4 roach. Gareth followed suit with tench of 4-4, 4-3, losing a further 2 in the weed plus a jack of 3-6 and 10 rudd.

August 4

With Peg 7 and 12 already taken we decided to fish the opposite bank for a change pegs 21 and 22(G) – a mistake! Had to spend time with the rake clearing the swims and I struggled on maggot with 11 rudd, 3 roach and 7 blades for 1-3 while Gareth managed 2 skimmers, roach, rudd and a tiny jack of 8oz all on worm. Walking back we stopped at the weir bridge and spotted a couple of double figure carp that would happily take the maggots we were throwing in!

August 5

Evening session on 8 and 7(G). 8 rudd, 3 roach and 3 tench of 3-0,4-0 and 4-8 plus two others lost in the weed while Gareth lost two tench and 2 pike but landed tench of 5-0, 4-5 and 4-1.

August 6

Began well on 10 and 9(G) with 2 roach,2 rudd and a tench of 4-6, with Gareth getting a skimmer of 1-4 and some roach before torrential rain saw us beat a hasty retreat just short of 2hours in.

August 7

Late afternoon into evening session. Started at 3pm on pegs 9 and 8(G) but after just small fish appearing we decided to head back and fish Pondtail as I had put a feeder rod in the car just in case! So Pondtail 2 was the peg and I set up one of my travel rods with a feeder.6:40pm- Both casting into the main part of the lake at an angle of 45 degrees from the peg (there are only two pegs  and it needs a cast of 50 turns to get into the main part of the lake). Hair rigged spicy sausage pellet was Gareth’s bait while I put on three maggots. I had a couple of knocks but 20 minutes in Gareth had a big drop back bite and hooked into a good fish, I hurriedly reeled in and in my haste to hook up the rod and get the landing net managed to get a size 16 micro barbed 611 stuck deep into my middle finger!(OUCH!) I bite off the line and managed to slip the net under a bream of 4-9. The hook was lodged firmly so it was an early exit, a stiff whiskey and Gareth “unhooked” me.

August 8

Session on Pondtail from 3-8pm. I went on 1 with a waggler and maggot plus plastered finger! Gareth was back on 2 with the feeder. 47 roach, 9 perch,1 gudgeon and a 1-8 hybrid later Gareth had had a couple of knocks but no real bites, so he had a go on the waggler to break his duck while I missed the only bite on the feeder , snapping the line on the platform!

August 9

Evening session on Pondtail (6-8:20pm). Same pegs but this time apart from the 13 roach, 2 perch and 2 gudgeon I hooked two good fish which I believe were carp that ultimately broke me in the lillies between the pegs. Gareth fared better with two bream of 4-10 and 4-3 plus missed 2 further bites.

August 10

Afternoon session on Pondtail. 33 roach (best12oz),7 perch and 2 gudgeon for a 4-6 total on the waggler and maggot and wheat. Gareth had another bream of 4-3 plus a skimmer of 1-3.

August 11

A change today we started at the Stockpond and Gareth was on peg 2 (the big fish peg) and I had the only other peg- peg 1 the little fish peg! Fishing the corn over groundbait we were both soon in action. The difficulty with the Stockpond is that at 5m there are submerged fence posts from an earlier time so playing fish can be a bit of an art! I ended up with22 carp and 7 roach for 15-4 (biggest was only 2lb, hence the small fish peg tag as this has proven the case whenever fished), Gareth ended up with 18-14 including the biggest at 8-4. The difficulty was getting the bait past the stockies!

From the Stockpond, we headed to Pondtail for a short session and it proved very subdued with a blank for Gareth and 6 roach and a perch for me.

August 12 (THE LAST DAY)

Back to Pondtail for the evening and 14 roach and 1 perch for me, a solitary 8oz roach for Gareth, but he did lose a decent carp after a long fight. That rounded off the fishing for the visit. Gareth was back in Zhongshan a few days later complete with drilled pellets to see if he could elude the tilapia and get a catfish or carp.

So you can see the difference and why I am tending to prefer Bowood as it is not just about “catching” for me, it is more about the uncertainty and feeling of achievement when things go right. Two more sessions to write about, firstly my first visit to peg 12

was back in July so I decide to give it a go as the water was clearing but there was still some colour around 12.  Fishing my usual method of 5 balls of groundbait with micros, wheat, hemp and corn cupped in and a home made float to 0.16mm and a 16 saw me start on double maggot- for some reason single maggot is ignored- and stay on maggot as I had forgotten my corn! A tench of 4-0 and skimmers of 1-4,1-1 and 1-3 were dispatched to the net with 13roach, 3 smaller skimmers, 2 rudd and a hybrid for a 9-12 total in the 4 hours.

Two days later (yesterday as I write this) I was back- this time with corn!

Same rig (the bluish one) and same starting method with bait. No tench this time but after an initial flurry of roach I hit into a better fish which turned out to be a bream of 3-4. At this point I switched to corn and ended up with bream of 3-12, 3-12, 1-5, 20 roach, 1 rudd, 1 skimmer and 1 hybrid for a total of 18-11 in the 4 hours I fished, but what made the day for me was a roach of 1-10, my biggest at Bowood taken on corn on the drop.

I have caught bigger fish on commercials but there was something special about catching a truly wild fish of that size. Next time I fish peg 12 I will probably blank, but that is why I like Bowood!