After the excesses of August, the next month was going to be broken up by a visit “up North” and a three day MFS event at the Glebe. Before we get to that August was rounded off by a short evening session on the Pondtail on the feeder  which gave me one perch and three missed bites!

Returning to peg 12 the next day, I managed not to blank and managed 2 skimmers of 1-9 and 15oz, 6 rudd, 5 roach and a perch for 4-2. My next opportunity was on the first of the month and being a Sunday there was a crowd there – one other angler! He just happened to be fishing on peg 12 so I gave him plenty of room and settled on 10.  Usual tactics saw 23 rudd, 6 roach and a hybrid hit the net for 3-8. Bowood was in one of it’s moody spells with the water clearing again.

I then had a break with the MFS  Monkees v Shandies event at the Glebe, it is fished like the Ryder Cup with  the first day being 4somes, the second pairs and final day singles.. Fishing for the Shandies (the South) day 1 (the 4s) I drew pool 6 peg 87.

I set up a feeder, a rig for 13m, another for 5m and a margin rig. Starting on the feeder after cupping in 4 balls of groundbait laced with 6mm pellets and corn on 13m and a cup of 6mm pellet at 5m, I had a carp first cast that came off at the net and that was it! After 40min the feeder went up the bank and swapping between the 13m and 5m line plus a couple of late margin fish saw me eke out 41-7. Not enough to stop the Monkees taking our fours.

Day 2 and remarkably I was back on Pool 6, this time 95, which I was not to pleased about as Pete Mercer (a far better angler than I ) had struggled on the day before for 25lb. Starting the same way, I had a similar experience to day one, except this time I landed the first cast carp, but that was it again! Swapping didn’t help as I could only catch on the 13m line, but managed a couple of late carp in the margin for 42-8. Annoyingly the camera didn’t work for some reason so no footage.  Monkees won yet again!

Final day and I was back on Pool 6 AGAIN, this time peg 90, this time 31lb had come off it the previous day. I was on a hiding to nothing as I was fishing against one of the venue regulars. This time the feeder lasted 20min before going up the bank with no indications. Fishing at 13m seemed best and I also managed a few fish from the margins recording my best weight of the three days at 51-4 but battered by 100lb by my opponent. I did learn a bit about what he was doing and especially the bait in preparation for next year!

Returning home I was off two days later to Yorkshire! First day back I headed off to Bowood, peg 12  and starting on the maggot I had some small roach and rudd before changing to corn and securing a tench of 5-12 and skimmer of 1-12 plus some better roach. Ending with 16 roach,14 rudd, 3 skimmers plus the two fish mentioned for a level 11lb. Again annoyingly the camera seemed to go over the earlier part of the session so not footage of the actual capture, but I did get a shot at the end.

Back a few days later to 12 which had a nice tinge to it. I had seen a lot of pike action on my last visit so I put the pike rod in and frustratingly missed a run in the first 20minutes and that was it! That is one of the downsides of fishing a single hook, I miss more runs but in terms of fish welfare I am happy with that. Baiting with double maggot, it was a slow start with no immediate action from the smaller roach and rudd, this usually signifies one of two things at Bowood – either there are bigger fish in the swim or a pike is about. The former was the case as bream of 1-6, 2-0 and 1-8 came to the net before I bumped a fish with the maggot doubling over the hook and that was it- 20 roach, 10 rudd and 4 skimmers followed to complete the session.

Couple of days later back at 12 with a tinge in the water but clearer than before. No runs on the pike rod 34 rudd, 26 roach and a solitary skimmer, all on the maggot as I had forgotten the corn! Moody still!

Two days later with heavy rain forecast I had a short 2hour session on Pondtail peg 1 on the waggler15roach and 10 gudgeon made up a 2-4 catch before the rain started. That was the most gudgeon I have caught in a session at Bowood, indeed it is probably more than all the rest of the time at Bowood!

Two days of rain led me to hope that the third day would see the bream feed, so peg 12 was my target and once again, no runs (but not unexpected given the water colour) but disappointingly it was a great struggle with another angler on 11 also struggling (blanked I think) and 11roach and 4 rudd saw the scales break the pound barrier at 1-2.

Saturday was going to be different as I had agreed to go to Port Talbot docks with Darren Edgell. Darren picked me up and eventually we drove down the track to the docks , paying our money to Dai the owner who was tidying some things up. The Docks are known affectionately by the locals as “Beirut” and Darren, despite my warning was clearly gobsmacked and likened it to Mars! We settled into the two pegs down wind of the buttress, with me being the furthest away. The docks is deep – not your namby-pamby deep of 8-9 ft but 18-20 ft at 6m.

The weather was not kind with strong winds showers occasionally with a severe weather system forecast for 3 or4pm so we had decided to pack up and be gone before then. I had got the camera working but forgot to alter the date! The wind was whipping the water up into waves that were bigger and rougher than I had seen a couple of weeks earlier at Bridlington on my visit up north! In the end I built a mini breakwater from the rubble to try and stop the splashing!

This type of water calls for a special approach and I was using a very old margin pole with red hydro, using a 14g Giant to 0.18mm and 0.10mm hook length to a 16. The float was cocked with a 12g olivette held in place by 2xAA shot about 18inches from the hook with a no6 dropper 8inches from the hook. Groundbait also needs to be heavy unless you are after the rudd which abound, I had mixed up the day before 3.5kg of dry mix, mainly Sensas Magic and River with some of my other cheaper makes to bulk it out. All this was mixed with a third of a bag of PV1 and just a little extra water was added at the venue to get the mix right. I had a separate feeder mix made up of fishmeal based groundbaits I had left over in the freezer.

After introducing 10 balls laced with dead reds and a bit of corn at 8m I fished 2 and a half hours on the margin pole (8m to hand), putting in a ball of groundbait every cast. After the first 5minutes it was a bite a cast as small roach attacked the bait, the weather however made spotting bites difficult with the waves crashing in, it was also incredibly dark at times. However I did manage a bream of about 2-3lb on the pole despite the wind making it impossible at times to control the pole and net, and several small skimmers other than a load of small roach before the bucket of groundbait ran out. Packing the pole away it was out on the feeder and although slower the roach were a better stamp and after an hour and a half I had another bream of 2-3lb plus 3 skimmers and some roach on the feeder with double maggot. Meanwhile after a slow start Darren had bagged on the small roach once he got to grips with the depth of water. Weights were not brilliant I had 10-4 and Darren 6-12 but given the weather conditions we were more than happy. Ironically when we packed up it was the calmest period of the day – the lull before the weather front hit!”

Spot my “rod-rest”.