It is unusual for me to go to Bowood over the week-end but I made an exception on the Sunday and was surprised to find it very quiet with the field all to myself. I decided against peg 2 and set up on peg 4 which at least had 3-4 feet of water to play with!

Three balls went in to start laced with 2mm pellets, corn and wheat, corn was my starting bait, with a similar set up to previously except I had got a 0.8g float with the shot all bulked 6inches from the hook in order to get past any weed. The session started slowly but then a steady string of roach and rudd interspersed with a scattering of fish around the float showed the pike were still active but strangely I have yet to hook one or have a fish taken. After an hour I hit into a slightly better fish- a bream of 2lb, this pattern continued with roach and rudd being interrupted by small skimmers and two further bream of 1-14 and 2-4, plus one further bream lost in a weed bed close in. The session ended with 21 roach, 21 rudd, 8 skimmers and those 3 bream for exactly 15lb.

Monday saw me take the Logan in for it’s MOT which it thankfully passed, so it was Tuesday morning before I returned for a short session before it got too hot. Peg 4 again this time it was a lot harder with the pike very active so it was catch a couple , pike set the fish scattering, wait, catch a couple more and repeat! I ended up with 14roach, 7 rudd and 3 skimmers for 4-2 and no lost fish!

Next day back again for a morning session but this time on the other bank on the first peg, peg 25 in my new regime. Seen below on far bank, sited between pegs 1 and 2.

I do not usually fish this bank as I have never had much joy and it tends to be shallower (if that is possible) but I had seen some better fish roll along the far bank previously. Plumbing up with the same rig I found I had 14 inches of water at 10m. One ball was cupped in followed by half a pot of 2mm pellet, corn and wheat topped by loose groundbait. An hour went by before I had my first indication, a quick dip of the float that resulted in a small roach, at least I wasn’t going to blank! Ten minutes later another small roach followed, then it went quiet for a while before the float lifted and a strike saw the elastic come out for what felt like a good fish. Gingerly easing back through the weeds I eventually put the net under a tench of 4-12, the first of the Bowood season.

A quiet spell followed before a couple of bream at 2-10 and 1-8 plus 3 more roach ended the session with me melting in them sun but happy with a 9-4 total.

I managed a short evening session on the Friday of a couple of hours, with the weather cooling rapidly I was expecting a struggle but I went  to peg 2 and put three balls at 10m with the usual free offerings and sat it out with corn. It was not hectic by any means with it being 40 minutes before a bite, a roach of 6 oz, 5 further roach (the best weighed at 9oz) and 2 rudd gave me  2-2 total.

No larger fish showed but the pike again were very active, I am tempted to try a bit of spinning at some point.