It was not until the Saturday I was out again, I should have been taking part in the AT Silvers qualifier at Larford but that has been put back to 31st January. The rut has re-established itself and peg 10 at Bowood was surprisingly clear for a Saturday with 4 other cars parked up- busy for Bowood! I did the usual and put a sardine out on the pike rod while setting up the pole, three balls of groundbait deposited at 10m and 3 roach in the first three put ins on maggot, then nothing which is usually a sign of bigger fish moving in or a pike. Five biteless minutes later the pellet waggler I use as a pike float bobbed before moving off on a run, a firm strike and the reassuring jar of a fish being hooked. It felt like a good fish and fought well but I was surprised when it came to the net with it only weighing 9-15, a fish that definitely fought above it’s weight!

The roach and rudd returned and after a further 6 fish I put a piece of corn on, the result was a longer wait but a better quality of fish. I had planned to fish until 12 and by 11:55 I had 25 roach and 15 rudd for 5-03. I began packing the pole up when the pike rod went again, this time a more dour fight but a pike of 11-08 was soon in the net. A conundrum, should I stay or should I go? I decided to stick to my guns and packed up after returning the pike. As I was loading the trolley one of the anglers from the top field came around loaded down. He had had a fruitless morning and had decided to move around, after a chat he decided to drop in to 10.

Tuesday sees me back at Bowood and the rut continues- peg 10. Started as before and had 5 fish then went on corn. First drop in the float disappears after a couple of minutes and the strike is met with a solid resistance as if I had caught the bottom before the bottom starts to move! I knew immediately this was a pike as that is how pike seem to feel initially on the pole, however I was on my no5 elastic, 18 hook to 0.10 Shogun. After a couple of runs and tail walks I managed to get it back to the top 4 which is what I would need to land it on, when the pike rod goes! The top 4 goes between my legs and I strike into pike number 2. I managed to keep this one away from the one on the pole and netted it in the pike net, dropping the handle onto the platform and securing it wit my foot I then continued to play pike 1! Finally getting it into my normal net. I weighed this one first 9-04 and released it the n pike number 2 was unhooked and weighed in at 8-12.

Roach and rudd continued for the next hour or so when pike 3 came along- on the pole again! Same scenario, bite solid mass, slowly plods off, then wakes up and tail walks a couple of times. Got back to the top 4 when with no extra pressure from me or the fish the hook pulls out! I should mention that these pike are hooked in the mouth (usually in the scissors) which is why I am able to land some of them! Half hour later the same thing happens but this time there is a sudden parting as my no 5 elastic finally succumbs to the abuse it had been receiving lately and snapped 12 inches above the retaining bung. I consoled myself with the fact that at least the pike would be able to get rid of the rig easily given it was a 0.10mm hooklength. I had one further encounter with a pike, a jack of 3-07 again on the pole taking corn! My 35 roach and 20 rudd went 6-05 to give me a 27-12 total.

I missed the Wednesday as it was raining quite heavily and I had some jobs to do but intended going Friday after our early morning walk, however Thursday saw the temperature drop to -1C even at 9am with a heavy frost, and Friday was 0C with dense fog when we went on our walk to the Pondtail bridge. The sight was not good, lots of foam on the water but the colour of the water had turned a pale grey/mud – truly horrible so I decided to give it a miss and go on the Saturday.

Saturday arrives and four cars already parked up. I was hoping 10 was clear if not I would drop in 8 to give anyone on 10 some room. Unfortunately there was someone on 10 and 8 and although they said there was room to go on 9 I opted to go on 6 to give them room. I was not hopeful on 4 with 4.5ft of water but gave it from 9-1 fishing. No runs at all and went on the corn after the first 4 maggot fish would weigh an ounce in total. There were lots of small yearling fish attacking the corn but I managed to winkle out 15 roach and 10 rudd for 2-04 before I left. The angler on 10 had 3 pike in that time (apparently 2 before I arrived also) fishing two pike rods, the angler on 8 had one just as I was going. I am coming to the conclusion that my original standpoint of not fishing Bowood at the weekend might be reinstated, I am giving Sunday a miss and have decided to end the month on Monday by walking up to peg 11 in the top field to complete that side of the lake.

November 1st arrives and Radcot throws up its wet and windy best for the fourth round of the North Wessex Winter League.

Drawn on C5, peg 13 downstream of the bridge I was not hopeful as there was no steady water close in and my hope seemed to be a tree in the water on the far bank. The match starts and I go straight across on the maggot feeder for no bites in 2 hours. The pole with an 8g flat float and 16g of lead at 6m does no better. Jamie on the upstream peg comes down to warm up and says Paul Rice on 3 has just had a 3lb bream and missed the net with it! Now Paul had been lobbing a groundbait feeder on to the 12m line so when Jamie went back I quickly changed feeder to a 40g open end and lobbed downstream on the 12-14m line. Half hour later I had a knock and a gudgeon saved the blank! I ended up with 2 roach, a chublet and the gudgeon for 0-9 and last in section, indeed the section places were the same as the peg numbers! The team fared little better and we are now behind Radcot when we go into the final match, whenever that might be after lock-down.

Tuesday came with a temperature of 4C and I ventured to Bowood with rucksack, coupled with waggler and feeder rods up to peg 12 (only peg 11 remains to fish on that side of the lake now). Starting on the feeder but swiftly moving on to the waggler I had a shortish session with 8 skimmers, 18 roach and 6 rudd for a level 4lb.

Friday arrives and I make my way back to peg 10. A frustrating start with 12 very small maggot fish saw me switch to double wheat and end up with 33 roach and 33 rudd for 4-12. Who says wheat is a summer bait! Sunday comes and rare week-end visit to Bowood finds 4 FOUR cars already parked up, I have never seen that many cars at Bowood, one of the consequences of lock-down! The water level was well down, probably due to the heavy rains we have had someone had opened the sluice at the other end and left it open too long! There was a piker on 10 so I set up on 8 a good 50m away and fishing in my usual style had one run on the sardine which resulted in a pike of 8-6 while the pole line was regularly visited by pike shearing through the fish attracted by my offerings I managed to extract without any pike attacks 1 perch, 12 roach and 24 rudd for 4-03.

The Tuesday sees me back on peg 10 with the water level still down about a foot. Casting out the sardine I began setting up the pole only for the pellet waggler to skim along the surface and disappear before I had even attached a rig to the pole. A strike was met with…nothing! The sardine came back in pristine condition, this happened a second time later in the day, the gamekeeper reckons these “phantom” runs are caused by carp or tench. Anyway the day was similar to the Sunday in so much as I would get a run of fish then nothing, this time there were no tell-tale signs of pike but my suspicions were well founded as a lift of the pole float resulted in me hooking a pike of 8-04 in the tail which proved quite an interesting fight as it tail-walked at least 5 times in an attempt to get away. The down side was I hoped that was caught on film but the gremlins had been at their work again and the file was corrupted! In between 22 roach and 21 rudd I did manage to get a proper run on the sardine which resulted in a very welcome pike of 13-06.

Wednesday sees me back but at the Pondtail for a 2 hour session armed with the Chinese whips I opted to fish a 5m whip (5.4) with a new Chinese float I had bought. Feeding only wheat and a couple of small balls of groundbait I had a pleasant session with 50 roach, 19 gudgeon a perch and a carp of 3-10 which illustrated why the Chinese whips are not as rigid as European ones as it bent right around to absorb the lunges of the carp, despite me only having a 0.10mm hooklength. The other fish came to 5-12

Monday sees me back after days of gloomy rain and wind to the Pondtail with the promise of a dry day and the intention of doing some filming to create a Chinese whip video. Started of okay but after an hour the rain arrived, two days early! I packed the camera away and decided to pack the whip away and have a go on the feeder for a couple of hours. The whip had produced 15roach, 9 gudgeon and a perch before the feeder added another 15 roach, no gudgeon and 4 perch to the worm, including a roach of exactly 1lb, total; weight 4-02.

Next day sees me back at peg 10 with the water level now back up and high while flowing through quite hard. I did not expect to catch any pike but put the sardine out anyway. I had changed to a number 5 elastic and 0.10mm line to a 16 as is my routine at this time of year on the pole. It was hard going with me having to hold back like on a river to get bites from small fish, eventually hooking something large that plodding around for 5minutes before without any lunges the line came shooting back, the hooklength cut halfway – I suspected a pike! It continued to be hard, catching odd fish between cups of coffee when 5minutes after the 11am bell had tolled I struck into a fish that I immediately thought was a pike as it sat there before moving slowly off, indeed it was a pike as it showed itself with a spectacular tail-walk (alas no camera today), several further jumps happened before the next bell at 11:15 and several more before the 11:30 bell, I eventually managed to net it with two extra sections on at 11:35! It was foul-hooked in its ventral fin and weighed 8-03. I ended up finishing just after 12:15 with 14 roach, 2 blades and a rudd for a level pound!

Lock-down continues, I may try and complete the right bank by fishing peg 11 before the end of the month.