Maddening because I did not get out in May until the 23rd due to family commitments in Yorkshire. However I did manage one trip in at the end of April before departing for northern climes. I visited Horton on the K&A canal for a short 2.5hr session just fishing a 4.5m Chinese whip to a 1.5g Paster float. The time passed quickly and following an initial golf ball of groundbait with a few micros in it and loose feeding a pinch of maggot every few minutes I managed to accumulate a bag of 5-06 made up of 4 skimmers, 6 roach,3 gudgeon, 1 rudd, 5 perch and 3 larger skimmers/bream the best weighing 1-15. Good fun on the whip.

Moving swiftly on to the 23rd, I was due to fish a two dayer at Witherington Farm, just outside Salisbury, on the Saturday and Sunday so headed down there for a bit of a practice as I had not been there since the same match last year.Selwood and Barnmoor were closed due to the carp spawning so I ended up on Cottage peg 13, with the lake busy with several anglers fishing 2 rods for carp. I set up a rig for the margins on 0.20mm line to a 12 and a homemade BGT1 style float, and a 10m line with 0.16mm line to a homemade Chianti style float to a 16. Micros were introduced on the 10m line along with 2 balls of fishmeal groundbait and a few grains of sweetcorn, while the margins were given 4mm pellets and some corn. The day started okay with a carp of 4-04 coming to the 10m line within 10minutes but there after it slowed and I found that only micros being introduced would inducer any activity. A carp of 8-12 foul-hooked in the tail provided some heart-pounding action but 4 bream of about 2 to 2.5lb were the only other takers on the 10m line. The margins produced carp of 1-04 and 4-08 plus a further bream, 2 roach/bream hybrids and a golden rudd for a total of about 29-30lb. All the while there had been large crashes and splashes coming from Cottage just behind me.

The top pictures you can see my margin swim, and Cottage.

So to Saturday, Gareth was joining me on the match and on arrival we found the fish on Selwood in full spawning mood while Cottage was calm with signs of feeding fish everywhere (bubbling). I drew peg 2 which is the first picture in the middle row (the rest being of the Inner Snake peg, but more of that later), while Gareth drew peg 13which was near the top left corner of the lake. To cut a long frustrating day short I weighed 12-08, two carp of 1.5lb and 9lb plus 3 skimmers for 2lb, I lost 1 bream and 4 carp, two of which were definitely foul-hooked but I was plagued by liners all day. The fish were in front of me but I could not get them feeding, the rigs were similar to the Tuesday but I did not get anything in the margins. Gareth faired better beating the anglers either side with 25-08.

Back on Sunday and we were on the Inner Snake as Cottage was still in spawning mode. I drew peg 11 which was permanent peg 57. Gareth was just around the bend from me (his peg can be seen above). Again a very frustrating day with a bad cross wind and having to fish 14.5m of pole to the island. I had set up four lines- the 14.5m to the island, one at 10m down the track and the two margins. Rigs were similar to previous as was the feeding although I did start a fifth line directly in front of me at 2+1 range with meat. To cut yet another story short, I lost the first two carp hooked across before getting 3 carp across and a micro rudd, a carp on the meat line, 3 skimmers and two roach on the 10m and nothing from the right margin. I had been getting indications from the left margin that had been loose fed with corn and 4mm pellet and with an hour to go (or so I thought!) put in 5 balls of groundbait with some micros. I left it for 10 minutes before going over it at which point I was told that the match was going to be cut short by 30 minutes! In the remaining 20 minutes I hooked 5 carp and landed 3 of them to end up with 30-08 of carp and 2-00 of silvers for 32-08. Gareth beat me again with 40-08 all at 14.5m with nothing down the margin.

So only three outings in May, June should be better with Bowood starting again on the 16th then a two days Pairs match at Makins outside Nuneaton towards the end of the month.