Well after my dismal performances at the Glebe it was a case of seeing Gareth and the clan back to China, a visit to a car boot to get rid of some things and finally on the Tuesday a visit to Bowood. When I was away Gareth had gone to Bowood and reported seeing bream moving in peg 4 plus some VERY large carp 20-30lbs, so it was to peg 4 that I headed armed with some micro-pellets to try and tempt any better fish to stay and root around.

I plumbed up at 10m and found a clear patch between the submerged weed where I deposited 3 balls of a groundbait mix comprising of crushed expander, vanilla biscuit, cocoa belgique and Gooster 4X4, along with the equivalent of a 250ml cup of mixed micros, wheat hemp and a large pinch of corn. Starting at 9:15 I fished through to 12:30 using a 1g Paster float with the shot bulked six inches from a size 14 hook.

As usual I put on double maggot and got a rudd first put in, then changed to a single grain of corn, loose feeding a pinch of hemp or wheat or micros every few minutes. T 9:30 the float lifted and a firm strike saw me connect with a bream of 2-06, I have got into the habit of weighing each fish in the landing net before placing in the keepnet and recording the weight either on paper or my phone. The next three hours shot by with seven further bream up to 3-04 a solitary tench of 3-06 and a further fourteen rudd and one roach (the silvers weighed 2-12) for a 28-15 total. No sign of carp! Before leaving I threw in what I had left of the wheat in the hope of keeping the fish in the area.

Next day I returned to peg 4 and fished 9:00 to 12:05 using the same tactics, this time accruing eleven bream to 3-14 for 33-12, a pike of 3-04 taken on the spinning rod after several instances of pike strikes in the four feet swim, plus 25 rudd, 3 roach and a small skimmer for 3-08 giving a 40-08 total. Was I pleased – you bet I was!

Sunday 27th sees me travel up to just outside Eccleshall in Staffordshire to fish Bromley Mill in a match organised by Les Hobson who I share a caravan with at the MFS Woodland View match. Les unfortunately could not attend due to ill health but I sorted out draw cards and weigh sheets for the match. Now you may remember from previous ramblings that this is the place that you have to sit in the water and the carp can come and swim around you, ignoring all baits! Well the day did not start well as when I opened my bag to get my waders on I found my right heel had developed a two inch hole where the seam had some apart. Every time I had to go into the water and get back on my seat the first job was to raise my leg to the horizontal and let the water drain out! You just could not make it up!

The match fared little better with two carp taken in the first hour on the bomb, then a lost carp and three bream at 11m while the shallows were ultra frustrating with at one point 15 carp around by float feeding on anything but my bait! I managed to get a further seven carp but lost 8! With three roach my silvers came to 6-13 the carp 49-03 for a 56lb total and rock bottom once again. One day I will get the hang of this carp thing!

My last visit of the month was back to peg 4 for a session from 8:45 to 12:00 using the same tackle and tactics. Not as prolific as previous visit but three bream of 2-13, 3-04 and 2-07 came to the net before I lost a good fish close in in the weed. I then lost a pike of 5-6lb as it cleared the water by a good two feet as it made a run to my right. A lull then occurred but a tench of 4-05 was a welcome addition and together with six rudd and two roach, all on corn, gave me a total of 13-10 which I was happy with. Interestingly when I tried the spinning rod there was no interest from the pike despite constant strikes at the rudd.

Next month sees a visit up North plus the three dayer at Monkhall.

First of August sees me have a session between 9:45 and 12:15 on the Pondtail peg 1 fishing my usual Chinese 4.5m whip.Feeding a pinch of wheat every cast after an initial ball of groundbait I was soon amassing fish on a regular basis in the 5+ft of water on double maggot, ending the session with a satisfying 9-00 made up of 65 roach and 9 perch.

That was my lot until the following Monday when Gareth joined me for the long trudge up to the Stockpond for a shortish session of 3-5:30. We both fished peg 1 (the big fish peg), me on the waggler with wheat and Gareth on the method trying for a carp. He did indeed hook a carp down in the corner amongst the old staging but the carp managed to secrete the hook in a weedbed after a short fight/ I managed 2-13 of roach (about 30 as I lost count), although I did let Gareth have a go to avoid a blank.

Friday I tried peg 7 on the main lake but left frustrated after 13 rudd, 1 skimmer and 2 roach for 2-04 due to pike moving in and killing the swim. Indeed I did lose a big fish in the weed after a few minutes of the fight, I am still unsure what it was as at various points in the fight I was thinking a large bream, then a pike then a tench – I’ll never know!

Monday sees me up at the Glebe fishery at Peckleton for Herbie’s Invitational Pairs over 2 days which I had been delegated to run! We had conducted a draw for partners during the week on line with the essence of the pairs being the Pros (Open anglers) were teamed up with a Numpty (Club angler) to form the pair, but all the Pros would be on Lakes 5,6 and 7 and the Numpties on Lake 1 on the first day and then swap on the second, so Pros were al;ways fishing against each other as were the Numpties.

So draw done and I end up in Section A peg 7 with Chilli (Andy Winters on peg 8) both margins were plumbed as was a 2+2 line and the 13m line. Bomb and pellet was tried after a couple of casts on the feeder showed no activity and after 30 minutes the rod was back on the rest and I was out at 13m. To cut a long painful story short the margins did not produce for me in the last 2 hours of the 6 hour match although Andy had a great period with putting carp after carp in the net and overtaking me by a large margin. I ended up with 68-00 made up of 31lb of bream and 37-00 of carp for last bin section.

Day 2 sees me fare no better on Lake 7 peg 102 with me being biteless after 2 hours with the wind blowing left to right straight into Andy’s end peg! All you could hear was splashing as he made the most of it.

Once again I was finding the 2+2 line devoid of fish, both margins produced the odd fish but the right hand one was slightly better. My day was like this hour1 BLANK, hour 2 BLANK, hour 3 one carp and 2 small skimmers, hour 4 no change, hour 5 up to 20lb now, then the margins helped! Corn did the business as pellet or paste was ignored, apart from 2 skimmers for 12oz my 57-04 were carp taken mainly in the margins for another last in section. The only thing that cheered me up was the lake had fished hard and the next weights were 62 and 66lb while the “Pro” the previous day had managed 51lb from the peg when the section had fished better. Doing the results saw my partner also being last in section and us being the strongest team, ie holding everyone else up in last position!

Wednesday and the Maggotdrowners match, one when I could focus wholly on the fishing with no duties. Peg 11 was my draw, a peg that had seen 100lb weights come off it on the previous two days. However, that had been when there was a fairly strong wind and now it was mirror like for most of the day with just the odd ripple very occasionally!

To say I struggled would be an understatement with just one carp and a couple of skimmers in the first two hours of the six hour match, the right margin looked great but produced just one carp and a bream, the left margin produced some action towards the end but I had most of my 15lb of skimmers at 13m with only 4 carp for 19lb from the margins, I also lost 3 carp that I felt were foul hooked by the way they fought. My 34-00 left me last in section again, meaning my 3 days were abysmal from a competitive point of view but I was fishing and it left me more determined to crack the vagaries of the Glebe in future. I managed to get home at a reasonable time to find that Gareth had gone for one last hurrah on the Marden before setting off for Heathrow on the Thursday to return to China! He also struggled with a solitary rudd on the last cast!

My next match is a 3 day seeded event for Herbie (yes I am running it) at Monk Hall fishery near Bridgenorth. Bowood beckons for the rest of the month.

A bit late with this as Gareth and family have moved out of their flat and back in with us prior to returning to China mid August. Anyway on to the fishing- Monday 17th sees me at Bowood peg 5 for a morning session. I tackled up in my usual way with 0.16mm rig to a 14 and corn under a homemade slim rugby ball float taking approx 0.5g all bulked at 6inches from the hook. Groundbait with a bit of added ground expander was introduced at 10m along with some wheat and a few kernals of corn. A small skimmer was first to be attracted followed by a few rudd and then a lull in proceedings, indicating either a pike was present or larger fish had moved in, the answer came as the float wobbled and lifted – a strike led to a bream of 4-02 gracing the net. The session past quickly with the final total of 15-12 comprising of further bream of 1-12, 2-06, 2-08 and 2-12 plus two roach, five rudd, 3 skimmers and a blade.

Wednesday sees me back at peg 5 fishing 9:20 to 12:05. Fishing a similar way to the Monday I found the weed had sprouted rapidly and it was difficult to get the bait down to the bottom without lifting it of the fronds of weed holding the weights up – another reason why fishing a bulk shot makes sense in weed!I started slowly and managed two bream of 3-00 and 3-10 by 11:55 interspersed with 9 roach, 3 rudd and a blade. As the clock struck 12 the float lifted and a bream of 3-12 came to the net, I had another put in, just in case, but then packed away with the total ending on 12-08. It seems to be a feature of Bowood that at 12 noon you are likely to get a bite from a decent fish whether in the summer or winter, although it is more likely to be a pike in the colder months! Why this should be? (answers on a postcard please …)

Friday morning I returned to the main lake and raked pegs 1-7 although I left out 2. Knackered I returned to the car and got the whip out and fished peg 1 on the Pondtail for 40 minutes for 278roach and a perch for 2-05. That evening I returned to the main lake (Peg 6)with Gareth hopeful of some action from the newly raked swims. How wrong could I be, in the two hours from 6-8pm I had 10 rudd for 1-08 while Gareth on peg 5 had snuck in a spinning rod and managed a jack second cast of 2-08 along with some rudd.

Due to visits to Yorkshire and other constraints such as helping Gareth to vacant the flat I had only two further outings. The first was to the Pondtail fishing 3:30 to 4:50 on peg1 saw 20 roach and 2 perch be netted for 2-04 on the 4.5m Chinese whip which in itself is a fun way of fishing and de-stressing!The second was a session 3:10 to 5:00 on the main lake at peg 5. Once again no bream just 20 rudd for 2-05 all on corn while Gareth had 12 better rudd for 2-00 and yet again managed to sneak out a jack of 2-08 on the spinning rod!

August sees a three day visit to the Glebe with a MFS Pairs followed by a Maggotdrowners event.