First day of September and I trundled off to peg 7 at Bowood, fishing 9:15 to 12:15. My rationale was as the weather was looking as if it may turn then the fish would start moving into the deeper water. Beginning in my usual way with a 1g Paster float with the bulked shot six inches from a 14 hook to counteract any subsurface weed I started off on corn over the top of three balls of groundbait with a liberal helping of wheat, hemp and micros plus a few grains of corn. It took about twenty minutes for the first indications to appear and a lift of the float signaled a bream of 2-03 coming to the net. Sport was not frantic but was consistent with the odd rudd interspersed amongst a further five bream and a tench of 4lb, plus a further tench lost in the weed. The session ended with a total of 19-14, the 0-14 being made up of 10 rudd however for some reason the photo taken on the phone did not save for some reason! So at home I managed to get a shot of the card I use to record the fish.

It wasn’t until the 6th that I returned to Bowood, unloading the car at the gate half way up what my wife has termed Satan’s Slope I find there is now a lock on the gate. Faced with unpacking the trolley, trying to get things over the fence and then walking down to the lake didn’t appeal as I would have to repeat the process on my way back after the long trudge up the steeply sloping field. (the large tree you see in the centre of the pic is roughly halfway in the first field, from that point it slopes down sharply to the level of the lake)

I decided that discretion was the better part of valour as I knew physically it would take too much out of me as lifting still causes me issues. Faced with returning home or rolling the tackle down Satan’s Slope and fishing the Pondtail – I decided that was manageable.

Having finally set up on peg 1 I was fishing pole out at 10m directly in front but also found the same depth of about 6 feet at an angle to my right alongside some lilies. My rig was a home made Chianti style float taking 0.5g made up of a small bulk just below half depth then 3 droppers to a size 16 on a 0.12mm hook length. I began on double maggot at 9am but after a slowish start I swapped to corn which proved as slow but a better stamp of fish. The line directly in front was not floating my boat, so to speak, and as I had primed the right hand swim with a couple of balls of groundbait and loose fed wheat I went over there with corn and got an immediate response. I occasionally tried maggot but apart from losing a 1lb+ perch at the net the fish tended to be smaller. By the time I packed up at 12 I had managed 32 roach and a small perch , all bar 8 on corn for 5-12. I phoned the estate office on my return to query the lock and after explaining my situation they agreed to not lock the gate as the access point they suggested was a kissing gate that you can not get through with tackle!

It wasn’t until the 15th that I could get out again following a short break to Yorkshire. After a couple of cooler nights I headed for peg 10 for the first time this season through a now unlocked gate!Fishing 9:45 to 12:30 I opted for a 1g Paster in the 9ft of water. Three balls with wheat, hemp and a few grains of corn were introduced, double maggot on the hook and then nothing! Now this led me to hope that bigger fish were already in situ, so on went the corn and after ten minutes I got a rudd! In what turned out to be a disappointing session I had 14 rudd, 7 small skimmers and 3 roach for 2-04. On reflection I think the larger fish are still down in the shallows and I would have been better fishing a peg in the 4-7 area. Still you live and learn!

End of the month sees me at Monkhall at Bridgenorth for a 3 day MFS festival.