The weather just keeps getting worse with storm after storm turning the ground into an over full sponge and the water chocolate, despite this I decided to brave the weather on Friday 3rd and take the long trek up to the Stock Pond. I was shocked by the amount of sponginess in even the areas of thick grass with water oozing up under foot, this partly explained the full nature of the main lake and it’s horrible colour. Given the long trek I had opted to go light and took just a feeder rod and the whips along with the haversack seat, net bag and collapsible bait bucket. Setting up on the first peg I put a cage feeder loaded with groundbait, caster and chopped worm and a piece of worm tipped with caster off to the far right at an angle of 45 degrees, safe that as there are only two pegs, that was my water to fish anyway!

I set up a 6m Chinese whip with a no 2 “orange” float on 0.12mm line and a 0.10mm hook-length to an 18 and double maggot. I adjusted the shotting so the olivette was set about 3 feet from the hook with 3 no 9 droppers in the 6 feet or so of water which was not at all a bad colour and still was fairly clear. It took a little while to start to get bites and after 20 minutes I wound the feeder in to recast only to find a lip-hooked roach on the end. Anyway I had one more roach on the feeder, this time a bite I saw and struck at plus 51 roach on the whip to give me a total of 3-01 for my 2 and a half hour session. No photo as although I thought I took one there was nothing on the phone when I got back!

The following Tuesday I decided to try the main lake and I had a sneaky suspicion that the earlier pegs may fish as although the weather had been wet and wild it was fairly warm, to this end I parked myself on peg 7 for a session from 9:15 to 12:45. I was not particularly hopeful of getting pike but put the customary sardine out about 20m and set up the pole. The water level had dropped about 12 inches looking at the tide mark on the platform legs so I guess they had opened the sluice gate at the far end of the lake to relieve the pressure of all the additional water. I put in two balls of groundbait with just a pinch of micros and wheat and 4 or 5 kernels of corn and settled back to wait but it was not long before the float went under and a firm strike saw a decent amount of the number 4 elastic come out with what felt a good fish at the end, I slowly managed to coax it close in , unshipped and reached for the net when the hook pulled out! There was no slime on the line but I was sure it was one of the big old bream from the way it fought. I was beginning to regret going into “winter mode” with my elastic!

No further bites on the pole line but after 20 minutes the pike float (ie my pellet waggler) disappeared and a firm strike saw a good bend in the rod as a feisty 9-04 pike came to the net. This mollified my angst over the elastic choice to some extent as I had not been that hopeful of getting any pike.

Another sardine was sent out this time a bit closer at 15m and I returned to the pole getting a small roach almost immediately then nothing! An hour went by and the pole had produced one further roach (it was hard!) when the pike float skated off, this time I’ll let you see what happened!

Back to the pole and two further roach before I thought the pike float moved slowly to one side against the tow for a couple of inches. Bringing the pole in, I picked up the pike rod and waited, again the float hardly moved but there was a definite dip, this continued for a couple of minutes before the float disappeared and winding down the strike provided a strong response and another pike of 12-04 ended up on the bank! For a day that started with little hope of pike this was proving to be a good session!

Last cast of the day on the pole the elastic curse struck again with a strong fish hooked and lots of elastic out, slowly but surely I managed to get it closer in and saw it was a tench around the 5lb mark, getting the net in position spooked the tench which went on another run, again got it back in and almost in the net before it made a last gasp dash for the margin weed on my right where it managed to wrap itself around several stalks and although it was on for a couple of minutes in the weed I could not extract it and eventually it came off! I made the walk back to the car elated by the pike but frustrated by the two fish lost on the pole – that’s fishing I suppose!

Weather and various commitments saw me delay my return until the 13th just before storm Debi hit the following day. The wind was already very strong with severe gusts and I was questioning my sanity as the water was chocolate again and towing, the ground under foot was bad and the short 60m section between the car park field and the first pegs was churned up and the muddy track full of water six inches deep. The fishing did not get my mood any better, I learnt from the previous visit and had changed to a slightly stronger elastic more like a 6-8 but one roach and a bream of 1-07 were my only two proper bites, proper because I hit a bite as the float slid under and hit a good fish which turned out to be a good tench of around 6lb+ that was foul hooked in the tail. As you can imagine this led me a merry dance and it did a first for me as it went under the platform and snagged in the weeds behind me! I was not a happy bunny as I walked back to the car through the quagmire with just the two fish landed.

Wednesday saw me decide to leave Bowood for a bit as more rain only was likely to make it worse, the river was a non-starter so I headed for the K&A canal at Horton with the club exchange ticket in my pocket and the whips in tow! I managed to park up okay between the boaters’ cars and chose a peg with no boat opposite just passed the end of the slope. I set up a 4.5m Chinese whip but with a home made “Greenie” taking 6 no 8 and 3 no 11, 0.12mm main line to 0.10mm hook-length to an 18. Now Gareth had opened my eyes to fishing bigger baits so it was double maggot bait with two nuggets of groundbait to kick start and a pinch of micros and some of the casters from the maggots as loose feed every few minutes.

The day itself was sunny but sitting down on the peg I didn’t get any and with the wind I was freezing which told me it was time to get the winter clothes out! Anyway 6 boats (one was both directions), 4 cups of coffee and two hours of fishing saw me with 9 roach, 8 perch, 2 small skimmers and a rudd for 2-05.

It would have been a pleasant session if not for the cold. Still here is hoping the weather calms down a bit for the rest of the month.