Monday 18th sees me to return to Bowood but this time settling in on peg 7 as 10 was occupied! Fishing 9:30 to 12:15 it was fairly uneventful with my usual set up, no pike runs and twenty three small fish (20 rudd, 2 roach and a blade) for 1-10. The weather was not much help with the rain affecting the river and muddy water going into Bowood so on Wednesday I bit the bullet, or rather the wife suggested, I went to Blacklands.

Setting up at peg 16 which is to the right of the jetty the plan was to fish worm near the jetty and pellet straight out in front of me at 10m. One rig set up a home made egg style float with a yellow 1.7mm tip to 0.12mm Shogun and a 0.10mm Tornado hook-length to an 18 barbless. A handful of 2mm expander pellets was potted out on the 10m line and left to “cook” while I put about a dozen finely chopped up dendrabena worms with a pinch of home turned casters at the edge of the jetty, fortunately both areas were the same depth. It was a slowish start but eventually I had a bite on worm and a perch of about two ounces came in. The next hour was slow but steady with odd fish coming to the worm despite a topping up of worm after 40 minutes, all the while I had been firing out a few pellet every 5 minutes or so on the 10m line, then the float slipped under and I hit a better fish that turned out to be a small carp of about 1-1.5lb

Things then went very slow so I switched to the 10m line with a 4mm expander and had an immediate bite from a roach! Two more bites later and I hit another better fish- another small carp!

I carried on and by swapping between the two lines and also pellet, maggot and worm I ended up with 12 perch,10 roach 4 gudgeon, a blade and the two carp in the 4 hours for 6-05 on the clicker, stopping only when I hooked one of the proper carp that took me to my right and snapped me on a snag by the island.

At this point it may be worth commenting on my kit as you may have noticed me using various boxes and poles! I have the Octbox which is my main match box that I use when on matches and is the only box I have that I bought new, the box in the video is a second hand Matchbox that came without the base which is what I use when I don’t need a lot of kit and not walking too far. I have a complete Matchbox that again was second hand (or more likely fourth or fifth hand!) that I use for Bowood or when I need the base to hold things and can use an old Boss trolley that my son had. I also have a very old canal style stool that Gareth had that I use for odd occasions when I want a box style seat but need to walk a long way without a trolley. Poles – my main match poles are all second hand and about 20 years old a Garbolino Super League and a Garbolino Super Legion, the pole sections are interchangeable but Gareth also has a Super League and I have a third Super League as cover for replacement spares! I also have two Maver Metallica (one from new as I bought it cheap after being impressed by a second hand one I bought) – this is my main pole for pleasure work and Bowood, although I did use the Super Legion for Blacklands! I think I may have too much kit!

Friday 22nd sees me on peg 10 at Bowood for a session starting at 9:45 when the first put in was made and ending at 12:15. Two balls of groundbait and some 2mm expanders were the initial introduction and shortly a roach was deposited in the net, then the small rudd arrived and several were dropped off as they were not hooked but hanging on to the maggots, just as quickly as they had arrived it went quiet. I guessed a pike had been attracted by the activity so wound the pike rod in and put it just beyond my pole tip. Sure enough the pike float disappeared after 5 minutes and a strike produces a heavy thud of a decent fish. A couple of runs later I slipped the net under a pike of 14-04.

Back out on the pole I decided to leave the pike rod close to where I was fishing – just in case. Once again it was slow but the odd blade and small rudd kept the interest until another quiet spell, this time the pike float remained motionless but the pole float went under and I got that familiar feeling when I struck – a solid unmoving weight like the bottom, only, after a couple of seconds the bottom moves – yes a pike! Now I was on my lighter winter kit with a 20 hook and 0.10mm line so it was a bit of struggle but eventually I landed another pike of 5-02.

Back out again and the same thing happens, this time a pike of 8-06 which had at some point been attacked by something as it had a large wound across both sides of its back.

Both of these pike were hooked in the jaw on double white maggot, ignoring the sardine that was close by! I packed up at 12:15 as the weather looked ominous with 8 rudd , 6 blades and the solitary roach for 0-12 making a 28-08 total.

Then Christmas came and the rain made the rivers unfishable on my free days and Bowood would have been a waste. Indeed I was planning to have had a session on the Marden today as I write this as the river was just about fishable when I walked past it in town yesterday but three heavy downpours over night killed that and the river is not fishable, the Avon at Chippenham is flooding below the weir and getting close to the top of the field – roll on 2024. Happy New Year !