It has been a slow start to the new year with a heavy cold and weather conditions preventing me from going more than two times. First out was a visit to Blacklands, prompted by the weather conditions making the river unfishable and Bowood equally so for a variety of factors. Anyway the wife suggested going to Blacklands as it was close so who am I to argue!

Friday the fifth sees me on peg 4 on Heron lake at Blacklands, the first peg beyond the now overgrown bench peg! The water was very coloured and the slope down to the peg was quite slippery so I was happy to get down in one piece.There is a groundbait ban at Blacklands and I did not have any worms so my attack was going to be pellet and maggot/casters – these were the white maggots left over from Monk Hall back in September that had been stored in my bait fridge! I set up one rig on a top kit with a Chinese hollow elastic that equated to a 6-8, a chianti style homemade job to 0.12mm line and 0.10mm hooklength to an 18 barbless.

I primed two swims at 10m the left hand one with a decent amount of 2mm expanders and the right hand one with about 50 of the maggot/caster mix, there after I loose fed over the top of both lines. It was cold and the water very coloured so I was not surprised when I didn’t get an immediate response, however after two hours of inactivity I was stunned when the float went under with double maggot which produced a little hybrid of about 3oz. Ten minutes later I had another bite which I hooked but lost on the way in. A further ten minutes passed before a third bite produced a bream of about 2 to 2.5lb, I had inexplicably forgotten to put the scales in which I was to regret!

Another lost fish followed soon after before pulling out of a better fish possibly a carp but may also have been one of the big perch that frequent Heron. A lull followed and after a couple of cups of coffee the float dipped and I hit into a solid fish that I guided towards me slowly but with no great drama until it realised it was hooked and decided it didn’t like it – this was the start of a ten minute battle which ultimately saw me shuffle the carp into the net -just! It was too precarious to unhook on my seat so I took it up onto the flat grassy bank behind to unhook. My guess was it was between 15 and 18lb having weighed similar fish in the past, a quick photo and back it went, leaving me to have another cup of coffee and to take the decision to pack up and go which may appear strange but there is a reason behind my madness! Heron has very specific tackle requirements based on carp fishing but out of camping season they turn a blind eye so I can fish for the silvers, I don’t want to spoil the opportunity for others as if they see me on the cctv hooking/ landing carp consistently then they may change their mind about allowing silvers fishing!

Moving on to the Monday I ventured to Bowood peg 10 although I did have reservations given we had experienced a run of sub-zero temperatures overnight and day temperatures not getting much beyond 1C. On arrival it was -1C, the water was highly coloured with a max of three inches visibility in to it. The water from pegs 3 to 6 were covered in a layer of ice with the early pegs clear due to the flow of water coming into the lake from the tiny brook. All the pegs were covered with debris so the water had obviously risen over the platforms but now was some two feet below the platform so the sluice at the far end of the lake had clearly been opened to reduce the pressure on the dam at the end of the lake.

Having outlined my excuses you can guess what is coming! Fishing from 9:15 to 12:00 not a bite, no sign of any fish either on the pole or on the pike rod, even trying jigging a maggot under the platform, normally a blank saver with small fish, failed. So a trudge back up the hill fishless! Since then been a bit under the weather with a heavy head cold and have got to go to Heathrow next Saturday to collect Gareth and tribe who are visiting for a couple of weeks. Hope the fishing improves by then for him!