Well I will start with an apology as this is a longer than usual post due to the arrival of Gareth, Wendy and Zachary from China. Anyway before they came I recovered from Makins and went to Bowood peg 4 on Wednesday 3rd fishing 8:45 to 11:45. The colour was dropping out and I was not that hopeful however after potting in a couple of cups of loose intermingled with a few bits of corn and wheat I settled down with my usual rig and started getting the ubiquitous rudd before it went quiet and a slow disappearance of the float signalled the first of ten bream (biggest 3-14) and a tench of exactly 5lb to go with 9 rudd a roach and a skimmer for a 32-08 total. Packing away I was a bit hamfisted more more of that later.

That was it until I returned from Gatwick on Monday 8th with the family in tow. Gareth had already joined Bowood on the premise that twenty visits would be cost effective and he was returning during his winter break. So wasting no time and jet lag put to one side he dragged me off to Bowood. We settled on Peg 5 for Gareth and I went on 6 for our short evening session of a couple of hours. Fishing as before I had a slow start while Gareth managed a bream of 3-01 early on but then it slowed for him and he added 2 skimmers and some roach and rudd for a 5-04 total. I had managed to get three small bream- 1-11,2-08, 2-10, plus two larger skimmers that went approx 1-12 combined for a total of 9-01 when my 8rudd and solitary roach was added.

Next day fishing 3:30 to 5:40pm Gareth decided to fish peg 4 and I went on 5, despite me warning him that Sod’s Law would apply and the fish would turn up on 5. That was the case! A tench of 3-06 and bream of 2-06,2-00 and 2-06 plus 8rudd, a skimmer and 2 roach provided me with a 11-06 total, Gareth struggled with 18 rudd and a skimmer for about 2lb. It is now I had better explain about my hamfistedness earlier, when packing away I had managed to put one of the other pole tops inside my top section resulting in me having the elastic on the other top snap, leaving the stonfo and bush jammed in the section that I had been using and despite all efforts they are still in there which is restricting the elastic somewhat!

Wednesday 2:30 to 4:45, I was on 6, Gareth went on 5. Gareth had no luck and 2 roach and 6 rudd, while I had a bream of 2-10, 8 rudd and a pike of 5-02 on the pole which was interesting to say the least! No fishing until the Monday as Gareth and family went off to do various things. Gareth fancied going light and fishing the Pondtail, as I had asked about fish from the bank as the temporary compound they had set up for the bridge repair was still in use, cutting off access to the platforms. As it turned out it seems the last few sections had been angled to allow access to the last platform so we both went on that . Gareth fished the feeder and I fished a waggler. Gareth had three roach on the corn or maggot while I had 9 roach and a perch on double wheat in the short time we were there.

Next visit was Thursday 18th, with me on 5 and Gareth on 6 I ended up with a tench of 4-04 and 8 bream and two skimmers for a 24-09 total . Gareth at last had a few bream plus a tench of 4-08. The evening ended with me striking into the last bream of 2-12 before it began to fight very strangely and appeared very heavy. When closer in the reason became apparent a long bodied pike had grabbed the bream around the head and appeared to have got itself stuck! Unfortunately I could not get it into the net as it was too long and Gareth came over and tried to net it but couldn’t either, finally managing to knock the pike off the bream so I could net the bream, which incidentally swam off fine later none the worse for it’s experience. The pike actually stayed very close in to the platform sulking for a good few minutes!

Friday sees us back at the Pondtail between 11:30 and 1-00, this time with the whips, this time however the fish didn’t want the wheat, preferring double maggot, I ended with just four roach and two perch while Gareth had 28 roach and 6 perch for a level 4lb. Sunday 21st sees me on peg5 and Gareth on 6. Gareth had a tench of 4-08 and two bream plus silvers for a level 10lb I had bream of 2-11, 2-04 and 2-04 plus 8roach and 2 skimmers for 9-01. I also lost a pike at the net when the hook pulled although it had given us an exhibition of tail walking twice!

Monday sees us take Zachary to the canal at Horton for an hour where some roach kept him entertained.

Later that day we went back to Bowood where Gareth fancied peg 5 (wanting a pike) and I was on peg 6. Sod’ law applied once more during our session of 6:25 to 8:25 and although Gareth had a tench of 4-04 plus silvers but no pike I had five bream eight roach and 2 blades for 15-06 best bream weighing 4-06.

Tuesday sees us there in the afternoon for a 2:45 to 5pm session with the colour dropping out I was on 6 and Gareth fancied 7. Fishing the same way as all our sessions I managed 14 rudd, 2roach and 2 skimmers plus a bream of 3-04 and a small tench of 2-00 for a 6-00 total while Gareth had a tench of 4-00 and numerous rudd for 8-08.

The last full day before heading off to Gatwick for a morning flight back to China on the Friday. We did not go to Bowood! Zachary wanted to go fishing so we booked Malborough tickets on line and took him to Froxfield on the Kennet and Avon Canal. The canal was in a bit of a state with a lot of far bank weed growth and it took some time to find a place we could fish as you can see from the picture!

Anyway armed with a 3m whip for Zachary and Gareth with a 4.5m one we gave it a go with a strong tow it was not easy but Zachary managed to catch 3 roach and 2 blades on his own while Gareth had a few roach, perch and gudgeon. Highlight was when a jack pike took a fish on the whip but unfortunately let go before Gareth could land it. Zachary was happy and an hour fishing was enough so we fought our way back through the jungle to the car!

So back to the normal routine now they are safely back in China!

Some of the catches we had-