Monday 3rd is the first opportunity to get out and Gareth and I headed off to the Pondtail armed just with whips for a short afternoon session, 2:30 to 4. We decided to both fish peg 2 and the miserable start to the year at Bowood has affected the Pondtail also we blanked without seeing a sign of a fish!

Gareth and co were due to fly back on Friday but before then they were going to Newark so Wendy could visit the big Antiques Fair on the Thursday and had booked a lodge at Woodland Lakes so Gareth could have a dabble! Armed with minimal kit (telescopic leger rod and three piece 9ft Beastmaster) he intended to have a go for pike and whatever else was about. Tuesday he manages to get a couple of hours in in the evening and has one bite on the feeder and maggot -a perch 2-12!

Wednesday sees him blank on the specimen lake in the morning and two other lakes during the evening – sum total 1 bite! Thursday he has a short session and manages to get a roach and a skimmer before setting off back. Friday is spent packing and driving them down to Heathrow.

Tuesday 11th was a dry day after two rainy ones so I decided to go crazy and made my way to Bowood but this time the far field- peg 13, armed with a pike rod and feeder combined with the haversack seat. I had been seeing cormorants in the area so I surmised that there must be fish around.

I had been having a hankering to do some proper feeder fishing so the three hours was spent casting the braid 50m out with an open end feeder and double maggot. For the matter of clarity I do not use a shock leader with braid, preferring instead to adjust my casting style so I am not “punching” the feeder out instead using a smooth lobbing action. For once the Bowood Gods smiled at me and I had some bites, ending up with 5 roach in the net although I caught 6!

Valentines Day I go to Rowde on the canal and set up on the first pound just before the start of the overhanging tree. I had just armed myself with Gareth’s pike rod as it was handy (laziness on my part as mine was in the rod holdall) and a 3m whip. Smelt went out on the pike rod and I settled for it just over the far shelf into the boat channel. The whip took about 10 minutes to kick into action and I lost the first two fish I hooked finally getting a roach in my hand!

A gudgeon and a second roach followed sandwiching a jack of 5-02 that I released before I realised I hadn’t taken a picture! I then lost a decent skimmer. Disaster then struck, a further run on the pike rod, wound down to the fish and struck, only for the line to snap just above the butt ring! I saw the float a couple of minutes later about 30m further up and using a bomb cast over it , it appeared that the pike had thrown the single barbless hooks as there was no resistance but the bomb came adrift and the float was not to be seen, probably caught in the weed. I packed up at that point as I did not want to use the line in case it broke again. The reel has had the old line stripped off and new line put on!

So a month starting with lots of woe but things can only get better.