To kick off the rest of March I head for the Three Magpies with the whips and pike rod. Well they didn’t like the sardine so no pike again but maggot on the 5m whip fared a little better with eleven skimmers six roach and two perch of 1-04 and 0-15 for around 4lb in total.

Saturday sees me driving up to the Glebe near Hinckley for a Maggotdrowners match when everything would count. I drew peg 8 which I have drawn before so I had a rough idea of what to expect and set up a feeder/bomb, a long pole rig with a 0.8g homemade slim rugby ball float on 0.16mm line and a 16 hook, a 5m rig of similar specs but with a 0.5g homemade float and a margin rig on 0.20mm Shogun to a 14 with a homemade BGT style float. I started off cupping in 3 balls of groundbait with micros some 4mm and corn on the 11m line and went out on the feeder. I also started with a single ball on the 5m line and drip fed 4mm over the top with the occasional 2-3 pieces of corn. Two hours later and not having had a bite on either the feeder/bomb or the 11m or 5m line I finally managed a bite on the 5m line which turned out to be the biggest one I had at 9lb. The skimmers then moved in sporadically and with no further carp I turned to the margins.

The right hand margin looked the better of the two as it was slightly deeper and had some enticing strands pf vegetation in the water while the left had a pollarded tree in the water. However I fed both with micros, and corn along with loose feeding 4mm pellet. As it turned out apart from one skimmer from the right hand margin all the action was in the left hand one as a series of carp ended up in my net but I had a run of five foul hooked carp that came off apart from a dinner plate of a scale! I took a chance in the last 45 minutes and put in a lot more groundbait which did not work as I only had two more carp, one was still being played at the whistle! The scales arrived and my 5 skimmers/bream weighed 9-01, first net weighed 36-04 (I only clicked 30) and the second net 28-00 ( I clicked 23) to give a total of 73-05. The only other loss apart from the 5 foul hookers was a carp that came adrift as the elastic and line jammed around by toss-pot.

Following Wednesday sees me drive up to Boddington reservoir to make final preparations for the silvers match I was running on the Saturday. I set up on peg 37, just at the top of the slope as I had booked pegs 34-45 for the match.

I set up with a 6m Chinese whip and a 1g Paster float top tackle the 10.5 feet of water with a 0.12mm main line to a 0.10mm hook-link and 18 hook. Putting in three small balls of firmish groundbait at the start with just a sprinkle of maggots and loose feeding a pinch of maggots with the occasional squash ball sized ball of groundbait I managed to scratch about 20 roach out on double maggot, they would not look at single. I only intended fishing for three hours and I stuck to that as by the end I had finished my flask of coffee during the sunny spells between the wintery driving hail stones! The roach I did get were of decent size.

Saturday arrives and I am left with the last peg in the bag which turns out to be 36!

I set up the same 6m whip rig and also a waggler with a homemade float taking 3AAA with the bulk around the float and 4 droppers. Fishing in a similar way I was biteless until the three hour mark when I had a bite on the waggler at 20m and missed it! Ten minutes later another bite on the waggler and missed again and that was it for my match – a blank! We also had the full spectrum of cold, sun, snow and hail! The match was tough for everyone with some tipping back 2/3 fish while the sections were won with 4lb weights although most who did weigh in were around the pound or solitary large perch. A very disappointing outcome given what it is capable of.

Meanwhile back in China Gareth has been fishing the Shiqi river with chopped worm in a feeder catching a variety of fish including silver bream and the one below which I think the Chinese call a white trout of approx 2lb.

My next match now is not until June although I should have had one in May but have pulled out as Gareth has invited me to China for five days fishing during the May day celebrations there!