Month: July 2026

July 2026 Part 2 -A mixed bag

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A mixed bag of venues!Wednesday 22 sees me visit High Penn for a couple of hours before it got too hot. I set up in what I term North 8 (the fourth peg on the north bank, I start with the furthest peg on the west bank as peg 1!), very straightforward waggler approach but with bulk of 6 no 8 shot set about 15 inches from a size 16 hook with just a further no 8 about 9 inches below that. No groundbait just loose fed maggots, about 10 every couple of minutes on the equivalent of 3 rod lengths. Despite a prolonged attempt with corn, not a bite on it all the bites came to double maggot, ending up with approx 1-13 according to my ounce count, comprising of 3 roach and 16 perch.

Fast forward to Friday and I arrive at Crookwood and despite myself I set up again on peg 56, partly because it was in shade and partly I wanted to see if I could make the Chinese paste work. Set up was as previous visit and fished at 10m. I started by putting in two balls of crushed expander laced with micros and a few 4mm, thereafter I fed 4 -5 4mm pellets with the paste each put in. First two put ins I opted to fish corn, to test the state of play and had a roach and a skimmer , then moved on to the paste. I ended up with the roach, two skimmers, 2 carp of 0-08 and 1-00, 2 tench of 0-12 and 2-00, 4 crucians and 5 bream- best 3lb. I clicked 20lb in total.

Time to scratch that itch- last time I fished Viaduct we had thunder and lightning coupled with monsoon style rain and I caught little, I wanted to try and redeem myself so entered the Tuesday open which surprisingly attracted 20 anglers compared to 8 the last time. Anyway money paid and my fingers pull out 115, the good news being I was on the shaded side of Campbell lake. I had made the decision that I was going to fish exclusively with Chinese paste and as such set up 3 rigs; the first was a basic homemade Chianti style taking 0.6g on 0.20mm line, the second was my Chinese set up fished bottom only with olivette and one dropper to a 14, the final rig was for the margin- just in case! I did relent and also set up a bomb for banded pellet as a back up. Depth was identical at 5m and 10m, starting at 5m was slow with a couple of skimmers and I soon went out to 10m where I spent most of my time ending with 3 carp for 20-02 and a bream net that I clicked 40lb but weighed a lot less at 28-12 for a 48-14 total. I only lost one carp at the net with a hook pull but suffered with numerous liners/ghost bites! The guy on 116 tipped back complaining that he had kept foul hooking the fish and loosing them, the guy on my left had a late run of carp but only had a handful of skimmers. Generally I was happy with that but surprised at the bream as when I have weighed them before on Cary (next door lake) they weighed heavy, hence my clicking!

Moving on to the end of the month I decided to do something I had not done in ages and also visit a venue I last fished about 16 years ago in a snow storm- Flaxlands just outside Royal Wootton Bassett. I had decided to do a bit of pellet feeder work with my 8ft Tricast Power Carp Wand. I rolled up and was fishing by about 8:30 through to almost 1pm. I set up on a very awkward peg on the small lake, peg 14, but it did give total shade up until I left!

Despite me getting my initial pellet all wrong I persevered and the tip was hardly still but few positive bites, 5 small carp were netted best only about 2lb. About 11:45 I decided to put up a float rod- an old Silstar Ian Heaps 11ft canal and using corn had 6 roach on the waggler plus missed several bites in the margins. Total weight about 5lb.

Zachary showing Gareth how to do it!

July2026 Part 1 – Phew!

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As previously mentioned I do not seem to cope very well in very hot conditions in this country so the heatwave we have been experiencing has seen me in doors with the curtains closed and fans on for most of the time. However I have ventured out on two occasions, both time to a venue I last visited when Gareth fished a junior match there and as he has just turned 40 that tells you how long ago that was! The venue is Devizes’ lake – Crookwood. It is off the beaten path somewhat and if you can brave the narrow lane with farm vehicles coming towards you it is relatively easy to find.

Tuesday the seventh sees me arrive to find a match taking place! Fortunately the opposite bank was not used and better still in shade! I settled on peg 56 which turned out to be about 4 feet deep at 10m.

I set up two rigs, a catch all rig involving 0.16mm Tornado to 0.14mm hooklength of same to a 16 and a heavier margin rig for next to the bush with 0.20mm to a 14. Floats were both home made, a “chianti” style on 10m taking a number 6 and 3 no 8 shot, the margin rig a BGT1 variant taking 3 no 8.I cupped in three balls of Swimstim green groundbait liberally spiked with micros and a good pinch of 4mm and corn at 10m. Within a minute the swim was fizzing and double maggot produced a lot of ghost bites with the maggot untouched- I suspected small fry chasing the maggot around causing the bite. Eventually I had two small roach, at which point I changed to corn. The float was still dancing around but now when you got a positive bite the fish were larger. I did also try expander that got interest but the fish were slightly smaller. I finished up the 3 hour session with the shade disappearing and a net comprising of 5 roach, 5 skimmers, 2 perch (one of 0-14) a solitary bream of 2-04 and a hand sized mirror carp that was returned immediately as per the rules for a level 6-00.

The following Tuesday I returned to Crookwood fishing peg 53, again in the shade! I Fished 9:15 to approx11:30 with the same approach although I only set up the same rig on the 10m line, ignoring the margins. Once again the introduction of bait turned the swim into a veritable jacuzzi!

For once I had taken my pole bump-bar and after two small roach and a rudd on maggot went on to the corn with the bump-bar allowing me to keep the float accurately over the feed despite the breeze. Expander was tried again and once more produced a slightly smaller stamp of fish. The highlight of the session was my first tench of the season a tinca of 2-04 which along with 10 skimmers (best 1-04) gave another level 6-00 total!

Still not been on the river and will probably wait until the rain arrives but will continue with High Penn and Crookwood in the meantime. I may yet get a hankering to give Viaduct another go!