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October 2024 Part 2 -Back to Bowood.

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With my match commitments over until February my attention turns to Bowood. Tuesday 15th October, my late father’s birthday is a day I always try to go fishing if possible as it was he who started me on my fishing journey. Anyway peg 10 was available and I had the lake to myself so setting up the pike rod I realised I only had a few usable sardines left so a visit to Devizes to order some fresh was in order. First cast was 9:15 and I fished until 12, I just managed to get the pole set up and the depth plumbed when the pike float bobs and sets off resulting in a very feisty fish of 7-12 coming to the net eventually.

The pole line was eventually fed with a couple of balls of groundbait with some micros, corn and wheat which produced 16 rudd and 4 roach for 2-08 fishing my lighter set up as previously.After the first pike it was a forty minute wait until the float zipped under for a more sluggish fish of 7-02. A further twenty minutes later I miss a run!!! Recasting leads to another run after ten minutes but this time on striking all hell breaks loose, the clutch screams and a very big pike is on, playing it carefully it breaks surface and if looks a damn sight longer and thicker than the twenties I have had -then disaster, the hook inexplicably pulls!!! I have a coffee to steady myself before recasting and at five to twelve the float goes again with a fish if 8-06, at which point I call it a day with a 26-12 total as the sardines have been seriously depleted.

Next day I went to Devizes and ordered a kilo of sardines ready for my return the following week after a family commitment in Yorkshire. It was a full ten days before I was back on peg 10 – this time it was my birthday! Again fishing 9:15 to 12 with the usual set ups I was greeted after arriving at the peg with rain! The pike were not so active today with a solitary jack of 4-00 but the 28 rudd, 3 roach and 11 little skimmers/blades made the total an acceptable 8-02.

Sunday sees me back at Bowood but peg 10 was taken by someone not fishing for pike, so I decided to give him room and dropped in at peg 8 which is a good 35-40yards away. Setting up as usual but having to adjust the floats with 24 inches less depth it was a very slow start with an hour passing before my first bite, a rudd. I then had a run on the pike rod that resulted in a missed run, casting back to the same spot brought a run after five minutes from a jack of 5-06.

The pole line was slow but introduction of some chopped worm and a worm head as bait saw me end with 14 rudd and a single roach, I also missed a further run in the pike rod while chatting to the guy on peg 10 who had packed up and was on his way back to his car.

Wednesday 30 sees my last chance this month to go so 8:45 to 12:00 was the session – no pike runs whatsoever but I had 5 pike strikes around my pole float- easy to spot as a large plume of bubbles hit the surface as the pike clears its gills following the strike. In between the interruption of the pike I managed 13roach, 17 rudd, 3 skimmers and 3 perch for a level 3-00.

I should explain some of my approaches to pike fishing at Bowood, firstly I own 3 unhooking mats of various descriptions but will not use them at Bowood as I have found that the pike are far more amenable if placed on the soft, springy moss and tend not to thrash about which they seem to do on the unhooking mats so are less likely to damage themselves. My two single hook rigs are home made and are not always pretty to look at but they do work and I lose no more fish than I do with trebles. The bottom hook goes through the underside of the sardine’s mouth and out through the top, while the second goes through the back close to the dorsal fin.

October 2024 Part 1 – WOW!

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I am going to start this a bit differently! Gareth, my son in China, had a few days off so what does he do- he books a flight to Thailand for the Wednesday, fishing on Thursday and flight back on Friday!. So he gets there with my grandson Zachary on the Wednesday, spends the night in a hotel in Bangkok, gets a pre-booked taxi to the fishing lake on Thursday (the drive is about 40mins and the drivers waits there for him) and gets to his “peg” – a bungalow/chalet on stilts at the edge of the lake and fishes from the verandah/ staging of the bungalow. All tackle and bait provided as are the services of a guide. The lake in question has a reputation of providing customers with 2-3 fish a day with 10 fish being stated as exceptional. The lake is very deep 40+ feet and the method is like a massive bagging waggler/ pellet waggler with paste.The fish are a mixture of Mekong catfish and Siamese carp. Early on he latches in to a fish and gets it in but the guide has to call for help as it is only the largest fish in the lake -an 80kg (approx 176lb) Mekong catfish, it takes three guides to get the fish out of the water!

Now if this wasn’t enough he goes on to land further Mekongs and Siamese of 20, 30, 30, 25, 40, 30, 13 (carp), 35, 30, 30, 30, 35, 40,40, 35,20,30, 20, 20, 25 (carp) all in KG! 21 fish in total plus he lost a further 15 when they went under the stilts of the chalet! He packed up early with still time left on his ticket as he was shattered! Zachary managed to get a Mekong also with the help of the guide!

Back to our reality! Bowood October 2nd peg 10 started with bait in water at 9:20 until 12:00. Pike rod out and the autumn/winter set up on pole- lighter elastic and 0.12mm to a 0.10mm hooklength and 18 hook! Two balls of groundbait with a few micros and corn plus 6 grains of corn introduced and roach appeared after 10 minutes to be rudely interrupted after a further five with the pike float disappearing! A very feisty fight ensued with a pike of 8-08 giving a very good account of itself given its size!

More roach then the rudd took over interspersed with another pike of 7-06 and a third one of about 5-6lb that threw the hooks!. Ended up with 34 rudd and 6 roach for 5-10 making a total of 21-08.

Friday 4th sees me back at peg 10 fishing 9:30 to 12:00 set up the same as last visit but today was a lot harder. 10 roach 1 skimmer and no rudd! I had two runs on the pike rod, both lost with hook pulls. The first I had on for about 5 minutes- a very big fish that was taking line of the clutch – I am a “back winder” and the clutch only comes in to play under extreme pressure. This fish felt as if it was a twenty and a good twenty at that when it broke surface you could see the thickness of its back and length. The second while smaller was also a double again lost after a shorter fight. I changed the trace after this visit!

Two days later back at Bowood but I was a bit later having to do some errands first and found someone on peg 10, so I slotted in on 8 in order to give the other angler plenty of room. Now peg 8 is a good 18 inches to 2ft shallower than 10 but can throw up surprises! Not today though as no runs on the pike rod and my one bite on the pole produced a massive one ounce roach half way through my 10am to 12pm session! The angler on 10 fared little better with just about 10 small fish.

On to Tuesday 8th back on 10 started at 9:30 and packed up at 11 after 11 roach and 6 rudd as at 10:30 the heavens opened and biblical rain fell so heavy I could not see neither my pole float nor my pike float! I got back to the car just as the rain eased in intensity. Returning home things were just about getting clear, so laid things out to dry in garage and went in to find my wife had to catch a couple of parcels from the postman as he couldn’t get close to the door because of the depth of water that was in the dip in front of the door, indeed he had to throw a stone at the door to get her attention. Fortunately the water had dissipated by the time I returned!

The rest of the week has devoted to drying kit and getting ready for the silvers match I was running at Meadowlands near Coventry. I usually only pay sections in my matches as it encourages everyone to keep going as they know they can still pick up even if the area is poor. In the end 16 fished the match with two no shows, fortunately they had paid the peg fee so my costs were covered. Anyway I ended up with the scales for my section on peg 3.

The picture was taken at the end of the match, the start was marked by a short shower! As you can see the peg was in a wooded section and the tree cover above the peg meant I would need to fish the pole only as a waggler or feeder would be catching the various branches. Calling the all in I started by introducing two balls of groundbait with caster and worm at 11m directly in front of me with a pot of wheat introduced to my right at 2 o’clock also at 11m in the ubiquitous 3 feet of water. I had set up just two rigs, the first with a bulk about 8 inches from the 18 hook with a number11 dropper. The other was set up as a strung out on the drop rig. Both rigs were 0.12mm line to 0.10mm hooklength and 18 hooks, the on the drop float was a homemade chianti style taking 0.5g, the bulk rig was a BGT2 in 0.5g

Starting on double maggot a couple of roach appeared but it was slow so single red maggot produced a faster response include one from a tench of approx 3lb, a few skimmers then appeared and after an hour I had clicked 7lb. I then switched to worm head and began to get skimmers when the inevitable blank spell heralded the arrival of carp!

I then had a frustrating remainder of the match hooking carp (two landed 9lb and 6lb, 2 snapped hooklength and 3 hook pulls) or spooking carp – striking at a “bite” to see bow waves shoot from the swim! I ended up weighing in 9-14 made up of the tench 6 skimmers, 7 roach and 2 perch! The section was close with me being 15 oz from picking up an envelope for 2nd in section! The other irritant was the trees were shedding their leaves (being Autumn and all) so at various points we were being rained on by leaves which made shipping out more awkward as you were constantly trying not to hook a leaf!

Section 1
Peg 3 BGT 9-14
4 Martin Paynter 12-01
6 Deal or no deal 8-12
7 Craig Merritt 10-00
9 Pete Hunt 10-13
10 NOT DRAWN

Now after last months lessons I did go back and reread the post from last years match and did try the close in line to no avail, however Darren who was over the other side on 20 won the section and had best weight on the day (27-12) by coming in to the 2+2 line and finding skimmers when he was being carped out on the long line.

No more matches now until next year, so my focus returns to Bowood!

September 2024 Part 2 – Lessons unlearned!

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Sunday 15th saw me arrive at Bowood to try and shake off the effects of the Glebe! Fishing from 9:45 to 12:15 on peg 10 saw me start with the bulk set about eight inches from the 16 hook under a home made teardrop float taking 0.6g over two balls of groundbait laced with a bit of wheat and corn. Things were not frantic fishing my usual 10m and I scratched out 9 rudd, 6 roach and a hybrid for a 4-02 which gives an indication of the size I was catching!

I returned on the Tuesday to peg 10 and fishing the same way managed 28 rudd and 6 roach for 3-15, emphasising the quality of the fish on the Sunday! There was a lot of pike activity with the odd blank period when I am sure one was lying in wait in the swim. As an aside I had bought some Chinese jelly “pellets” in a variety of flavours and I tried the honey flavoured one which was a sweetcorn colour and caught on it!

The flavours minus the Honey left to right are Herb, Fruit, Milk and Fish!

Nothing further was possible as the three day event at Monkhall drew close. I was a running the event but in all honesty I had/have no illusions of me being anything but pools fodder making up the numbers. The methods at the venue are usually fishing shallow with casters, a method I do not enjoy and cannot afford to do with a gallon needed over the 3 days! Given my comments about pools fodder I approach these matches as an opportunity to fish a different venue but use methods I am comfortable with- ie fishing to my strengths.

Day 1 sees me draw Swallow peg 17, on a positive note, the day stayed dry, but the wind we had once the match started was blowing down the other end the lake starting two pegs away, so I had no ripple at all.

Yes I was end peg with plenty of room! The four rigs I set up were a paste rig for 2+2, a pellet rig for on the deck, an on the drop full depth rig and a margin rig for both edges. Elastics were 2.2mm hybrid Chinese ones with rigs mainly 0.16 to 0.14mm with hooks 16 apart from the margin and paste which were 14 and 12 respectively. No groundbait allowed so corn, paste, micros, 4mm, expanders and three week old maggots were the baits of choice! Starting at 2+2 on paste and potting in some micros it took about 10 minutes before I had a bite that resulted ion a carp of about 4lb hooked in the tail- at this point the alarm bells should have been ringing! After the first hour I had clicked 11lb and then things went to pot (literally). To cut a long story short I weighed in 23-13 after long blank spells interspersed with 14 fish hooked- all foul hooked- and 14 fish lost! My worst day at the venue and last in four peg section ! I was not alone as Herbie was opposite me and suffered a similar fate getting only one carp and a few silvers.

On to day two everyone wanted to draw Buzzard rather than Hawk, so with two discs left in the bag, Buzzard was pulled out leaving me peg 3 on Hawk! The photos are deceiving as later in rained!

Setting up same as previously except I went down to the 2mm Chinese hybrid elastic I started fast with three carp in the net for 8lb before anyone else had a fish , then disaster I bumped a fish and they disappeared Fishing out at 10m, 2+2 or margins resulted in the same thing – frustration. I was getting bites, some may have been liners but some were definite bites all of which were missed in the next 3 hours. I did manage to get a couple of fish in the net for a 26-09 total which left me last again, but on the positive side I only lost 4 foul hookers!

So the final day I was scheduled to be on Owl as we had Swallow and Owl on the first and third day, so we always swap to fish the other lake from day 1. I drew Owl 9 which if you recall from a previous blog I had fished in a practice session earlier in the year! (no photos this time!) It was the worst of the three days with one carp in the net after an hour and at times I could not buy a bite. I lost 7 foul hookers and weighed in 20-07 for last again. The overall winner had a perfect score of three points but he did have an advantage- he was next to me on all three days!

Returning home I was convinced that I had made a major blunder with the addition of the micros as it seemed that too many fish were drawn in to the peg and rooting about causing the foul hookers and liners. Reading my blog from previous visits I gave myself a good telling off as I had made the point previously that 4mm were better at avoiding foul hookers although others were using micros at times and they complained of the same. I must remind myself to reread posts if visiting venues and learn from them!

Sunday sees me head to Bowood to start my pike campaign having picked up a kilo of sardines on the Friday .Peg 10 (of course) looked a bit rough as there was debris all over it. Obviously there had been flooding (the town had also suffered from flooding) but it seemed they had opened the sluice at the far end of the lake to run the excess water off and had not closed it soon enough as the level was about 18inches lower than I expected. I set up slightly differently after ten minutes as I felt the weed might now not be such an issue after the flooding so moved the bulk about two feet up the line leaving two sets of 2 x no9 droppers. Two balls of groundbait but I did not take any wheat with me, instead I had decided to use some of the left over 4mm pellet and also took the expanders. Starting on maggot it was about 20minutes before I had a roach, after 6 more I put on a 4mm expander and apart from one rudd on corn I stuck with the expander for the rest of the session between 9:30 and 12:15 on the pole. I had cast out the pike rod with my newly acquired sardine at 9:15(chimes ringing out from the clock tower) Nd after an hour reeled in to recast to find that the sardine was not there! New sardine attached to my standard two single barbless carp hook rig to 15lb wire and cast out to 12m. Thirty minutes later the pellet waggler I use on a sliding rig disappears, a strike and a feisty pike comes to the net, except the net gets caught on the reeds and an arm comes out, so I have a pike in front of me and no net to use! Slipping the anti-reverse on I put the rod between my legs and sorted the net, picking the rod up again and anti-reverse off I finally get the pike in the net! 8-08 the first of the autumn.

October will see a silvers match at Meadowlands and hopefully more pike action!

September 2024 Part 1 – All Change!

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September 1st arrives and being a Sunday I decided to just grab the 10′ waggler and the seat bag and have an hour on the Pondtail. You may remember that the bridge at the start of the lake partly collapsed last winter and it has slowly been rebuilt with a compound formed for the plant and materials that cut off both pegs. During the summer peg 2 became available again but today the compound had been radically shortened and both were now available- except peg 1 was hidden behind a forest of 3 foot nettles that I will tackle at a later date, so peg 2 it was.

Fishing the waggler at about 15m with double maggot I managed 26 roach and 6 perch by loose feeding wheat after a single ball of groundbait was introduced. The fish pulled the scales down to 3-15. The other picture is looking down the Pondtail towards the main lake. As an aside I had bought a Chinese carbon extending landing net handle to go with a net head I had bought some time ago (the threads are smaller than in UK). It allows the user to set it at any distance from 60cm to 3m, it is on the heavy side compared to the more conventional handles but is very robust and ideal to stick in the pocket of a rucksack – it worked well on this outing.

Tuesday 3rd and I decided on peg 7, still weedy but I felt there was still a chance of bream and tench while the weed remained.Fishing 9:15 to 12, it was not hectic and despite the pike activity I managed 14 rudd, 3 roach a skimmer and a bream of 3-04 all on corn for a 5-06 total. I did lose a large unseen fish in the weed that I am sure was foul hooked from the way it fought.

My focus now shifted to preparing for the three day Pairs at the Glebe, although through a series of events the pairs became seeded teams of three. We had been lucky to negotiate pools 5,6, and 7 rather than 1 and 6 which was our original allocation so my preparation for pairs went out of the window and I drew up new sheets and lists for the Teams of 3! Monday 9th came, I collected in the pools and explained the rotation of lakes Group A (the superstars!) would fish 5 then 6 then 7, Group B, 6,7 and 5 while my group (C -the poolsfodder!) would fish 7,5,6.

So the last peg in the bag for me was 104 – not brilliant but hey-ho. Arriving at the peg it was very windy and I opted to set up a feeder for the far side,four pole rigs to cover 11m, 5m and two margin rigs. Line was mainly 0.18mm for out in front and 0.20mm for the margins. During a brief respite from the wind I managed to remember to take some pictures!

Starting on the feeder, in 20 minutes there were no indications so that went on the rack and the pole went out to 11m where I had fed 3 balls of groundbait, micros, 4mm pellets and corn. To say it was slow was an understatement, after 2 hours I had managed two skimmers. Tony on my right was fairing no better, the 5m line produced a solitary carp of 3lb and a skimmer so it was to the margins I looked. I had primed the left one with hemp and corn while the right had been given micros and corn with the odd 4mm. The last two hours saw me pinch a carp from either side and by rotating this I managed to get 37-10 of carp and 11-07 of skimmers for a 49-01 total, losing just 4 carp. Tony pipped me by a pound and an ounce weighing in 50-02 with fewer fish but of a better stamp, leaving me last in the group!

Next day sees me on pool 5 peg 78, however the weather had taken a turn for the worse and we had heavy rain and wind all day. I had unfortunately looked at my phones weather forecast which suggested the odd light shower so had put on my over-trousers (which have a hole in the crotch area- you can see what is coming!) rather than my bib and brace which is watertight but more awkward for calls of nature! Needless to say by the end I was absolutely soaked from the waist down.

I did manage one picture during a brief break in the weather before the start but it was all downhill from this point on. Setting up exactly the same rigs I decided I needed to attack the swim more late on so mixed up 1.5kg of groundbait which for me is a lot!First cast on the feeder sees a 4lb mirror carp in the net then nothing so after 40 minutes on to the 11m line for a couple of bream then nothing.Basically with an hour and a half to go I had clicked 25lb in my nets, at this point I but 5 full cups of groundbait with maggots into the right margin and put 6 maggots on my size 14 hook and went in on top. Three minutes later the float started to wobble and eventually went under with an angry carp attached. That is how it played out, for the last hour or so- catch a carp cup in a pot of groundbait and maggots, repeat.I had clicked 37lb in one net and I usually start another net if it is close to 40lb simply so that I can lift it (the net limit is 60lb) I had just put a couple of carp in the second carp net when I landed a lump of a fish that they reckoned was the largest caught on that pool that day, although not weighed a conservative estimate was 15lb. The all out called, the weigh in showed I had 5-11 of silvers, the first carp net that I clicked at 37lb was 37-03, the second net I had clicked at 39lb weighed 46-01, now I had given myself 12lb on the clicker for the lump so it could well have been closer to 20lb than 15lb! My weight of 88-15 put me 4th on the lake. I then spent the night drying off my clothes!

The final day sees me on peg 92. Now dry and in the bib and brace the continuing very heavy wind and rain (once the all in was called! ) saw me struggle as on day 1. Nothing on the feeder and mainly skimmers at 11m with the odd carp, going in to the margins late on fishing as on day 2 I had the frustration of hooking 7 carp and losing all seven, most I am sure were foul hooked by the way they went. I was glad when I called the all out! My paltry net of 22-02 of silvers and 20-09 of carp put me last with 42-11. My “team” did little better so we finished last as well!

The month finishes off with another 3 day event, this time at Monkhall near Bridgnorth.

August 2024 part 2 – Best Laid Plans!

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Well the second half of the month didn’t get started for a variety of reasons until Wednesday 21st when i traveled down to Witherington Farm on the outskirts of Salisbury to meet up with Clive aka sidestreambob whose write up of the day can be read via the link.

The purpose of the day was to pass on a pole that Tim had asked me to donate to someone as he had been given it and he was not able to make use of it. Clive had never held a pole much less fished with one so it took a bit of persuasion (ie nagging) for him to finally agree to tr it out. I had selected Sellwood as the lake as apart from being reasonably shallow you could usually get the silvers feeding with chances of carp down the margins. Having met up, booked in and got to the selected peg I ran through the basics of putting the pole together, what not to do and attaching rigs. – you can read the details in Clive’s account! Basically the silvers were not playing ball around the lake but after two missed bites and a lost fish Clive hooked into a bream of approx 2lb which he managed to land.

Following on from this he had no more silvers but did manage carp of 5-08, 4-12 and 5-08 on the skimmer rig before moving on to a beefier elastic for the margin. It should be said that the pole did not have a puller bung so it took more time than usual to get the carp in but it is to Clive’s credit that he managed it. The margin produced a few missed bites and a further carp of 7-12.

Various domestic commitments meant that it was not until the following Tuesday that I landed at Bowood on peg 8. Now on arrival there was a breeze blowing left to right and plumbing up found that although I had dragged the swim not so long ago, the weed was still very problematic!. Basically I started at 9:00 and packed up at 11:15 as the breeze had turned into a fierce wind that was causing me all kinds of problems including trying to keep the pole from being dragged around – after the third failed attempt to keep the pole in front of me I gave it best and ended with five roach and two rudd for 1-04 with only one rudd lost. Tactics were my usual ones for Bowood, in fact I have used the same rig for most of the summer! I have mentioned before that Bowood almost has a micro climate and it was certainly in evidence as the wind was non-existent at home which is only 3 minutes away!

Friday 30th sees me at peg 6 at Bowood with a mirror like surface and no wind (until an hour in!). Starting at 8:45 I fished until 11:30 with the usual tactics of loose groundbait, corn, loose fed wheat and maggot on the hook. It took about 10 minutes to get the first indication, that I missed but soon had two roach in the net that were a bigger stamp than earlier in the season. A quiet period resulted in a Polaris type lift of the float and a better fish which turned out to be a bream of exactly 3lb. The mirror like surface was now rippled with, thankfully, a gentle breeze blowing right to left. I was hopeful of more bream but none materialised and I ended with 6 roach and 4 rudd to go with the bream for a 4-08 total. I tried double wheat but it was immediately taken by a tiny rudd so binned that idea.

With September on the doorstep there are two three day events I need to prepare for, the Pairs at the Glebe and Herbie’s festival at Monkhall.

August 2024 Part 1 Hot times

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Well I managed to sneak an hour on the Pondtail before the end of July between 9:30 and 10:30 by which time it was too hot for me (I prefer the cold!). Don’t think the fish were enjoying it either as 8 roach and 4 perch for 1-04 on maggot was my lot.

The hot weather continued and it was the Sunday when I went to Boddington for a silvers match I had been invited on by Darren Edgell. The match was pegged on the dam wall but I had not known that and had parked in the usual car park so had to trudge all along the wall to the far side with the kit for the draw which left me on the end peg- peg 5. I had left the whips at home and had taken my Bowood pole and a waggler rod so I decided on a short line, another at about 8m and a waggler line at about 20m, feeding maggot on all three lines with the occasional pouch of wheat. I had set up a rig taking 0.8g bulked a couple of feet from the hook with two droppers to a 16 hook on 0.10mm, plus a BGT2 wire stem in 0.5 fished shirt button style again to a 0.10mm hooklength and 16 hook. The match was a bit stop start, the short line produced a few fish but very slow so I spent most time on the 8m line which was frustrating as I would catch 3 or 4 fish then it would go quiet and Darren who was drawn next to me on peg 6 would catch, I reckoned the shoal was moving back and forth to avoid the attention of pike as every so often there would be a plume of bubbles as the pike cleared it’s gills after a strike. In the quiet periods I eventually turned to the waggler with a slow sinking set up and picked up the odd roach out there. By the end I had amassed 100 roach and 7 perch for 12-12 with most of the fish being smaller than the usual stamp at Boddington. This left me 9th out of the 12 anglers taking part with the majority of the better weights being down the other end of the match length!

The weather was just not conducive to me going fishing so it wasn’t until the Friday that I ventured to Bowood fishing peg 6 from 9:30 to 12:00 The weather had had an effect on the water as the weed growth had sprouted like topsy and I was having difficulty getting a bait down to the bottom. Using my usual tactics and rig with the bulk moved right down to the hook length it was hard going but a bream of 3lb, 3 skimmers,3 roach and 26 rudd for a 6-04 total kept me busy.

A visit to Yorkshire then took out the time until Wednesday14th when I returned to Bowood with the weed rake. I decided to fish peg 10 as that was likely to be less affected by weed but raked pegs 6, 7 and 8 for the future, peg 5 was left as it was very dense! The raking meant I only fished from 10-12 and it was not brilliant with problems always being able to find the clear patches and just 9 rudd and 5 skimmers for 1-13.

Friday 16th sees me travel up to the Glebe for a Maggotdrowers match. I drew well for a change peg 75 on lake 4- the last peg on the lake.However,apart from a short 15minute period the wind was starting at the middle of the lake and blowing down to the other end leaving me with a mirror like surface to fish in the bright sun.

Peg 75 left margin, in front, right margin shown above. I set up 4 rigs a mugging rig (that in the end didn’t get used!), a margin rig with 0.20mm line to a 14 (the left margin being deeper than the right by about 5 inches), a paste rig for the 5m line angled to the right and a bottom rig for the 11m line. I also set up a light bomb rather than a feeder. Due to the bright and very hot conditions I opted to put two balls of groundbait laced with micros and acorn on the 11m mark, one ball with some micros on the paste line, the left margin received a ball plus micos, 4mm and corn while the right margin had a full cup of hemp with a few grains of corn.

Starting on the bomb I cast out towards the aerator with first corn and then 8mm pellet, while firing 6mm out, a couple of plucks from probably roach saw me put the rod up the bank after 20 minutes and look to the 11m line which at this point was fizzing. The float remained motionless! Finally it went under and a 1lb skimmer was in the net. Shipping out I saw a carp cruising over the fizzing area so dropped the corn in front of it, down it went and the float went as well! Soon a carp of 6lb was in the carp net but that was it on the 11m line. The paste line was next and a couple of missed bites and twitches on the float eventually saw a porpoising bream come to the net and that was it! By now I decided to go down the deeper left margin that I had been feeding since the off with loose fed micros alternating with 4mms. After a short time the float went and another bream was netted, in fact it was bream mainly with the odd carp from the left margin with the odd fish coming from the right when resting the left. The highlight was a lump of 12lb from the right margin I ended with losing 4 carp in total, two hook pulls and two that snapped me that I feel were foul-hooked. The scales showed I had 38-08 of bream and 51-00 of carp for a 89-08 total. The peg next tipped back and didn’t weigh in, then 49lb then where the wind started to ripple the surface 125lb, then 95lb then 112lb.

August now is quiet so more Bowood with one trip to Witherington to meet up with sidestreambob.

July 2024 – a long one!

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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-

June 2024 part 2b- Struggles and successes

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I had the opportunity to get to Bowood a couple of times before the Pellet Guys Pairs at Makins, so Monday 24th sees me trudge down the field, now occupied by sheep, to Peg 1. The colour had dropped considerably but there was still sufficient for me to give it a go. Shadows moving through the water gave a big hint that the colour would soon be gone but I set up as previously and introduced two cups of loose groundbait with some wheat and about 5-6 pieces of corn. Starting at 8:45 I fished through until 11:45 and things did not look good at small rudd were attacking the corn and their slightly bigger brethren were taking it. Eventually I had a bream of 3-08 followed by further ones of 3-10, 3-02, 3-06, 4-01, 3-06 and 3-02 together with 9 rudd, a small skimmer and a roach this gave me a 25-07 total.

I had brought the rake with me and intended to prepare some swims as Peg 1 would no longer produce with the colour dropping out. To my horror Peg 3 was gone, the posts were there but the platform boards had gone and the access was blocked by reeds! Moving up to peg 4 I was pleased to see it had a good colour and after putting the rake through a couple of times for minimal weed I decided raking would not be necessary for the other swims.

Next day I was back at Bowood, this time at peg 4 and fished 8:50 to 11:20 by which time it was getting very hot and I called it a day. The session was another that you dream about, apart from16 bream I also had a tench of 4-15 and a pike of 5-01 that took a fancy to the corn, combined with 8 rudd a roach and two small skimmers I surpassed the 50lb mark again with 56-06. Groundbait was cupped in loose again but this time I used a 0.5g Chianti style homemade float. Over the five sessions in June I have averaged over 49lb but only used half a tin of corn and a litre of wheat.

So Friday sees me travel up to Makins Fishery, just outside Nuneaton for the Pellet Guys Pairs two dayer. The format is simple in that the pairs are drawn so that there is a Makins regular teamed up with an MFS angler, the Makins anglers are on three lakes and the MFS on a separate three lakes with each lake treated as a section so the pair with the lowest points win after two days. Day one and I draw peg 30 on Lizard which is a nice short walk from the car!

From left to right – left margin, front of peg and right margin. The margin on the left was deep over 3 feet and sloping out sharply, the right margin was a lot shallower but still with a slope. I planned on two areas in front the first at 10m and the second at 2+2 plus the margins, I also set up a shallow rig which went unused! Starting on the short line in 5-6ft of water on 4mm meat feeding meat and 4mm pellets I could only get a couple of roach and one solitary carp when I tried corn over it there was no joy either. The 10m line produced a roach so I ended up looking at the margins, apart from one carp from the right, all my fish came from the left one. Unfortunately the only area I could get interest was very close to the tree which had roots into the water I ended up being snapped 4 times by fish going into the roots despite being on 0.20mm and lost a further two to hook pulls. I did manage to extract eight carp including a koi close to double figures and weighed in 36-10 for joint 5th on the lake, beating the anglers near me.

Day two sees me draw peg 10 on Severn.

The margins looked featureless and on plumbing up were very sharply sloping with no flat spots and about three feet deep. The weather was very sunny and hot and although the point of the island was crying out for me to put a method feeder there I didn’t feel as it would be that productive in the hot weather as the fish were high in the water and were looking as if they may be getting ready to spawn again. Same set ups as previously and the 2+2 line only produce a few twitches before a two pound carp came to the net and that is how it stayed until the last hour of the six hour match. Despite making changes and trying the margins plus straight lead there was no joy apart from two hook pulls and being snapped on the paste by a good fish when I think the lane caught on the jagged dorsal fin. Fish were coming in to the left hand margin but were spooked if they touched the line or each other! Straight lead down the margin with a longish tail produced one liner and that was it. I was now in desperation mode so I cupped in 3 cups of loose groundbait and a cup of micros and began to put 10 4mm pellets in every few minutes. This began to get the fish wait longer and by the weigh in I had somehow managed to get 24-10 which put me 8th on the lake. To put it in context, the angler on my right who had tried the island tipped back as he reckoned he had just over 20lb and the one on my left weighed in 26-08, so I felt I had not done as badly as I feared, just that area was the worst on the lake on that day. Needless to say we came nowhere as a pair!

July beckons with the arrival of Gareth et al for a couple of weeks, so Bowood will be on the agenda.

June 2024 -part 2a, musings

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When I was coaching I used the mantra of the 3Fs when working with newcomers in particular. The 3 Fs are find the fish, find the depth, feed the fish. I used this as in most cases with newcomers if they can get these three elements correct they stand a better chance of catching and remaining in the sport. Find the fish is not always easy to explain but essentially if on a commercial then there will be fish in front of you and in the margins but on natural waters you are looking for a variety of things – wind, vegetation, overhanging bushes, flow, etc.. This combined with finding the depth, not just where you are casting but the whole area in front of you can give you a picture of what lies beneath the surface and identify further fish holding spots – deeper areas, drop offs, slopes, etc… This then gives you a better chance to target the correct area of the swim. Finally feeding the fish, I generally try to instill a little and often approach as this will often produce more consistently than handfuls of bait being thrown in sporadically which tends to be the case with newcomers. The choice of bait also comes into this but along with presentation are the next steps in a newcomer’s journey.

So how does this fit in with my fishing? Last season after 9 years of trying I finally got a 50lb weight out of Bowood after several near misses. This may not seem much in these days of three figure weights in commercials but we are talking of a water that is not stocked, is predominantly bream and tench and only a small part is available for fishing. At the start of the season the larger fish tend to congregate in the shallows for spawning and feeding but are only willing to feed with colour in the water. Now already my first trip to Bowood resulted in a 52lb weight as there was plenty of colour in peg 1, I did not expect the colour to be there when two days later I returned but the water was still highly coloured so I set up again on Peg 1 (no other angler tends to attempt to fish it as it is so shallow and weedy other than the odd one who reads the blog!).

The Ugly Duckling rig was brought into play again (2x no6 shot were added to the bulk to dot it down), the thinking behind the rig is that the 1g bulk tends to get it down past any rudd lurking but with the bulk set an inch or so off bottom it is easy to ensure the bait is past any weed. Anyway with plumbing up I had determined there was a hole three inches deeper slightly to the right of me at 10m. Using last session as a guide I introduced two full large pots of loose groundbait with a dozen grains of corn and 20-30 pieces of wheat, corn went on the hook straight away.It was not long before a bream of 3-06 was in the net, several others followed before I hooked something slightly better that turned out to be one of 5-12.

Baits were steady and if tailed off a pot of loose brought them back, all the while I was firing out a pinch of wheat every put in. At one point it went quiet before the float went under and the elastic streamed out, following a feisty fight a tench of 6lb lay in my net!

In total I had 17 bream again plus the tench, for 56-09 I also had two rudd and a roach which I didn’t count!

As you can see I weigh the fish in the landing net as I go along and note down the weight (minus the net).

Friday was my next opportunity to go and I was expecting to try pegs further up the field with the colour potentially having gone. On arrival there were two anglers where I was intending to fish but I checked Peg 1 and unbelievably the colour was still in the water, without further ado I set up once again, thinking surely I can’t be lucky again! I fished the exact same way, starting at 8:45 and ending at 11:45 (reason why later!) but I did not get 17 bream this time – I got 18 plus two tench of 4-01 and 2-08 for a 58-15 total, again I have discounted the solitary roach I had on corn!

I had planned to fish a bit longer but all of a sudden after the last bream at 11:45 there seemed to be a surge of water and a load of floating decaying weed covered the water in front of me, once I had packed up the weed had floated back out of the swim!

June 2024 Part 1 – Thank you rain!

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June has been a slow burner so far with Bowood on the horizon I only managed to get down to the canal at Horton for what was going to be a couple of hours, however…

Picked up the exchange tickets from Jackie at TK Tackle and headed off to Horton armed with the whips and half a pint of maggots and a bit of groundbait. The long grass revealed that nobody had been fishing there for some time! Set up a 4m whip and Chinese float and got the first cast in at 9:50 over the top of two small golf balls of groundbait and a pinch of maggots. Bait unusually for a canal was double maggot but I have found that this does produce results despite the accepted wisdom of small baits!

It was not long before the first fish, a roach, was swung in and over the next hour I had thirteen roach, four skimmers and a perch for between 1.5 and 2lb but then five boats came through, two in one direction and three in the other all in eight minutes and that killed it so my two hour session was ended after seventy minutes!

Bowood was now looming and I made up some new bags of wheat. My method is not to stew the wheat as the convention but I cover in boiling water and leave covered for 2-3 days before draining off the water and bagging the wheat. One bag for the fridge and the rest to the freezer. I was hoping for rain for a few days before the start of the season which may seem odd but experience has shown that the better fish tend to congregate in the shallows at the start of the season and if there is a good colour in the water they will happily feed.

My wish was delivered and three days of rain to various degrees left me hopeful, although the river through town was still running low and clear! Sunday 16th arrives and I set off at a leisurely pace as again I find the fish don’t wake up and feed until 9 or 10 o’clock! Three cars were already parked up and I suspected they may have had an early start. The long walk down was not as bad as the long walk back up the hill but I duly arrived at peg 1 but was unable to spot it at first due to the undergrowth but finally located it and got the gear in situ. As I hoped the bottom could not be seen (it is only 18-24 inches deep) with a good colour. A couple of minutes was spent pulling out rushes that were encroaching across the front of the platform so that fish could be netted and keepnet positioned safely.

Two lines of attack were identified – straight in front at 10m and 45 degrees to the left at 10m. Both were identical depth so the same rig could be used for both. Said rig was going to be an Ugly Duckling taking 1g of shot bulked six inches from a size 14 hook to 0.16mm Shogun line. Two balls of groundbait laced with a bit of wheat and 4-5 grains of corn went on the left line while the main line had three balls of similar! Throughout the session I was feeding a pinch of wheat every five minutes or so. First drop in was at 9:24 with corn on the hook, after twenty minutes of inactivity I succumbed and put a pair of maggots on only for two two inch fish to drop of, probably they were only holding the maggot. A half ounce rudd in the net finally sees me back on the corn and at 10:10 a proper bite sees a bream of 2-03 in the net followed by another of 2-00 five minutes later but then nothing.

At this point I made the decision to introduce more groundbait but this time to cup it in loose. This seemed to do the trick and when I placed the last bream of 3-10 (left hand pic) in the net at 1:10 I had secured seventeen bream for 52-04, my best weight at Bowood. The reason I stopped as the fish were still feeding was that I realised I might struggle lifting the net out. Anyway I managed and placing the net on top of my netbag I took a quick photo and then released the fish back into the water.

Wife’s birthday means no fishing today so Tuesday next chance but I think the colour may have gone and a different swim will be needed. End of the month sees Makins Pairs.