July sees me jumping all over the country, as you will see. We start off at Larford near Stourport for a MFS match on Specimen Lake. All the talk at the draw was that the middle pegs 65-70 would be the best draws so when I picked out 67 I was pleased. It turned out that it was two pegs away from where I had drawn last year so I was looking forward to a good day, despite the recent rain that had fallen.

I started off on the method feeder at 40 yards but no indications 40 mins later saw me swap to the pellet waggler , again no response! An hour and a half in and I had not had a sign of a bite! Out went the pole to my 13m line which I had been feeding since the start along with a 5m line and two margin lines. A couple of skimmers on pellet then a switch to maggot for some roach at least saw some fish being put into the net. A switch to the 5m line saw no response so with a little over 2 hours to go I tried the right margin after putting in 3 cups of loose groundbait – nothing! Over to the left margin which was on the verge of an overhanging bush , after a couple of skimmers a carp of took my double sweetcorn offering.

The carp was about 10lb and another later on about 9lb set me in the right direction but then a foul hooked carp was lost after a few minutes before a real lump of a common took my bait, played it in and had it over the net 3 times but it wouldn’t fit in it, finally the hook got caught in the net and the carp flipped off. I reckon the carp was at least 15lb and in reality a whole lot bigger! That was the end of the action apart from a couple of skimmers and I ended the match with 28-12 for fourth in section which was won with 32lb! Those lost carp cost me! The anglers either side had 23lb on my left and on my right didn’t weigh in, the “best” pegs were the worst in the match on this occasion.

I then had a week away taking the elderly in-laws to a cottage near Hornsea on the East Yorkshire coast. The cottage was less than a mile from Westlands Fishery so I managed to get a few short sessions in!

First session was on the Canal lake which is like a normal canal but with a bowl at the end, this is where I had my first two sessions.

You can see my “holiday” kit, a Shakespeare Travel Match (5 pieces) coupled with a Chinese reel, a telescopic Zebco feeder rod with a small Interceptor  reel. a 2m telescopic handle with a fold up landing net, waterproofs that are stored in the seat bag along with a small box of tackle together with scales and a Dunlop EVA bait bag with two internal bait bowls. Bait was micro and 4m fishery pellet and corn.(I did have a few other flavoured pellets for hookers).

The swim had about 4 feet of water two rod lengths out and I began here with a couple of pouches of dampened micros and a small ball of Sonubaits F1 groundbait. The session was only short but I managed a couple of bream of 3lb and 2lb, an F1 of 2lb and loads of roach and skimmers plus a roach of 1-2.

Session 2 saw me back at an adjoining peg  this time for a clutch of skimmers to 1.5lb and a solitary carp of 4lb. Session 3 I moved to the Tench lake and had a ghostie of 9-9 and mirror of 4-8 on the feeder before changing to the waggler for commons of 5-12 and 7-8 together with a stack of roach for a total in excess of 30lb. I was fishing a 0.12mm Tornado hooklength to a 16 on the float and a 0.20mm hooklength on the feeder.

Session 4 saw me back on Tench but peg 9 instead of 5 the previous evening.This time I just fished waggler and ended up with 40 roach, 5 skimmers and 1 F1 plus a mirror of 13-12. All taken on corn or banded pellet. The fight with the mirror highlighted to me just how much stick you could give on 0.12mm and a match rod!

Session 5 saw me back on peg 5 and once again concentrating on the float (although I did have one small carp on the feeder), again I concentrated on the float but also fished closer in to the margins where I had a common of 7lb a ghostie of exactly the same size, 4 smaller carp and a clutch of roach plus a rod bender of 15-4 that took several attempts to land in my inadequate net!

That session totaled 38-39lb. My last opportunity was on the final evening when I fished peg 3, this time losing 4 good carp with hook pulls but catching 5 bream, 9 F1s and 14 roach to end the holiday!

Back home my first outing was to Patneys where I fished the left bank mid-island for 3 hours.Tried the wheat a lot in this session and caught skimmers roach and carp on it, ending up with a 3lber (not wheat), a 2lber, 3 x 1lb and 4 less than a pound plus roach and skimmers. An enjoyable short session on the pole at 13m.

Sunday saw me at Alders Fishery near Milton Keynes for an MFS match on Pines. I drew peg 16.

I began at 11m and had a few small carp before trying the 5m line with no luck, eventually having to move into the left hand margin (the shallower of the two), starting on paste but ending up on 3 maggots to get bites. 61-1 was the end result, all carp with the exception of a solitary bream of 2-14. A poor 3-4 hour cost me but it was interesting that Rik on my left was fishing the same margin but further along was catching on paste but I couldn’t get a response on it!.

Moving on I had a Summer League coming up at Sutton Benger so decided to have a session just to check how it was fishing. Peg 10 is not a swim I would usually choose at it tends to be chub or very little., but on this occasion I was surprised by the number of very small chub, dace and roach that were present- I mean small most only the size of a small minnow. By fishing over groundbait and then changing to worm I managed to put together about 5lb of fish including some net roach and perch.

Match day came along and I was hoping to be in section A or B rather than the downstream C and D sections that I figured would be murderous to walk after the heavy rain. I was last to draw as the league is drawn in reverse order, so as league leaders we had what was left- the scales and Peg 1. I ended up on B section and what can be a good swim in the weir.

Starting at 11m on the edge of the flow I found that there were a plethora of mini fish but whenever I hooked anything over 2oz a large pike decided to grab it! 5 hours later I weighed in 5-2 with several of my larger fish with pike teeth marks! That was good enough for 2nd in section. I went back to the HQ but no-one from C or D section had even left the field by then so after half an hour with them still not on their way I went home- still awaiting result!

June starts with a day out with Simon and young Tom at Patneys. Simon was put into the corner of the bay  on the right hand side with an 8m pole and Tom is put on “peg 3” while I am on “peg 2”. Day starts brightly with Simon into a carp before I have set up, but drama strikes as Tom’s top4 swims off into the lake as soon as his back is turned and then his “mended” float rod snaps when trying to retrieve it! Tom finishes the day fishing a float on a carp rod! Overall we caught but not spectacular, I ended up with 25c carp (biggest 4lb), 7 rudd, 5 skimmers and a roach for around 20lb.

Two days later I was at Peatmoor in Swindon for the annual Peatmoor v Three Counties match – this is one I try not to miss and is a friendly affair. I drew peg 16 which turned out to be old peg 21 as they have re-pegged the venue! A small feeder started the match with a first cast to see if I had any fish  in front of me. This was followed by 6 quick casts to get some bait down then two pole lines were fed- 10m groundbait and caster with 4mm meat at 13m. Back on the feeder and 10 small roach in the first 90 minutes was not what I was hoping for. The pole lines were indifferent- nothing on the meat and the 10m line only produced two small fish. I ended up fishing my top two and plundering 20 small fish close in to finish with a level 2lb.

Next outing was an open at Patneys. The pegging had changed this time and we were at the top end scattered around the island. Peg 6 gave me the end peg at the end of the island on the right bank. Once again it was slow going and along with a few small carp two larger brethren boosted my weight to 10-6 and nowhere!

With the next round of the summer league coming around I headed off to Dodford Farm to see what was working. The place was very shallow (2feet) and overgrown with Norfolk reeds and there was no way 24 pegs would fit in but the owner had a digger that was put to work while I was there and truckloads of reeds were dug out. Before the digger reached me I managed to get a couple of carp on corn in the margins at 9lb and 10lb plus over 50 rudd/roach – mainly on corn as maggot seemed to produce very small fish. So that was my tactic sorted- corn!

June the 16th always has a special place in my heart- the first day of the river season. I had decided to have a couple of hours at Sutton Benger on the downstream end. To this end I decided to travel light, a wand and float rod plus haversack seat with bait in a eva bag. Parking up I could see that the barbel anglers were out in force with a couple already in the downstream weir, I headed up well away from the weir (pegs 138 and 139) and walked up to peg 111 which was where the last work party had got to with their new pegs and strimmers. The river was hardly moving with many pegs not fishable with cabbages and weed but I settled in on peg 120 which was on the inside of an “s” bend. The water was clear of weed and I set up the wand to put a small groundbait feeder alongside a bank of rushes on the far bank. First 10 casts saw 2 roach, 3 little chub, 2 fish lost on the retrieve and 3 missed bites then nothing! No matter what I tried that was it, so packing up and returning to the car I passed a couple of other anglers who were finding the same thing a run of bites then nothing.

This month was promising much but not delivering so far but the 22nd and 23rd saw me in Leicestershire at the Glebe  for the two day HillBilly Pairs event, one of the prime events on the MFS calendar. The pairs are drawn on the first day and one fishes Pool 1 while the other fishes Pools 4,5,6 or7; then on the second day you swap over pools. I was paired with Glen and would start on Pool 4 peg 69. The weather was fine and got increasingly sunny at one point I swapped hats. starting on the feeder across it was 40minutes before I had my first fish- a small carp of 3lb. I had primed the pole lines at 13m (pellet), 2 lines at 2+2 one with pellet the other with corn and two margin swims (corn and pellet). After an hour I went on to the 13m line expecting an immediate response – no such luck! Indeed after 3 and a half hours I had about 7lb in the nets- another small carp and a bream. In desperation I turned to the margins; as always one margin seems to be much better than the other, in this case the right margin has where the action was. By the end of the match I weighed in 54-9 but had lost a double at the net which was to prove costly. Pool 4, which was one section went like this 113lb, 54-13, 54-9 (me), 60-9,. 91-5 and 40-1.

I found that a single grain of corn topped by some of that Chinese paste produced bites faster than just corn or just paste.

The first day had thrown up some unusual results and there was nothing in it going into day 2 with most pairs still able to win.

Day 2 saw a gloomy start with a stiff breeze and rain in the air. I drew peg 24 on Pool 1 and set up the swims as previously.

After 45minutes and not a flicker on the tip I went onto the 13m line and it was like a repeat of Day 1 with a couple of small carp and bream in the nets with 3.5 hours gone for about 10lb. This time the margins did not produce but the 2+2 line did with a run of fish coming to corn and by taking a couple of fish from each side I was able to have a good end to the match and weighed in 76-02. Peg 23 weighed in 36lb and peg 25 weighed in 20-1 so I was chuffed. Pair wise Glen to be fair carried me and we ended up on 12 penalty points and 6th overall out of the 24 pairs, the winners had 9 points but the guy who beat me by 4ozs on Day 1 was in the winning pair- that lost double came back to haunt me!

Two days later I was back at Dodford Farm for the third leg of the Summer League. The only peg that I did not want was A5 – one immediately at the entrance that all the cars had to drive past, no thick reeds to fish to, and a pile of stumps directly in front reaching out to 13m+. The only “clear water was a channel to the left and to the right. Yes I drew it! I began to realise I was in more trouble than I thought when I could not get a bite on corn while everyone I could see were hammering out the rudd on maggot. Stubbornly I stayed with the corn and after 15 minutes got a net roach, followed 15 minutes later by a fingerling carp. The clear water – was not clear, the reeds had been cut subsurface and I was constantly getting snagged. After 3 hours I was way behind but the rudd seemed to have disappeared from the others pegs with only the odd one coming out. in desperation I decided to fish 2+1 with maggot and started to catch some small rudd, eventually ending with 2-13. The section was a disaster for me with A1 weighing 10lb+of small rudd, A2 7lb, A3 15oz, A4 4lb and A6 another 4lb. The difference was A1 and A2 had clear water that they could attack, A3 had a reed bed but had subsurface stems like me, A4 and A6 had clear water with a reed bed. Still if I had gone on the maggot earlier it may have been different?

Last day of the month saw me at Benger Peg 135, not a peg I would normally fish but I wanted to try something. I fished a waggler and loose fed wheat with only 20 maggots being added throughout the 3 hours I fished. It was a bite a chuck but from very small chublets,dace and roach. Many dropped off as I had forgotten to put some micro-barbed hooks in the haversack seat. I ended up with about 1-8 including a perch at the end of about 4oz. The only other thing of note was the fact that a pike of about 5lb kept attacking my keepnet!

July sees me at Alders, Larford and Summer League 4 at Benger!

If you have a few minutes spare and you want to see some of the action (?) from the blog

A quiet time at Blacklands!

Catching bream on the cheese at Blacklands

A Blacklands carp interrupting the silvers!

A small pike at Bowood

A small carp from the “swearing” peg at Theale

A Bowood tench

Bowood bream  4-13

The ultimate tactic to get a bite- pour a cup of coffee! Bream at Larford

A carp at Rolfs

May was to prove to be an odd month for me with a week away at the start plus some house work  (painting) to do, I decided to concentrate on Patneys and to try different baits and feeding to see what effect each would have.

Visit one was just before I went away and I decided to fish the method to see if it would produce I picked a peg on the left bank and mid island and had a couple of hours on the feeder with micros and pellet , then tried capping the micros off with a bit of groundbait. The result was plenty of interest on a slow day (judging by others fishing) with more bites coming after I began skinning with the groundbait. After a couple of hours I went on the pole at 13m and had a couple there including the biggest of the day at 4lb. Total in 3.5 hours, 10 carp for about 14lb.

Returning from holiday my next visit to Patneys I again went on the left bank, this time further along to the end of the island, which has been peg 4 in matches. This time I decided to revert to my usual tactics of negative feeding with a toss pot but also fed wheat and just fished the pole at 13m. The result was 10 carp rotating meat, expander and wheat, 2 skimmers on expander and 1 rudd on corn. Plenty of missed bites on meat and wheat, I suspect they were rudd. Two carp lost and approx 15lb in total.

Visit 3  I decided to try the right hand side before the bay starts (peg 1 ) but left the pellets in the bag and decided to try worm.  Half a large pot of finely chopped dendras was used to kick start the swim and after an initial couple of pasty carp I began to get pestered by small perch and rudd. I persevered for an hour or so with a couple of rudd, skimmers and two small tench before swopping to meat while still feeding worm, this resulted in a run of carp, nothing large, biggest about 2-3lbs. I ended up with 25 carp for about 18-20lb.

Visit 4  was at the end of the month and I had been pondering as to what to do – worm seemed to attract small fish as did corn, meat was as good as anything to produce bites but the size of the fish covered the full spectrum, wheat was an interesting change bait and did no harm in feeding it. Those of you who have read previous posts know that my son works in China and on his last visit I had asked him to bring me some Chinese paste. Now this is used on their commercials mainly for crucians/F1s/carassio but I fancied giving it a go!

The weather was not brilliant and it rained off and on the whole time I was there (3 hours fishing) but I was determined to try it out, so I set up in the bay, not in the hot spot (peg 3) but on the adjacent bank. Plumbing up I found that it sloped away sharply but found a flat area at 11m which gave me about 7 feet of water with the wind driving into my face after 10 minutes of starting!

Two rigs were set up a 0.75g BGT Paster to 0.14mm Shogun and a 16 hook and a home made abbreviated tip  taking 0.2g for 11m to the left an 4 foot of water.

Mixing the paste was straight forward- I used about half a pack and mixed with an equal amount of water. I made sure I kneaded it well as I knew that it was a fibrous type and the kneading would activate it. I also had some Chinese banded mini sticks (vegetable pellet) to try. You can see one in the bait box below.

I ripped a small piece of paste off and tried to form a ball, on shipping out it immediately unraveled and hung from the hook like a leaf. Dropping it over the swim primed with a handful of micros and one ball of soft groundbait, I didn’t react as the float dipped then reappeared. Interesting I thought! Ripping another piece off, I this time hooked it like a maggot and doubled it on itself so it was hooked twice, if you see what I mean! Shipping out, it got to the bottom and after about 10 seconds the float buried and I lifted in to what felt like a good fish. Gently playing it back I got back to section 4 before it made another lunging run and the hook pulled!

I would love to say that it got better and better but the reality was that I was getting a bite a chuck on the paste, the problem being that the rudd decided it was their favorite food and if by chance I managed to get a piece down to the bottom I was getting skimmers, roach and small carp. The mini-stick received the same treatment as did meat when I tried that. I think that the larger carp were getting ready to spawn and the smaller fish were enjoying the chance to feed without being interrupted by their larger neighbours!

I will continue to try the paste and June will see me have the opportunity to fish a couple of matches at Patneys, Peatmoor, the Glebe and the 3rd round of the Summer League at Dodford Farm.  We shall see!

April arrives and the start of the North Wessex Summer League looms. This year, with Dazza taking a sabbatical,  it has lost it’s identity a bit with five matches being scheduled and it looking more akin to the Winter League in terms of venues with one noticeable exception- the first match at Patneys Woodside Lake. With this in mind I headed out  midweek to have a practice at Patneys as I had heard it had been hard. I decided to fish to the left as you entered and went down to the last peg before the point. The water was a lot clearer than I had previously seen and the rumours of a large number of fish being lost to cormorants over the winter prompted me to settle on two lines. The first at 2 + 3 distance, the second at 13m. A small ball of hard groundbait went in on the short line along with 20 cubes of 4mm meat, a small handful of micros and half a dozen pieces of corn. Three balls plus the same loose offerings went in at 13m and was left for an hour while I started on the closer line. Both lines were loose fed with a few micros and 4-5 cubes of meat every couple of minutes.

Rigs were fairly straight forward, the long rig in 6-7ft of water was 0.16mm Shogun to a 0.14mm Shogun hook length to a 16 911x, this was matched to a 0.5g homemade float similar to a Chianti but with a hollow tip. The close in rig in 3-4ft was again homemade of a similar style taking 0.3g but on 0.14mm to 0.12mm Shogun and an 18 911.

After 5 minute the first fish came to the net- a stockie that had grown to about 12oz taking a piece of 6mm punched meat. This continued for the next hour with regular bites but nothing as like as manic as previous visits. Going out on the long line produced a smaller stamp of fish, so I stuck to the shorter line and after 3 hours having tried various other baits had amassed 30+ small carp to 2lb for about 25lb, no bigger carp showed at all. With that I decided to call it a day and leave before the rain in the distance arrived!

Sunday saw me at Boddington Reservoir for an MFS silvers match.The draw put me on peg 49 and the water level meant I was sitting on the second platform down. I decided to leave the pole in the holdall and set up two 5m whips and a waggler. The first whip was a 5m Chinese variety that was teamed with a Chinese float set with a bulk three feet away from the hook and three no 10 stotz droppers below. The second was a more traditional 5m whip but set up with the same rig. Both rigs were on 0.12mm Shogun and 0.08mm hook length to an 18 911. The waggler was set for 13-20m where it was fairly consistent depth with a similar hook and hook length but with 4 no 8 shot as droppers.

The whistle went and I threw in three hard balls of groundbait and followed that with a pinch of maggot every two minutes. A pouch of casters was dispatched every 5 minutes onto the waggler line. The weather was unusually kind and with the sun beating down it was a match that was soon over with 94 roach for 18-15, all but two taken the the whips. Starting on the Chinese whip I had about 40 fish before swapping to the traditional one as the fish were easier to swing to hand. I found that I needed to add a ball of groundbait whenever the bites slowed. I had an enjoyable day but came nowhere in the match (5th in section of 7 and 10th overall in match), the match was won with a superb 41-08 by Steve May (Andy May’s dad) with a couple of roach around the 2lb mark.

Tuesday saw me off to Isis No 1 pit with the intention of doing something different – trying for a carp and fishing for tench on this notoriously difficult water at this time of year. Carp rod with a hair-rigged boilie was put close in next to an overhanging tree, while a 12ft Avon rod was set up with a waggler to fish a couple of rod lengths out in the crystal clear water. – I blanked! One day I will learn that the water needs to be a lot warmer before they move in close!

Sunday arrived and the start of my Summer League campaign. I somehow had been made captain of the Pewsey 1 team with Brian (The Pewsey Trawler) Shutler, Simon Burden and Alan Gibbs my team members. The draw saw us get the end peg 7, not that gave us an advantage as the sections followed on from each other! I was on A7, in a small bay with B1, Neil Pelgim, Pewsey 2, being at right angles to me in the bay. I decided not to put up a feeder as Neil would be casting where I would be and Peter Gilbert on the point on the opposite side of the lake ultimately cast there also!

I set up the same as my previous visit but decided to feed negatively as the weather had gone cold again and the wind was very cold and strong blowing left to right. On the whistle I potted a dozen pieces of 4mm meat, 4 pieces of corn and 10 4mm pellets on the 13m line along with one small ball of F1 method match and did the same at 6m (2 +3).  With 4mm meat on the hook I spent 30minutes biteless on the short line. I know that the venue gets affected by having numbers on it so decided to forget the short line and concentrate on the 13m line. I began toss potting in 4 cubes of meat, 2 pieces of corn and a few 4mm pellets with 4mm meat on the hook.After an hour the float dipped and a small pasty of 3oz was in the net- at least I was not blanking, but by this time, Paul Rice on peg A6 had about 3 carp of around 2lb on the feeder. Another half hour went by and the float buried and I finally hooked a better fish, playing it carefully on my soft set 10 hollow, the hook inexplicably pulled close in, a mirror of 2-3lb. Cursing I went out again and another half hour saw exactly the same happen, this time a common of 2-3lb. That was it on the meat, I could get no other bites, a change to 4mm expander  saw a bite an hour later, the strike resulted in the elastic been stretched by a much larger fish than the ones previously lost. Heart in my mouth I managed to slowly get back to the top two and play it on the puller kit with a huge sigh of relief I put the net under a ghostie of about 7lb. Feeling much better I went back out and was struggling to hold the pole steady with the wind increasing in velocity. Elsewhere it looked as everyone was struggling, Neil had caught a similar pasty to my self and was not getting any indications.

Neil managed to get a lump then an hour before the end the float dipped and a similar fight saw me net a mirror of about 6lb, again on the expander, my only other bite came 10 minutes before the all out when I hooked a small pasty that came off on the way in. That was it, 6 bites, 3 fish landed 3 lost. News from around the lake was that it had been very hard with several blanks, one of which was Brian on B7, now if he can’t get a bite, there are no fish in front of him. The scales arrived and Neil had won his section with a level 8lb- that one fish plus a 2-3oz pasty. I weighed in 13-10 which was good enough to win the section and was second in the match, Craig Curtis winning with 20lb of feeder fish. Team wise we had done enough to win the day, despite Brian’s blank, Allan and Simon had both come second in their sections.

Wednesday saw me back at Patneys to fish the same peg as wanted to see if I could do anything differently. The weather had changed and was a lot warmer and the wind when it arrived was only a gentle breeze compared to Sunday. I fished exclusively at 13m and expander, the result was 18 carp up to 10lb for about 49lb, 4 foul hookers were lost including one big double mirror . The owner had come around to see how I had got on and was interested in how it had gone, the fish certainly seemed to be favouring that bay, he reminded me that there was an open there on the Saturday, so with nothing planned that weekend I decided to give it a go!

Saturday arrived for only 6 of us to appear at Patneys, worse still was the news from Mark Russ, that the second leg of the Summer League had been moved to May 7th when  was away on holiday- I was not impressed, knowing that any chance if retaining the individual crown had disappeared with that decision.  The draw saw me on peg 3, incredibly the same peg as the Summer League and the Wednesday, I didn’t quite run to it but it was a close thing! I began at 13m but also primed a swim at 13m down to my right about 4-5m out from the bank. Again it was slower than Wednesday and after a couple of hours I had 4 carp in the 2-3 lb range in the net, it then went dead after I lost a fish (possibly foul hooked ) and missed a bite. It was a case of swapping between the lines for the rest of the match with two more similar sized carp coming on the long line and then a solitary carp from down the right with a quarter of an hour to go. This proved to be vital as peg 2 had got a late run of fish and when the scales arrived was leading with 13lb+, I reckoned on having 14lb so when the scales settled on 15-14 I was relieved to have won! The other highlight of the day was the red kite that kept us amused with its soaring antics over the lake.

It wasn’t until the following Friday that I managed to get out again, this time a visit to Pewsey’s lake. I decided to fish the carp end- peg 14 as I wanted to do some method fishing. Two hours in and a selection of little nudges, 3 foot branches and twigs finally saw me land a couple of small carp before losing a lump in the rushes. A switch to the pole saw some nice roach plus a small carp come to the net before I packed in  and went home.

The final Sunday in April saw me at Milkhouse Water on the K&A for a Pewsey club match. Drawing peg 10 meant a long walk past the moored boats before the pegs started and then at least 40m between each peg. I was faced with an interesting swim

I was not keen on the colour of the water but there were enough features in the peg to go at. Three rigs set up, a home made short bodied float for worm down the track, coupled with a no 6 elastic, 0.08mm Shogun hook length to a 20, a BGT Blood for punch and up the shelf with 0,07mm to a 22 on a 3 elastic and a BGT Peatmoor for the far shelf with no2 elastic and 0.06mm Shogun to a 24.

On the whistle I cupped in a small ball of groundbait to a deeper hole I had found on the far shelf to the right and a small golf ball of liquidised on my punch line. Twenty minutes later with no response on the punch, chopped worm was put down the track and a small piece of worm put over the top to no response, in fact every line I tried, everything I tried failed miserably, so after 3 hours without a bite or anything that remotely looked like a bite I did something unusual for me- I packed in and went home. I subsequently found out later that the match was won with 14oz, and only 3oz was needed to frame with lots of blanks. I felt I could have fished that peg for 10 hours and not caught so was ultimately comfortable about my decision to go home.

The Summer League is there (without me) next week, bet it fishes its head off then!

March kicked off with a visit to Bowood, peg 12 and the least said about it the better! No bites no runs , a blank! Two days later I went to Blacklands and fished the bench peg. Usual set up with a worm line and a pellet line 2 metres apart at 8-9m in 7 feet of water. A pleasant change from my trip to Bowood I ended up with 46 skimmers, 28 roach, 12 perch, 1 gudgeon and 1 tench for 25-4, alternating between the lines.

No match at the weekend but Monday saw me back at Bowood, peg 10 (peg 12 was taken) but I managed to get some bits plus a skimmer and a hybrid along with two jacks of 3 and 4lb for 9-8.

Friday saw me at Blacklands peg 6, up from where the tree had been felled. I fished this differently as I wanted to use the day to practice fishing 14m as I had a match at Barston coming up that might require me to fish at distance. With this in mind I set up my usual worm line at 8m and cupped in two big pots of micros at 14m and left them for an hour while I fished the 8m line. Going over the micros I began to catch small skimmers on expanders and ended up with 32 skimmers, 9 roach, 2 tench, 2 gudgeon and a solitary perch for 22-2.  A few muscles I had forgotten about reminded themselves to me over the next day!

Sunday saw an early start for an MFS match at Barston, near Solihull. Barston is one of my favourite venues set alongside a golf course the main lake is home to magnificent carp and bream along with other coarse fish.

This match however was a silvers match so it was the bream that were the real quarry. I drew peg 18 which was on the right hand side of the lake with a relatively short walk. I decided not to set up a feeder but to concentrate on the pole and waggler. I set up three pole rigs, the first a 1.5g heavy rig in case the water started to tow if the wind got up, the second a homemade 0.6g rig for fishing on the bottom and lastly a homemade 0.4g rig with the shotting strung out for fishing on the drop. My waggler was a homemade peacock insert taking 3AAA with just 3x no 8 as droppers to a 20 hook, all hooklengths were 0.08mm Shogun. I was joined on peg 16 by Nigel, the owner of the lake and on my right on peg 19 by Bagga69. On the whistle I fed two lines at 14m, the left hand one with 6 cups of groundbait (a mix of Sonubaits F1 and Breamcrush) laced liberally with dead pinkies, some dead maggots and casters, the right hand line had 3 balls of groundbait plus two pots of micros. I began on the waggler, firing casters out to 20m picking up some small roach in the first hour before trying the pole lines which were dead! Back out on the waggler and a couple of skimmers plus some more roach came to the net before back over the pole lines for two small fish then nothing. This continued all match with only those two fish coming from the pole line, the rest all taken on the waggler. At the end I weighed in 11-2, Nigel 5-8 and Bagga 8-8 but the other three in our section fared better with peg 13 weighing in 22-10, peg 15 11-10 and peg 22 40-4 (yes forty pound)! That is how it goes sometimes!

It wasn’t until the following Friday when I could get out next and with Bowood now closed it was Blacklands peg 11, to the right of the jetty, that saw me set up  Usual set up but I set up a heavier elastic as one of my rigs was going to be placed towards the jetty. Indeed I decided to make my worm line by the jetty and my pellet line directly in front of me at 9m. The worm line tend s to last for about two hours then dies and I switch to the pellet line. Today I was going to re-feed the worm line with cheese once it had died! I was hoping for some of the big perch to put in an appearance but I only had 3 small perch, the worm line produced a carp of 4-0, another that was lost under the jetty, some skimmers and two small tench, switching to the pellet line saw more skimmers another tench of 2lb and two proper bream of 3lb and 4lb. The switch back to the cheese saw a run of skimmers. In total I ended up with the two bream, the carp, three tench, 3 perch, 15 roach and 49 skimmers for 35lb.

Sunday saw another MFS match, this time on the Grand Union Canal at Marsworth. Initially I drew peg 1 only to get to the canal to find that a redraw was necessary due to some people  writing down the wrong pegs on the board and it affected everyone! The next draw saw me draw peg 9 which I was told was slap bang in the middle of the area where there were 4 blanks in the same match last year!. I set up 3 rigs- one for the near side and far side, a worm rig on no 8 elastic as there were better bream, chub and carp in the stretch plus a rig for down the track.

I started the match on the punch and had 6 roach one after the other before I missed a bite and that was that- nothing. In the meantime while I had been cupping in my feed the guy on my right had cast out a method feeder, put his rod down and immediately picked it up again with what was his only bite in the match from a bream of 2-8, he had nothing else on feeder or pole!. I switched to my worm line after feedng some choppie and first put in had a small perch, then nothing! In desperation I went across and first put in had a gudgeon, second put in had a small roach that came off on the way back and that was it- my match, in terms of catching,  was over! Four  hours of no bites later, for any of us the middle saw these results-

Peg 6 DNW, Peg 7 0-8, Peg 8 0-12, Peg 9(me) 0-11, peg 10 2-8 (that 1 bream), peg 11 1-6 (two fish a roach and skimmer)

Peg 4 won the match with worm across, first put in carp (5lb), second put in chub(4lb), third put in lost carp, no more bites for rest of match. Peg 1 which I had drawn initially was second with 5lb of gudgeon!

Wednesday saw me back at Blacklands to remind me what a bite looked like! I decided to fish at the back of the island, a peg I do not usually put in matches as there is only a limited amount of water to aim at compared to the rest of the pegs.  It didn’t affect the fish with 21-3 comprising of 29 skimmers including one of 2-12, 7 roach including one exactly 1lb, 3 tench to 2-0 and one gudgeon. Surprisingly no perch made an appearance!

Sunday saw me back at Blacklands, running a silvers match. Last peg left in the hat put me on peg 3, the other side of the bush from the bench peg. The Pewsey Trawler, aka Brian Shutler, was on peg 2 to my right and Chaz Short on my left on peg 4. I began in usual manner and started well with 10lb in the net in the first hour, but things then slowed down and I ended with a crick in my neck watching the trawler live up to the name and win the match with 38-9, Marc Kay on 12 was second with 34-6 and Fred Parker third with 28-14 from peg 10. I ended up with 22-9 including a 3lb bream and 4 roach over the pound. Chaz weighed in 12-5, Jamie on peg 5 15-2, Steve on peg 6 5-9, Peg 7 Mick weighed 23-4 with next peg Chris Rushton 22-12 and Jamie’s brother Kelvin weighed in 10-1 off peg 11. Some great silvers fishing but that will be it now until October for Blacklands as the warm weather will fill the campsite and the lakes will be full of holidaymakers after the carp.

That was it for March as a family visit to Yorkshire saw out the rest of the month. April sees Boddington and the start of the North Wessex Summer League.

With the match looming the following Sunday I made my way to Bowood and managed to get on Peg 12, half hour before the same angler arrived to find me there (me looking smug!)

, we exchanged pleasantries and he trudged off up to the top field and the bay. The water was not too coloured but not crystal clear either so I was hopeful of some action. Pike rod out with a joey and three large cups of loose with micros and casters mixed in deposited at 10m in the 8 foot of water I awaited a response. After an hour the pellet waggler I use as a pike float bobbed then went walk about, a strike resulted in a jack of 3-12. No sign on the pole. Another hour past and the same scenario with the pike rod resulted in a jack of 4-4. Still nothing on the pole. A further hour and the float lifted on the pole and resulted in a small roach- at least I had caught something on the pole I thought. A further half hour past when the float buried and the resulting strike was met with a very solid resistance, carefully steering the fish bankwards on a 4-6 hollow and 0.08 Shogun to a 20 I finally managed to get the net under a tench of 4-8. RESULT!

Nothing further happened but I added another pot of loose and waited. About 1:30pm the other angler came past saying he had had a small jack I told him I what I had had and after a brief chat he trudged off back to the car in the far distance. As I watched him trudge up the hill, my float went again and a solid resistance heralded the arrival of another tinca, this time 3-11. Another pot of loose was deposited and 25minutes later, after a spirited fight a tench of 5-9 lay in the net a personal best for Bowood. My last pot of groundbait and a further wait of 40 minutes and the action for the day was concluded with a further tinca of 4-12.  Not a bad outing for a cold February day!

Wednesday saw me back at Blacklands as I wanted to pay the balance for the lake but also finalise the pegging in my mind. To this end i decided to go around the back end of the island and fish what would become peg 8. The day would not be a quiet one as there were two guys who were chopping down two willows and then cutting up and shredding the felled trees. (see the link!!!) Timber!

The depth was again about 6 feet and I primed two swims, a worm and caster one at 10 o’clock and a micro one at 2 o’clock. Despite the cold day and distractions the fishing was once again good with many more skimmers than roach, more than 50 to be precise, a perch of 1-2 and a bream of 3lb. The bream fell to the cheese again fished over the micro line. With over 30lb caught I packed up and hoped that Sunday would be similar for the match.

So to the match, there was only one peg I really didn’t fancy- peg 12 which was between the Toilet block and a little jetty, with one peg left in the hat for me – you guessed it- peg 12. I felt I was not going to be able to frame from the peg partly because the trawler that is Brian Shutler had drawn peg 10 – the peg I was fishing when he came to see me, Marc Kay was in between him and me and Chris Rushton was on peg 5, two good anglers in good areas. Plumbing up I found there was a slope from the jetty back towards me and I set up my worm line at the base of the slope at about 9m and my micros to my left about 2m further away. The match started and both I and Cliff Reynolds were soon into fish. The first hour passed quickly with a lot of banter, most aimed at Gary Williams on peg 2 (the bench peg) as he kept hooking large fish both on the pole and the whip and losing them with resultant trashed rigs. He was sure they were carp but I suspected some of them may have been the large perch. After an hour and a half I hooked a large fish that tore off and Gary said “I ‘ve sent  them over to you!”. His face was a picture when the fish was a perch of 2-14.

The worm line was dying and I had been catching roach with only one hybrid, I needed skimmers if I was going to compete. The third and fourth hour was a disaster with hardly anything being put in the net while Marc was steadily catching fish every put in as was Brian. Chris Rushton had had a torrid start losing several rigs on a snag which eventually turned out to be a large branch that had escaped from the tree felling. But he had recovered and was putting together a good run of fish including a foulhooked bream of 3lb. A short burst of 6 skimmers in the last half hour end my match.

Quickly packing up I started the weigh in, Cliff on peg 1 had seen his peg die after the first hour, 4-4, Gary on 2 had managed to put 10-4 on the scales while Mick on peg 3 had 9-2, Nigel Russell next on peg 4 had 13-3, Chris on 5 weighed in 21-14.5 despite his torrid start, On to the opposite bank to me, Daz on peg 6 13-14, Peg 7 Chaz 7-11, peg 8 Jamie with a nice bag of 15-4, Andy on peg 9 had 13-3, the trawler had 28-10, Marc ran him close with 27-9 and I ended up with 14-6. A nice friendly match which saw plenty of bites.

That saw the end of February, March is looking busy with another match on at Blacklands, plus a couple of MFS matches.

I decided to have a break from Bowood and headed off to Blacklands but this time Heron Lake, where Gareth had caught through the ice last month. I rolled up at the same peg and lazily set up one rig to fish the 6 foot or so of water at 9m. Using one of my homemade floats taking 0.4g, coupled with 0.10mm mainline and 0.08mm Shogun hooklength to a 20, I set it up with the bulk about 18 inches above the hook with two no10 droppers spaced out below. I opted to prime two swims about 2m apart, the left hand one was given half a large pot of chopped worm with a few casters and a sprinkling of micros, whilst the right hand one was fed with the same volume of micros and a few casters. Both swims would be fed by catapult every couple of minutes with 5-6 casters.

Bites were not long in coming on the worm line and a run of roach in the 4-6oz bracket were interrupted by a roach over a pound (I had left the scales in the car). Not long later my no 6 elastic was given a stretch by a whopping perch that had me scurrying back to the car for the scales. When the needle settled it showed 3-1, a great start. The day continued and later I had another good roach, but smaller than the first, this was weighed and went exactly 1lb. When I packed up I estimated I had had 30lb made up of 20 roach, 20 skimmers (best 1lb) and 36 perch, including another of 1-4. A solitary carp of 4-8 also featured from the micro line on caster!

From the sun in the photos the weather turned to rain and it was on the Wednesday I went back to Bowood (peg 12!) hoping the coloured water, sorry chocolate, might prompt some fish to feed although I did not expect any pike. I was right about the pike  and managed to sneak out one small bream of 2-4plus a load of roach and skimmers for a 7-8 total. One unseen lump was also lost as nearing the net, grrrr.

Friday saw me back with the temperature back down to 1C. The chocolate had turned to tap water in just a couple of days and this time the only action were from two jacks of 6-12 and 5-4, not a single bite on the pole!

Sunday came around and off to Pewsey Lake for a club match. Peg 12 saw me down the right end again, but I am going to have to put in some serious time to get to grips with this lake. No carp on the method or waggler- remember last match! I ended up with a clutch of roach for 1-8- just enough action to keep the interest but annoying in that I lost a very good fish towards the end of the match that may well have been a bream.Tactics were similar to previous matches and not much different from the others fishing. Must try harder me thinks!

Tuesday and back to Bowood to find the tap water had become even clearer and worse still someone else was there fishing AND in peg 12!!!! I decided to give the other angler room as although the pegs are well spaced I went on peg 10 which was 40-50 yards distant.T water here is about 18-24 inches shallower but I set up the pole and cupped in three pots of loose groundbait with some casters. No bites an hour later when the pike float bobs and a run develops, pole shipped back quickly I managed to hit and land a pike of 12-04. Nothing else happened for another hour or so when another run on the pike rod was inexplicably missed. That was the end of the action, the guy on 12 had 1 jack plus 3 other runs which didn’t result in secure hook ups.

The final escapade in this session was back to Blacklands and Heron Lake, this time fishing on the Toilet Block bank at the point of the island. I could reach the point of the island with the pole but as I was after the “silvers” I ignored the obvious feature and plumbing up decided on 9m. Tackle was a homemade float with a chianti style body but a hollow tip, taking 0.45g. This was teamed up to 0.12mm Shogun and 0.10mm Shogun hook length. Bulk was set about two foot from hook with one no 9 and one no 10 dropper to a 20. Groundbait is banned so I began like the previous visit with chopped worm and casters a with a sprinkling of micros in front of me and micros and caster to my right. Both lines to be fed with casters but the micro line would also get alternate helpings of micros.

The first difference I found was that there were more roach about than had been the case before when perch were the dominant species. I had two that I weighed  1-4 and 1-2.

To cut a long story short I had the best part of 30lb by the time I was visited by Brian Shutler who had come to recce the venue for a match I had organised in a weeks time. I had also tried cheese as a third line but could not get a bite just over the cheese, but as soon as I had gone over the micro line I had been getting skimmers on cheese. While Brian was there I put some cheese on and had a bream of 3lb plus some skimmers, I also had a perch of about a pound and a quarter on the worm while he was there. In total when I packed up I reckoned I had caught 39lb made up of 40 bream/skimmers, 36 roach and 18 perch. (I tend to keep a mental record of the fish as I go along with the weight being added up in ounces fish by fish)

Hope the match fishes as well as this! I may do a feature on fishing the cheese in the future.