bleak

February 2026 Part 2 -Chewing the Cud

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Monday 16th sees me back at the Magpies near the overflow fishing a short session from 10:00 to 11:15. The 5m Chinese whip was in action again with just loose fed maggot and double maggot on the hook. This produced 16 roach, 4 skimmers a perch and a ruffe for around the pound mark. It has been very noticeable that if you lose a maggot, ie end up with single maggot, you did not get a bite, double maggot the bites returned.

Next day I returned for a short session this time just with two pike rods I did get a run on the sardine (the other rod had a smelt) and appeared to hook it okay but just as I got it in net range the sardine came flying back. Whether it was a hook pull or it wasn’t hooked in the first place I’ll never know.

Gareth returns from the Finland trip and we are back st the Magpies in the wind and rain for two hours armed just with the pike rods- one run and this time a landed pike of 5-02.

The bite!

That night we were awoken near midnight with a call to say my mother-in-law had died, this was not unexpected and we had already arranged to go up to Yorkshire the day after Gareth et al returned to China. So I was a bit blurry eyed when I got up on Thursday ready to set of to Chew for a day arranged by Gareth on a boat pike fishing.

Having got there we found that although we were in time for a 9am boats ready we were the last to arrive and leave as the rest had been off at 8 or 8:30! We weren’t too bothered as it was meant to be a chilled day with neither expecting to catch given the size of the place and our relative inexperience off a boat. Any way prior to the visit I had purchased a Chinese fish finder similar to a deeper and had tested it on the Pondtail and was quite impressed. I had set it up on a 4m whip so that we would stop the boat and try it before dropping anchor and fishing. To be fair it was very good, identifying the depth and were the fish were sitting in the water and the relative size of fish.

It was lucky that we were able to go on the boat as the boats had been cancelled on Monday and Wednesday due to the high winds. Anyway we spent the best part of six hours staring at pike floats and moving to various locations while blanking! It has to be said that there was a wind and the fish finder inevitably showed more fish on the windward side of the boat rather than the leeward, so we got a bit windswept.

Next day sees us back at the Magpies still no pike but the whips produced 15 Roach, 6 skimmers and a perch for about 2lb for me and Gareth had exactly the same number of fish but 12 roach, 5 skimmers, 3 perch and 2 rudd. Best fish was a 10oz skimmer for me.

Saturday arrives, Gareth was going back to China later that day and I had a Maggotdrowners Silvers match at the Glebe. |Gareth made the most of his time and visited the Magpies very early but after I had left at 5:40 and managed to get a farewell pike of 4-02 and missed another run.

At the draw everyone was saying that the 20s would be best so I was not too disappointed when I drew peg 20. I set up a waggler, light feeder/bomb and two pole rigs- one for 11m the other for 5m. Feeding the 11m line with two balls of groundbait laced with casters worms and micros I put one small ball at 5m and loose fed maggot. I also started feeding the waggler line (about 18-20m) with casters every 5 minutes or so. Starting on the feeder I had a good few casts to get some bait down but saw little response so moved on to the 5m line, no response, on to the 11m line, no response, waggler eventually saw a bite with a skimmer hooked and promptly lost as it reached netting distance! After two hours I had my first fish- a gudgeon on the 11m line. I decided at this point to forget the pole and concentrate on the waggler. I had set it up to fish on the drop with three no8 shot as droppers and by plugging away I started to pick up the odd skimmer. This then went quiet and I swapped to the bomb over the same area that produced a few more skimmers by the end. At the weigh in I found that the non-20s had fished a lot better, indeed of the 20s I had the second best weight, beaten by 3oz at the last peg. Of course as the match ended the rain began!

Fast forward to the 27th I visited the Magpies again for a two hour session, fishing about 20m past the moorings. No pike but the whip produced 12 roach, 8 perch, 12 skimmers, 4 rudd and a very rare bleak! Total approx 2-12 taken on double maggot or worm. If I had stuck to maggot I would have had more but I wanted to see if I could get the better skimmers or perch.

Next month sees matches at the Glebe and Boddington plus I am intending to make a farewell visit to Bowood as the season closes on the 14th and I do not intend to rejoin next season. Meanwhile back in China Gareth caused a bit of a stir with the locals at the predator(bass) commercial by catching a red snapper (Chinese translation) and then had a blank on an evening session.

June 20215 Part 2 – slightly longer!

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Well Tuesday and Wednesday had been ruled out for fishing as it was Col’s birthday and I had got tickets for a play at Bath on the day after. However, the best laid plans and all that Tuesday afternoon sees me prone on the bed totally shattered and Wednesday sees us missing our day out in Bath as I spent the day in bed! By Sunday I was feeling a lot better but not good enough to trek down to Bowood so I had a couple of hours at High Penn on the edge of Calne. I last fished it over 30 years ago in a South Cerney v Wooton Bassett evening inter club match but after many years of no fishing Calne had managed to acquire the lease.

Given my state I simply took a 6m margin pole with the intention of fishing corn at 5m. I settled on what I think was old peg 7 on the east bank and plumbing up found about 10ft at 5m; strange how we still use feet for depth and meters for distance!

Left margin
Right margin

I began flicking out some corn and fed micros and 4m through a tosspot, starting on the right and after an hour moving to the left. Both areas being just past the tree line although the right was home of a nuisance snag! First bite came after about 10 minutes a chunky roach about 10 oz.

In the couple of hours I was there I had 10 roach,a rudd and a baby carp of about 2oz for roughly 3-12 including another net roach of about 12oz.

The bonus being that despite it being a hot day with the carp cruising around I was in shade with a breeze in to my face (I even had my fleece on!).

So Wednesday sees me march down to Bowood peg 5 with the rake. Twenty plus minutes of raking sees a clearish area that was just about fishable.

The pile of weed I took out!I managed to start fishing eventually at 10:05 and lasted until 12:30. Fishing 0.16mm to a 14 hook and corn on a homemade float I introduced three balls of groundbait with some wheat, micros and corn. First fish was a net rudd that flipped out of my had before I could take the customary first Bowood fish picture but five minutes later I had another similar sized one that I managed to snap!

I had 16 rudd by the end for 2-04 and bumped a few also, but no sign of any bream or tench. An angler on peg 10 packed up and passed me as I finished raking and he said it had been very hard but had one bream and a small skimmer. It desperately needs some colour and fresh water – the stream that you cross was dry!

Sunday sees me on the Thames at Radcot for the penultimate round of the Summer League. I was drawn in section C as I had requested a short walk with my knee and had fortunately cut right down on the tackle taking a waggler and feeder rod only along with my Bowood box and trolley. C section was down from Grafton lock and the short walk was the longest yet as I drew C10, end peg of the section, except for some unknown reason they had not staggered the pegging as in all other rounds which would have meant I would be about 4 pegs in.

Faced with blazing sun, no shade, about 8 feet of water and little colour I set up the waggler with 3 no 6 shot spread down the line, minnows and tiny bleak had been an issue with maggot so far this season so I had left the maggots at home and based my attack on caster, hemp and wheat, we were not in the running and had a team plan of trying something different! I started by loose feeding caster, hemp and a little wheat about two rod lengths out and third put in had a small bleak, so at least I wouldn’t blank, from thereon I had a further bleak, a minnow, a chublet, a roach and a gudgeon for the princely total of 0-04, the last three hours was biteless despite trying feeder and fishing across for a hopeful chub! I stopped counting the boats, paddle boards and canoes after the twentieth went through!

One more round to go – Clanfield where at least you can park behind your peg! Surprisingly we moved up to 7th as a team!

Bowood beckons as does High Penn, plus Gareth arrives on the 12th and is looking to catch a river barbel as he has not fished for them since the late 1990s. Onward and hopefully upwards.