Bowood

March 2025 Part 1 – Out with a whimper!

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March 4th I decided that as my knee was still playing up I would go “light” and take a walk down the opposite bank to peg 20 (next to the island). Armed with a waggler and pike rod plus seat-bag I slowly hobbled down to the peg starting at 9:30 and finishing at 12:05. The pike rod was cast out about 20m to the left while the waggler was set up at 20-25m with loose fed maggot and one of my homemade bodied wagglers taking 4AAAwith a couple of no 6 shot as droppers – I wanted to have a positive lift if there was a bite hence the size of droppers.

The lake was untypically flat and with the bright sun I was not too hopeful given the way things had been going, but if you don’t try you won’t succeed as they say. Loose feeding a pinch of maggot every few minutes I had my first bite after 40 minutes a roach, from there on I had had sporadic bites and ended up with nine roach and a skimmer but at the end I hooked a good fish that I played for over 4 minutes getting it in to netting range a couple of times before it finally snapped my 0.10mm hooklength on one of the old platform posts close in. I never saw the fish but I am convinced it was a tench by it’s fight rather than a pike or anything else. No further bites after that loss so it was a case of trudging back to the car wondering what might have been. The only other thing of note was that there were two anglers piking on the last two pegs on the other bank and one had a pike but they both were oblivious to the deer that broke cover and ran along the slope only 20m behind them.

Sunday 9th was my next visit and I had decided to just go on the Pondtail as my knee was playing up and it being the last week-end of the season I was expecting it to be busy. How wrong could I be! On arrival there was one car and he was fishing peg 2 on the Pondtail, so I ended up fishing the waggler on peg 1 starting at 9:30. Loose feeding did not seem to work after an hour I mixed up three handfuls of groundbait and started to introduce small marbles every couple of casts. This seemed to work and I managed 6 roach up to 12noon when I packed up. The angler on peg 2 had only one small roach so in relative terms I didn’t fare too badly! The pic shows only 5 roach as I missed the net with one!!!!

The next week had little opportunity for fishing with the funeral of Pete Sarahs, the stalwart of Peatmoor, who I had accompanied all over the country with the junior teams and helped to run the junior matches with at Peatmoor for over 15 years, taking place on the Monday,car into garage on Thursday before heading to Yorkshire the same day and Wednesday taken up with meeting a fellow angler after some floats. Tuesday then was my last visit to Bowood and I made the walk down to peg 20 again. This time there was a very strong, cold wind blowing straight down the lake towards me creating a big tow on the water, so much so it was akin to trotting a river. Even 18inches overdepth did not help and I gave up the ghost at 11:15 biteless and not having seen any indication of fish, even the grebes were more interested in their courtship rituals than fishing! So ended another season at Bowood. A great beginning but a struggle there after- I caught half my total weight of fish for the season in the first three weeks!

Now a tale of some fish! Gareth decided he fancied another trip to Thailand this week-end so he organised a trip to a lake usually reserved for locals- taxi to Hong Kong,fly to Bangkok via Hong Kong on Saturday, stay in the airport hotel and be collected 6am Sunday, hour journey to the lake, fish 9 hours then return to airport, get back late Sunday and work Monday! Oh to be young again! Six year old Zachary was going with him and the guide set him up with a light spinning rod as the main tackle was to heavy for him. Unfortunately the clutch on the reel could not cope with the red-tailed catfish and even tightened fully the catfish still took line! Anyway they had a good visit with 32 red tail catfish and 1 tambaqui. Estimated total weight 1270lbs. Zachary caught two 20kilo catfish!

All his own work!

February 2025 part 2 – The woes are still there!

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Did I really write that things can only get better! Silly me! Having sorted out Gareth’s pike rod I ventured forth to the Pondtail on Wednesday 19th in the hope that I may get a bite or two. Well I fished 9:15 to 11:15 through a mishmash of weather on the waggler, loose feeding at first but after 40 minutes and no bites I relented and made up a small amount of groundbait and started to introduce small marbles of it every few minutes. This got me a bite that I missed by hitting it too early in my anxiety to catch (or was that the shock of seeing a bite!). Anyway there were 3 further bites that I did manage to hook and land – three roach for 5oz.

Saturday 22nd sees me up early and traveling up to the Glebe fishery outside Hinckley for a Maggotdrowners event. I had decided to plan my attack on maggot fished short with the pole at 11m as a back up plus a groundbait feeder on my light bomb rod and a waggler. The woes then hit me with a vengeance – during the uneventful drive up I had a nagging doubt in my head- “why was there more space than normal in the car?”. Drawing peg 25 – the same area I frequently seem to end up in- I drove down to the bottom of the lake and started to unpack the car when it hit me – I had left the bag with the wheels and barrow kit for the Octbox at home in the garage! To make matters worse the usual path via a bridge that took you very close to the peg was taped off as it appeared the bridge needed repairs, so I had no option but to walk around the muddy slope to peg 30 then carry on to the peg. Now I do not have a strap fitted to the Octbox (it is in the bag with the wheels!) so I had to carry it up the muddy, slippery slope to the peg – in total I had 4 trips to get my kit there.

I set up as I intended a short pole (top 3) with a 3 x n08 float with 0.10mm hooklength to an 18; long pole with a 1g Paster float again to a 0.10mm and 18; the waggler with a homemade sarkandas cane insert waggler taking 4AAA and my Preston 10 ft bomb rod with the mandatory 20 inch hooklength to a barbless 17 hook. Groundbait was a mix of F1 cold water dark and Swimstim natural.

The match starts and I cup two balls on to the 11m line with a few micros and maggots and leave it. On to the short line loose feeding a pinch of maggots every put in – no response. After 25 minutes I put a marble of groundbait out and a couple of minutes later missed a bite before getting a small perch and that was it! On to the pole line expander – no interest, one bite on maggot that came from a small skimmer. That was it again, peg 26 was starting to pick up skimmers on the long pole and I probably spent too long trying to make it work to no avail, so on to the feeder.

Third cast (3/4 across hopefully avoiding the far bank carp) I hooked a skimmer of around a pound. The rest of the match sees me swap between the feeder and waggler (fished on same line as feeder) but apart from a lost skimmer on the waggler I could only catch on the feeder but I was having to wait for the bites. I ended up with a further 5 skimmers for a 6-11 total. The 5 peg section went like this Peg 22 1-7, peg 23 7-01, peg 25(me) 6-11, peg 26 11-1 and peg 28 14-11. Still it was nice to catch a few fish before making another 4 trips back to the car with the kit!

My knee did not like the slipping and sliding over the mud so it was not until Friday 28th that I ventured out but where to. My head said the canal, the monkey on my shoulder said Bowood – the monkey won! I ended up on peg 8 as another angler was just setting off as I got to the car park and he went on 10. In lieu of protecting ,my knee I had taken a waggler and pike rod plus the haversack seat. Going down was fine as the frost the night before had left the ground nice and crisp- coming back the temperature had risen by 9C and it was a bit squelchy. I fished 10 to 12 but knew the woes were going to win when I saw the water – you could just see an inch into it, very coloured very bright sunshine and yes no bites or indications of fish. The angler on 10 was blanking when I left and another angler who arrived just as I was setting out was blanking on the other bank by the island.

On a positive note I did get out and next week a visit to the canal may be in order although I still want to get this damn monkey off my Bowood back!

December 2024 Part 2 – Winter warmers

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Since the last post I have not been out much until I received a message from a reader, Robert, who asked if I would be interested in a pdf containing information of fishing in the River Marden around the 70s. I was indeed and subsequently received a pdf with the maps of the Marden and swims fished with what could be expected which certainly got me interested.

So with the imminent approach of Christmas I decided to go for a couple of hours on Monday 23rd. I went light, the haversack seat a Shakespeare Mach 1 bomb rod set up with a 3/8oz bomb on a paternoster style rig and a 8inch hooklength of 0.10mm Shogun to a 16, a waterproof bait bucket which held some worms(that I didn’t use), half a pint of mixed maggots and a towel. Landing net was the Chinese set up- a telescopic carbon handle and fine mesh net. Parking up at Hazeland weir I took a steady walk up section 1 until I reached the end of the field with a stream entering the river, the bridge across it meant I could have continued but the fallen sapling across the overgrown”path” made my decision so I began the return.

Swim 1 (I am now calling this the wall peg!)

With the branches extending over the swim I just used a gentle underhand swing to place my double maggot bait some 5m down the peg halfway across. I settled back and loose fed half a dozen maggots , not really expecting much action. I should mention, if you have not picked up the fact already, that I did not bring a rod rest as I prefer to hold the rod and touch ledger as it allows we to take in the surroundings and not miss any bites! Five minutes passes and I had a rattle that I missed, assuming it was a minnow of which there are many in the Marden (more of this later). The maggots were totally sucked out, so out again with two new maggots, another half dozen thrown out and five minutes later another bite, more of a rap/pluck again missed. Process repeated and five more minutes passed before before a gentle pluck saw me strike and hook something bigger than any minnow that tried its best to get into the bankside snags before revealing itself as a trout of 1-01.

After releasing the trout back I poured myself a congratulatory coffee and lobbed out the double maggots again, not really expecting much more before I would move to the next swim. While watching two grey squirrels play follow my leader in the trees opposite I had another pluck that I missed.Back out again and this time managed to connect with a small roach.

Now I know you are not supposed to move off feeding fish but I wanted to try a few other places on my return to the car. Quickly collapsing the landing net and making my was down stream I opted t not fish the first place as it was quite close to where I had set off from but settled on…

Swim 2

Same process repeated and result was two small roach before I moved again!

On to Swim 3

Repeat above and result was…

Swim 4

You guessed it!

Next couple I didn’t fish

Swim 5

Yep!

At this point I decided to ignore any more and just go to one more swim on the straight at the start of the field for 5 minutes before going. I was joined by another angler dressed out in sparkling blue and orange who was having a fair bit of success until he flew off. Double maggot again and after a couple of casts the tip thudded around and an acrobatic air-borne trout of 0-11 came to the net. At which point I packed up and departed.

The session made me think about where had all the minnows gone, previously it was full of them but not a single one landed/seen. It also occurred to me how much I enjoyed the simplicity of the session and how easy it is to fall into a rut of fishing the same venue/swim every time!

Christmas comes and goes along with a Boxing Day visit to Birmingham, so on 27th I fall back into the rut and wander down to peg 10 – wish I hadn’t! Fished 10-12 and didn’t get a sniff of a bite/run/fish! Packed up at 12 with the fog making the air colder and no indications of fish, even the grebes were not catching!

Sunday 29th decide to have an hour or two on the Pondtail as it was still very dull. Turned up on peg 2 with the whips and after setting up the 4.5m one and just loose feeding for twenty minutes with no indications I made up a handful of dry groundbait and began to feed little nuggets of it. After a further half hour the float without warning buried and I broke the blank so to speak with a small roach, not a good photo as it decided to flip about just as I took it!

I fished on for another 40mins and although the clouds lifted and the sun came out the temperature dropped so with no further indications I trudged back up the hill and home.

Looking down the Pondtail from peg 2. Five minutes later a breeze sprang up and the water was rippled.

Being a glutton for punishment I decided to go next day to the Marden section one. Walked the half mile or so up to the “wall peg” with the same kit as last time and started fishing around 9:30. The main difference this time was I had expectations of bites/fish whereas the last time I was fully expecting to blank! Similar approach and after a quarter of an hour nothing! I then missed a bite or so I thought as a minnow surfaced and promptly let go off the maggot! Nothing for a while and a cup of coffee and a Welsh cake gave me some interest, just as I was thinking of moving further downstream I had a faint quiver on the tip/tremble on the line a strike saw a roach come to the net (could have swung it in really!)

Another dodgy photo! Well I gave it another 5 minutes then moved on, trying a swim further downstream that I had not tried before. While it looked promising it produced nothing. Moving on down it was obvious that the river was fishing hard than before.

I tried another couple of swims and had two minnows from what I called swim 5 from the last visit before moving back to where I had caught the smaller trout last time. A couple of missed bites before a minnow and then just as I was thinking of packing up a half ounce roach. I gave it another five minutes then made my way home.

So checking my diary that I use as a log I have made 96 outings this calendar year, New Year’s resolution- to hit the “ton” in 2025. Happy New Year to you all.

November 2024 Part 2 – climate change?

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Sunday 17th sees me back at peg 10 with no real hopes of catching given everywhere seemed to have turned off due to lack of rain and the subsequent lowering of oxygen levels in the water. To cut a long story short I fished 9-11 in tap water for a second consecutive blank on the main lake although it was warm so did not need to wear my coat.

Two days later I decide to go to the Pondtail as we still had no rain and the temperature had dropped from 10C down to 0C. Set up the 4.5m Chinese whip and rig and loose fed just 4-5 grains of wheat every other cast starting at 9:15 after 10 minutes I had my first roach and the snow started! I lasted until10:15 when it was snowing heavily and I returned the 9 roach and went home to get warm.

Before it snowed heavily!

We then had a ten day block of snow, heavy rain and floods plus my knee was playing up so it was not until Friday 29th that I got out again to peg 10. Now to give this some context Thursday at 8am it was -3C, Friday it was 10C and today it is 14C, no wonder that all wildlife are confused. Peg 10 was coloured, windy and bright sunshine, although the wind was cold. Setting up as normal the pike rod was out at 9:15 and the pole followed at 9:25 after depositing two small balls of groundbait into the coloured water, followed by light loose feeding throughout the session. The time swings around to five past ten and I get the impression of a bite- the float sat literally a mm or two lower, a lift and a one ounce hybrid prevents the three blanks in a row on the main lake! A further half hour passes and I introduce some finely chopped worms (10 to be exact) and try a worm head, this produces another tentative bite after a quarter of an hour, a very slow “runner” to the left which could have been mistaken for tow, a lift finds a small bream of 1-09 coming to the net. That was my lot on the pole – two “bites” two fish.

During the session I had spotted pike come to the surface and take in air, possibly to try and clear any sediment from the coloured water off their gills. Two of these had been to my left about two rods out, one at 12m and the fourth to my right also about two rods out. I had put the pike rod over the left to no avail, but decided to put it over the right hand area while I started packing up the pole. This produced a bob and the float disappearing, a strike was met with heavy resistance and a run before after 5 secs the pike let go! I needed to give it more time before striking! That was my lot and I was home by 12:15.

December arrives on Sunday so I will try again on the main lake!

November 2024 Part 1 – Rain needed!

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Friday 1st I head for Bowood fishing on peg 10 9:15 to 12:00.Usual set up but strangely quiet on pike front with mo sign of any chasing of fish or strikes! This inactivity from the pike encouraged the silvers to feed resulting in 42 roach, 13 rudd, 6 skimmers and a perch for a level 5-00, so plenty of action to keep my interest but no fish of note.

Sunday comes around and my knee is playing up so I head with the whips for a couple of hours max on the Pondtail peg 1 which had now been cleared of the undergrowth and was at last fishable. Setting up with the 4.5m Chinese carbon whip and an 18 hook to a 1.4g float I had a pleasant couple of hours if frustrating at time with the fish coming in cycles. 14 roach a gudgeon and a perch for 1-08 came to the walnut sizes balls of groundbait and loose fed wheat, with double maggot doing the business apart from the perch which perversely took double wheat!

Tuesday sees me walk back to peg 10 to find the water was quite clear and started at 9:15, my first and only bite on the pole cam after and hour and twenty minutes – a roach on maggot,. Despite trying chopped worm, wheat, pellet and all combinations of maggot I could not buy a bite so decided to pack the pole up just after 11:30, before doing so I had moved the pike rod right over the pole line. Just as I finished putting the pole away I had a take on the pike rod with line streaming off the open bail arm, striking I was immediately into a heavy fish but slowly managed to subdue it’s runs and managed to christen the new light weight landing net handle I had treated myself to! The scales showed it to be 17lb exactly, so that was my cue to go home!

Wasn’t until the Sunday that I was able to get out again, opting to return to peg 10. To my absolute dismay the water had turned to tap water clarity with the bottom 4m out being visible in 5ft of water!No bites, no runs and no signs of any fish topping or swirling! I packed up at 11:30 with a blank – a rarity for Bowood!

Tuesday sees me fancy a change and I go to Blacklands opting for peg 12 in the shade opposite the toilet block, a choice I was to regret as it was COLD but bright sun on the other banks!I fished 9:40 to 12:50 and had to adapt my approach as i had picked up my canal/silver fish hard case and forgot that the pole cup in my Bowood box that I had taken was the wrong fitment! Matters then got worse as I was intending to fish worm before moving over to a second area that was to be primed with micros, on opening the bag I thought contained micros found it was groundbait which is banned at Blacklands!

I, in the end, opted to fish a number 6 elastic to a homemade chianti style float taking 0.4g in the 6ft of water at 10m, using a hooklength of 0.10mm to an 18 barbless hook. The main problem I could see was that there were leaves everywhere so I had to be careful shipping out and lowering the float into clear water before feeding small pinches of chopped worm via a toss pot at the end of the pole. Anyway as it turned out worm head still works and 20 roach, 12 perch and a solitary skimmer came my way for what I reckoned on 6-08 after counting the ounces of each fish as I went along! The biggest fish was a perch and the skimmer, both 14oz.

Hopefully we will get some rain soon to put the colour back in Bowood.

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 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.

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.