fish

October 2025 Part 2 – a myth dispelled!

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With the up coming visit from Clive aka SidestreamBob I thought I had better return to Semington and make sure there was plenty of bank space, so I also took a pair of shears and cut a swim closer to the pump than I fished before but still close enough to Clive’s peg.

Peg duly cut I set up a single rig of a 1g homemade float to 0.14mm Tornado and 0.12mm Tornado hooklength to an 18 fishing the 2+2 line in about 6-7 feet of water. Double maggot was again the bait with two pudding consistency balls of groundbait introduced with a little maggot and chopped worm in it. This is not the typical canal approach but for this particular area it is a basic approach. First put in was 10:15 and by 12:15 I had amassed 28 roach, 28 skimmers, 5 larger skimmers, best being 1-08, 3 perch (best 0-14), 2 gudgeon and a rudd for a total of 8-08. I had lost 3 good fish to hook pulls, two were most likely big perch and one a bream judging by the slime on the line. Perch have bony mouths so a hook pull is always possible and the bream tend to have softer mouths than usual.

Anyway it looked good for Monday. Sunday I nip down to Bowood and set up on peg 10 putting the pike rod out and fishing my usual style. However I fished from 10 to 11 at which point the heavy rain got heavier and there were no signs of any pike activity, further evidenced by no slack periods on the pole – 40 rudd, 4 skimmer and a perch for 2-12.

Monday comes around and the sunny fine day of Friday at Semington is replaced by dull wet weather! Clive and I met up as arranged and I led him along the pounds to the pump and put him on the first peg I had fished as it was flatter and no vegetation in the way while I dropped in to the newly cut one from Friday. I had told Clive pole only as it was an ideal opportunity for him to get used to the pole while getting plenty of bites. To cut a long story short the day went off with intermittent rain and dry spells, Clive lost a good fish to a hook pull, possibly a big perch but did manage to get a perch of 1-04 plus a load of smaller fish for a 4lb total.I had a similar experience losing 3 good fish , landing a perch of 1-12 in a total of 8-07. The pump was active for about 30 minutes during which bites dried up significantly. However, the myth that SidestreamBob can’t catch fish is well and truly smashed after his exploits today and earlier in the season. (You will notice he is far better at taking photos than me!)

The myth breaker

Sunday is the next time I get out and this time I head for peg 10 at Bowood armed with the pike rod and 6m Chinese whip with just the haversack seat. Pike rod went out at 9 and the whip followed ten minutes later. I admit I got fed up with the small rudd, 34 of them by the time I packed up at 11:10 when the rain started again, along with 2 roach and 3 small skimmers for 1-08, not a sign of a pike or any activity.

Undeterred I returned next day to Bowood – to peg 11, yes eleven, armed with the haversack seat, pike rod and waggler. It was a very windy blowing left to right and a cold day. The peg had not been dragged at all and was weedy but I stuck at it and from 9:55 to 11:50 did not see a pike or get a run, but did get 18 rudd on the waggler for 1-10, as you can tell a better stamp than previously but still small.

Last day of the month and a dull very windy start that would turn into wet and windy later! I decided to head for High Penn as there were water mains repairs on the road to Bowood and they were working right by the entrance which made things awkward.I decided to take the haversack seat and just a waggler rod although I opted for a 15′ Filstar Premier Match that is at least 12 years old teamed up with a Kastking Sharky reel with 0.16mm line to a 0.12mm hooklength and size 18 barbless hook. Float was a homemade peacock quill taking 4AAA with 3AAA and a BB locking the float with a number 1 shot about 2 feet from the hook and a number 4 about 9 inches from the hook. Heavy set up but in reality needed in the 10’+ of water at 16m and the heavy wind creating a flow. I fished 9:40 to 11:30 when the heavens opened for a second time but fed sparingly, simply loose feeding 20 or so maggots every time bites slowed after an initial two helpings. The rod needs a bit of explaining as it is not like the ultra slim rods available today, it is noticeably thicker and heavier but has a very nice soft action in the tip which allows you to feel even the smallest fish whilst retaining a lot of backbone further down the rod. I was thinking this gave me the best of both worlds given the number of carp in High Penn.It was bites from the off with 15 perch, 16 rudd and 4 roach coming to hand, nothing bigger than 3oz, for a 2-06 total.

Taken during one of the calmer periods (there weren’t many!)

November awaits, will it bring a pike from Bowood?

January 2025 Part 1 – a frozen landscape

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The high winds, rain and freezing temperatures have been so far this month limiting me to just two excursions so far. Friday 3rd sees me head to peg 10 at Bowood in bright sunshine but the air temperature was -2C on arrival lifting to 2C just under 3 hours later. The Pondtail was still frozen after the cold days and nights we had been having and there was ice still on the main lake all the way down to just after peg 7. It was very still with a gentle breeze rippling the water at times but fishing from 10am to 12 produced not a single bite or run. Fish were starting to show (silvers and pike) at the edge of the ice around peg 7 which was just about fishable when I left; I should really have chanced it and fished up to the edge of the ice rather than going to the deeper water but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Eleven days then pass before the next visit as a further deep freeze put a firm lid on the lakes and I resolved to let the ice melt and for the temperature to be stable for a couple of days before venturing out.This time I went on peg 9, mainly as there was a couple of pike anglers on the far bank, one of which had his pike float about 20 yards from peg 10. There was still thin ice on the lake up to peg 5 and I was tempted to fish there but knowing that it was only 3-4ft deep did not appeal.

I got a bait in the water by 9:55 and fished until 12. I mixed up one 250ml cup of dry groundbait on the wet side to act as an attractant and fed a single ball with some pinkies. Ten minutes in and the float dipped under and a small roach came to be resident in the keepnet. Just after this the swans swam by and the pike float bobbed almost as if their wake had caused it but I was not convinced. A couple of minutes later the run materialised and the strike resulted in what felt like a decent fish, until it let go- I obviously struck too soon in my haste!

No further runs which was annoying as the water was constantly erupting with small fish evading marauding pike although one of the anglers on the other bank had a pike which from a distance looked to be around the 5-8lb mark from just up from peg 5. I had an interesting time on the pole ending with 3-03 comprised of 33 roach, 20 rudd and 7 skimmers/blades – yes they were small! I did catch a couple on a Chinese honey jelly ball that I had bought, I will try these further as I bought them in a variety of flavours.

NO pictures this time as I did set the video up for the session and the weighing but on playback there was nothing!

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.

June 2024 part 2b- Struggles and successes

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

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

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

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

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

Day two sees me draw peg 10 on Severn.

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

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

June 2024 Part 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.

May 2024 Wanderlust!

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A slow start to the month mainly caused by various health appointments, visits from friends and various jobs I had been putting off! As I write this my new passport has just arrived prompted by the impending election (although my bus pass would do) and Gareth’s short trip from China to Jurassic Fishing Lakes in Thailand.

Gareth and family arrived at the lakes on the Thursday evening, fished all day Friday and half a day Saturday before leaving for China. So they draw for choice of pegs on the day before so there is no mad scramble for the “best” areas and Gareth ended up on peg 14 both days. On the Friday he missed a run second cast and then finally latched into a Siamese carp that went 50lb.

Things went a bit quiet as the day got hotter and it was Wendy, Gareth’s wife, that talked him into buying chicken hearts to try. Chicken hearts delivered a whole kilo of them were deposited into the margin and two put on the hook, ten minutes later and a run produces a 85lb carp, ten minutes after resuming it goes again with another at 95lb and a bit later one of 105lb.

He also had a run on the predator rod that resulted in his mackerel being bitten clean in half. Day 2 sees him back at the same peg which again produced, this time a 95lb carp and a 20lb Chao Praya catfish with seven missed runs, probably off the catfish before they had to leave.

Anyway back to more normal sized fish! With the Monkhall festival approaching I decided to make my way there to finalise arrangements and to have a short session on Owl pool which I had not fished before. I decided to limit myself to testing two areas and baits – paste and expander in the margin and at 8m. Feeding micros the long swim was soon fizzing and the 0.16mm line was teamed with a size 14 hook for both paste and margin. First discovery was that there are too many fish in my swim! I was getting constant nudges/liners and the first 4 fish hooked were foul hooked, second discovery was that the new 2mm elastic I was trying was perfect if the fish were lip hooked but was definitely undergunned if foulhooked .

I persevered and ended up with a clutch of F1s up to 2-12 and a few carp plus 10 tench, but at least now I had an idea of what tackle and bait I needed! The time before the event will be preparing the paperwork and tackle plus slotting in a three day trip to Yorkshire!

Another tail hooked Monkhall carp!

Meandering March 2024 Part 1

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March arrives and it is not until the 6th that I am able to get to Bowood arriving at peg 10 with a frost on the ground, air temperature of -1C and fog! I was ready to fish by 9 and continued to 12:30, the fog eventually lifted and the day turned very warm and sunny, however the water was highly coloured with a max of 3 inches clarity. Anyway the usual set up was in place and by 10 am I had one micro perch that dropped off! There were two others in the top field and another regular, Bob, turned up and went on 9 as he assumed the other two had gone on the other bank and had been planning on going to the top field. While chatting the float started going against the tow, a strike and a solid resistance followed by a goodly amount of elastic came out. Unshipping slowly I finally put the net under a 3-08 bream hooked in the pectoral! I had a small bream of 1-12, five roach, 3 skimmers/blades and 6 rudd for a final total of 6-10.

With the close of Bowood approaching – it keeps the same close season as the rivers- I went on the last Sunday, thinking it would be busy, how wrong I was- I had the lake to myself! Back on 10 with the usual approach I managed to get another bream of 3-06, a tench of 3-00, 25 rudd, 4 roach and 3 skimmers for a 7-12 total.

However there was a point when I quickly unshipped the pole as the pike float bobbed and started to go then stopped. On finally retrieving the bait I find there was a piece of flesh cut out with almost surgical precision less than 5mm from my top hook.

There have been no reports of crayfish in the 10 years I have been going to Bowood and I have never seen one there. Showing the picture to Jackie in TK Tackle she was bemused at first but came up with the possibility of it being a catfish. The lake was design and built by Capability Brown and many of his lakes at that time had carp and catfish introduced, it is quite feasible that some offspring of the original fish may still be in the water as 80% of it is not fished. A thought to ponder!

I decided to go on the Wednesday and leave the last day of the season alone! Bowood 10 was the peg again but the wind was blowing very hard and the water had got very coloured with a couple of heavy overnight downpours. I started at 9 but packed up at 11:30 having to fish the last hour or so just using the top two of the pole as the wind was extreme. Seven roach, twelve rudd and seven blades finished my season for 1-03.

To review the season – I have again succumbed to peg 10 during the autumn and winter due to it being the deepest area and with bait going in it does hold the fish (possibly!). Anyway the initial outlay for a Bowood ticket of £205 may appear expensive but given it is only 3 minutes from door to gate it is convenient plus the 55 visits I made means each outing cost me £3.93 so it is financially worthwhile.

I netted 555lb 5oz of visit making an average of just over 10lb a visit. That breaks down in the following way Pike 17 caught for 168-05, seven over 10lb (18-11,17-06,14-04, 14-04, 13-00, 1`2-04 and 11-13), Tench 13 caught for 51-15, the best 5-06 with 6 between 4 and 5lb and 6 between 3 and 4lb, there were 82 bream weighed the best being 5-00 with five between 4 and 5lb, 35 between 3 and 4lb, 32 from 2 to 3lb and 9 from 1 to 2lb for a total of 234lb. That leaves 101-01 of other fish. I made 25 fewer visits this season, partly down to spending more time on matches and Gareth dragging me to the canal or river!

Who knows what next season will bring, if it follows the usual Bowood cycle it will be a tench year with few bream!

February 2024 – Part 2 the rise and fall…

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With Gareth and family safely back in China I made preparations for a Maggotdrowners match at the Glebe on Saturday 17th. I had talked Darren into having a go and arranged to meet him at Moreton in the Marsh so he could follow me up to the Glebe as it was his first time. We arrived on time without incident and Darren drew peg 20 and I was on 26. My preparations had not been done that well as I realised that I had left my pole cup in the other bag when I had been out with Gareth, fortunately Darren lent me a spare. For some reason I forgot to take any pictures but I started on the feeder tight across and was patting myself on the back when the feeder was going down the same hole each time – a rare incident! Anyway a roach, skimmer and monster gudgeon made the way to the net by the time we reached the 30min mark while peg 24 had about 4 carp in this time.

The match had been split into two payouts- silvers only and everything counts -with each section getting a silvers and overall winner, you could win one but not both. I had set out for silvers as I wanted to see if I could get the usual bream of 1.5lb to 3lb feeding as being February I suspected the carp may be more bunched up. Hence, I had fished maggot on the feeder and had primed a long line at 13m and a short line at 2+2, the long line with groundbait, 4mm pellet and corn, while the short line received one ball of groundbait and a pot of micros with a few 4mm expanders and a few maggot. Tackle was unusual for me as the long line was normal with a 0.8g homemade float on 0.14mm line, a 0.12mm hooklength to a 16, the short line however was again homemade but took just three no8 shot spread in the last 3 feet again to a 0.12mm line and 16 hook.

The feeder was put up the bank and I had a look on the long line and began to pick up small skimmers of only an ounce or two on maggot or expander at 13m but although I was putting fish in the net along with one better skimmer of a pound it was not fast enough due to the size of the fish. So on to the 2+2 line again it was a case of small skimmers interspersed with the odd roach and gudgeon no matter whether I had maggot or expander on the hook, but expander brought the bites faster. I stayed on this line for the rest of the match but the fish were very small in comparison to the usual silvers at the Glebe. After three hours I hooked and landed a carp of around 8lb but it was the last 40 minutes when the silvers got pushed out by the carp. I caught two carp of a similar size to the first but then I managed to snap my hook off in the bank side vegetation and instead of just tying on a new hook I took the hooklength off and replaced it with a similar one but with a narrower gauge 16 hook – a big mistake as I lost three carp on the bounce as the gauge of wire was pulling through and not holding the carp. I managed one further carp of about 3lb. I was on the board for the weigh in and Darren had had a good day – sticking on the 2+2 line and feeding and fishing maggot he had caught consistently all day and ended up winning the silvers pot for the section. Looking at his fish I guessed I had caught a similar amount but mine were a great deal smaller. I ended up with 15-11 of silvers and my 4 carp went 29-10 that put me 6th overall, and 5th in the silvers.

Darren went home pleased with his day and looking forward to the next on 16th March! It was only at the end of the match that we discovered that Roy Marlow, the owner and ex-Likely Lad, had died on the bank the previous day, a true loss to angling.

Events and weather then conspired against me, with a recurrence of my dodgy knee and monsoon type weather at times I stayed in until the following Siunday when I packed the haversack seat and took a rod bag with a waggler and feeder rod up to the Stock Pond at Bowood on the premise that it would do me good and was the only place likely to be fishable. It was fishable but no-one told the fish!The main lake was muddy after all the rain and it looked as if they had opened the sluice as the water level was lower than normal. I squelched my way up to the Stock Pond and despite it only being 1C on arrival I expected to get a few bites- how wrong can you me – 9:30 to 11:30 fishing and not a bite on either waggler or lead. There had been one hardy pike angler on the main lake when I walked up but he had gone when I walked back.

Tuesday sees me pluck up the courage to go to peg 10 at Bowood, there was a lot of debris and large sticks on the platform and walkway which gave credence to the theory that the rain over the last week or so had risen the level to over the platform and the sluice had then been opened to alleviate the situation.

There was an undertow from right to left against the strong cold wind again a cold night and only 1C on arrival. I fished in my usual manner, the pike rod was untroubled but I did prevent a blank with 3 roach, 2 rudd, 2 skimmers/blades and a micro-perch for 0-06. Two other anglers came after me on the other bank but I did not see them catch, Oh for a period of settled weather! It has to be said that apart from one bite that took the float under the rest merely moved the tip a mm or so which meant I needed to concentrate hard on the float.

March means 14 days maximum of Bowood to end of season and then the return to the Glebe.