fishing

May 2025 – a Mish-Mash

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Sunday 11th sees me back at Boddington for the first leg of the North Wessex Summer League with 10 teams taking part. I drew A section, permanent peg 12 on the dam wall which I was not unhappy with.

Setting up a 5m whip, pole and waggler the plan was to start on the whip move further out on the pole and use the waggler if struggling. It was hard! The wind was blowing off the dam wall down to sections C and D and despite ringing the changes I ended up with my worst ever weight at Boddington 3-01 comprising of 18 roach and 2 perch , 5 on the whip, 6 came to the pole and 9 the waggler. The section was tight but I ended up with 9 points, beating the angler on the right by 12oz but losing by 11oz to my left. The team bombed out and were 10th.

Rolling on to the 20th I find myself getting up at silly o’clock to get to Monkhall near Bridgnorth for the MFS three day festival which once again I was charged with running. We had been allocated Lark and Owl on the Tuesday, followed by Buzzard and Hawk, then Swallow and Hawk, with the proviso that if you fished Hawk on Wednesday then Swallow was for you on Thursday. Money taken in, pegging sorted the draw takes place with fishing from 11:30 to 4:30. Last peg in the bag places me on Lark 7, the one lake I have not fished before and the peg that is furthest from the car park, added to which once again the wind was blowing to the other end of the lake which had a nice ripple while peg 7 was like a mirror!

The peg did look nice with inviting margins and I set up a shallow rig (for the hell of it!), a paste rig for 2+2, a pellet/corn rig for 10m and a margin rig. It has to be said that I did not intend to fish the shallow rig as I know I cannot compete now in a fish race and my line of attack was to target the carp on paste and then the margins. Well things did not go to plan, firstly the fish were not really feeding properly due to getting ready to spawn again, so it was a frustrating time with tails visible in the margins but only weighing in 36-13 while losing at least three times that with foul hookers both on the 2+2 and margin line. Needless to say last in section, I know my place! To rub salt into the wound the heavens opened with half an hour to go!

Day 2 sees me on Hawk peg 3, a peg I have drawn before. Set up as before, paste on 2+2 line, corn and micros in margins and micros long. First put in a carp of about 4lb on paste before anyone else had caught, then a series of missed bites and foul hooked fish. I managed to land a couple more before looking in the margins but had to fish very short (next to platform almost) to get proper bites, again lost 10+ carp and weighed in 56-11 which amazingly was not last (last but one!)

Final day and Swallow 8 called but again the weather gods had a joke and the wind was going down the far end of the lake so it was another case of fishing in a mirror!

Similar approach with the addition that the pellet rig now became a far bank rig as I was on the corner of the island. Again I was off to a flier on paste but it was a case of rotating around the swims, taking a couple of fish then moving on. The right margin produced nothing but the left margin seemed to be favoured by the carp. Far bank I fed with maggots via a toss pot with double maggot as hookbait that produced a fair amount of action but was difficult with the corner and snags. I managed to weigh in 56-06 despite losing more than 10 carp again. Colin Mercer on peg 6 said I had beaten him but I knew he had beaten me as was the case. Last again.

On to Sunday (25th) and round 2 of the Summer League at Walters lake South Cerney. Talk beforehand was that it would be hard as it was not fishing at all well pleasure fishing so a match was bound to be difficult and so it turned out.I was drawn on B1 (scales) which was permanent peg 16.

I set up a hybrid feeder, a margin rig, one for the 2+2 line and one for 10m. Bait was to be maggot/caster/worm/pellet/corn – anything I could get a bite on! Three balls of F! Sweet groundbait mixed dry were deposited on the 10m line laced with casters, a single ball was cupped in on the 2+2 with a pinch of casters fed every couple of minutes. Red and white maggot seemed to attract some attention and 4 fish in the first hour meant at least I avoided a blank! Things went downhill, next hour saw no bites on any of the areas. Re-feeding the long swim saw a couple of small skimmers but I was struggling. I then decided to put in a toss-pot of chopped worm with a few casters and began repeating it every 10 minutes with half a small dendrabena on the hook – finally some response – a small perch but then a bite that pulled the elastic out – a bream. The match ended with that bream, 4 small skimmers, 3 roach and the perch for 4-06 and 6th in the 10 man section. The team improved coming 4th on the day.

Last action this month sees me return to Rowde on Tuesday, same pound and swim, partly because although it is wide it is a short pound and realistically only two could fish it and I picked the flattest area that gave a stable sitting position for the seat-bag. Feeding the remnants of the groundbait and casters from Sunday on the 5m Chinese whip and rig I was soon into fish. Fishing 9:18 to 10:59 I had 20 roach, 16 skimmers, 9 rudd and 6 perch for between 4 and 5lb (I don’t bother taking the keepnet) before the boats and the CRT workers cutting the grass around the locks made it an easy decision to pack up.

Next up round 3 on the canal at Hungerford.

April/May 2025 overlap

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Before my Thai adventure I had a couple of sessions at Rowde. The first I intended to return to fish the same pound but with a feeder, however there then followed a series of annoying glitches to my plan. Firstly I realised I had let my phone at home and when I walked down a boat was moored up exactly in the peg and there was no room to fish so I ended up on the CRT 2 peg that Gareth and I had fished previously. Fishing about 30m out with a basic non-fishmeal groundbait and double maggot I was soon getting plenty of bites on the Shakespeare bomb rod I was using. Hitting the bites however was another matter and a solitary roach and rudd were returned before I switched to worm, this slowed things down and eventually a slow pull on the tip resulted in a bream of 3-06. A small skimmer followed before the boats started and I packed up having fished 10-11:20.

Not to be put off I returned a week later and managed not only to remember my phone but actually get on the spot I wanted to fish.

Same pic as previously but this time I fished 9:40 – 11:20 using a 5m Chinese whip with double maggot over groundbait and loose fed maggot I had bites immediately ending up with 40 skimmers,25 roach,4 perch 2 roach and 2 gudgeon for approx 6lb plus a bream of 4-02 which the whip handled with ease.

I packed up shortly after a boat with Norwegian tourists passed through.

So the time for the adventure arrives! The journey went like this, Tuesday 29th bus from Calne to Chippenham, coach to Heathrow, evening flight to Bangkok arriving mid afternoon on the Wednesday. The first thing that literally hit me as I stepped off the plane was the wall of heat (approx 36C) but the airport was air conditioned and from touching down to me getting into the shuttle cab for the hotel it was 39 minutes- a highly efficient system. Gareth later informed me that the queues used to be 1.5hrs but a surprise visit by the country’s premier changed that as he was appalled especially as tourism is a major economy in Thailand and heads were knocked together and investment and changes made!

Gareth arrived at the hotel at 2am from Shenzen in China and after a short nap and a walk via an underground air conditioned connecting tunnel to the airport/rail station to get some breakfast we met our taxi driver at the hotel at 7:15am. A short 45minute drive sees us arrive at Bungsamran Fishery where Gareth had arranged a session up to lunch time with a guide. We were in Sala 7 which put us almost at the end of the row of salas coming from the reception area. We were a bit early and walked around the walkway where people were already fishing, several large fish were swirling all over the lake.

We met up with the guide Tom and his son Andy (who spoke English) and made our way to the sala. The lake is 80ft deep and the salas extend out in to the lake on stilts so effectively you are surrounded by water. As we got to our sala I spotted a huge shape in the water alongside the sala – an arapaima of 100lb+! The tackle and set up will need some explaining! Firstly the rods are about 5ft in length, matched with a reel of approx 8000 size loaded with heavy braid to a mono leader (to prevent lifting scales), the end tackle is a large sliding float with a wire emstadt type feeder with a short hook link of perhaps 3-4 inches. Bait- there is none on the hook just a foam line wrapped around the hook to form a small bead to “pop-up” the hook, this is the buried in a large jaffa sized ball of “lum” – a fine rice groundbait The groundbait was mixed in a large shallow metal bowl using a drill as we would in this country, the difference being that instead of a whisk attachment it was a simple “T” . The sala has an overhanging room to provide shade and a fan to keep cool! The walkways had a similar style roof which partly explains the short rods!

Gareth and I were sharing a rod and he insisted I had first fish! The rod is cast by the guide and laid down on the floor with the bail arm open and the line hooked over a bottle. The float bobs about like crazy and goes under but it is only when the bottle topples over that you can strike! Third cast, about 10mins, a bite and a firm strike sees a powerful fish take line off the clutch. I eventually managed to get some level of control and pumped the fish back to be netted – a Mekong catfish of 20kg (44lb).

Mekong 20kg

Gareth then had a Mekong of 50kg (110lb), my next was a baby of 10kg (22lb), Gareth follows up with a Siamese carp of 30kg (66lb), I then get in on the carp action with a Siamese of 40kg (88lb) Gareth then has a real battle with a fish that runs approx 150m to the left and is in danger of cutting on the next sala, fortunately the guide on the next sala was able to hold the line off the sala until the fish was clear, approx 15minutes later a huge Mekong has its head in the net, the guide has to swim to the next sala to get the large floating cradle and eventually the fish is safely “landed”.

Siamese carp (40kg=88lb)

A Mekong of 100kg- 220lb. Gareth is wobbly after the fight and has a sit down and drink! So Tom washes himself down and we are back in action. A short while later the bottle topples and I hook a fish that I cannot do anything with and the clutch is screaming, the fish surfaces way down the lake (I used a distance calculator to get an idea of how far as it was possible to identify where it surfaced) – 170m. Now I first began coarse fishing because as a 10year old I won a newspaper competition for fish of the week that gave me a coarse tackle wallet as a prize. The fish involved was a 40lb monkfish caught off the beach at Llangenneth, now this reminded me of the playing tactic of walking back and the going forwards while winding in – mobile pumping rather than static pumping- so that is what I did. About 12 minutes later we had the fish in the net but the cradle was on the sala on the right as they had also had a large fish, but fortunately they swam it back and incredibly another 100kg (220lb) Mekong was “landed”.

100kg (220lb) Mekong

You can see we wore butt pads which were essential plus we wore a glove on the rod hand for protection. Gareth had another Mekong of 18kg(39.6lbs) and I missed a bite as our bait ran out virtually at 1pm which is when we had planned to return to the hotel, gather our things, check out and travel to Jurassic via their taxi.

The draw for swims at Jurassic takes place each evening so it is completely random, Gareth drew ball 8 and decided on Swim 4 for the day. We were both sharing the swim and had three 10ft rods so decided on one predator rod down the side and two carp rods. After an hour the carp rod alarm screams off and I hit into a good fish with the 10ft rod. Eventually I manage to get the fish into the cradle- a Siamese carp of 80lb.

Siamese Carp 80lb

All fish at Jurassic never leave the water so you have to go into the water if you want a picture with the fish – waist deep margins are better than potentially 80ft to a non-swimmer like me!

The set-up at Jurassic is very good with very friendly staff and excellent facilities, however we were greeted with the news that it had been fishing very hard with some anglers blanking a couple of days during their stay! That was borne out by that being our only fish of the day apart from a tilapia of about 2lb that Gareth had on the predator rod- I said we would not count that as his “turn”.

Next day there were fewer on the lake and Gareth had drawn ball 2 the night before and agonized whether to go on peg 1 or peg 16, both renowned predator pegs. Peg 16 had fished well the previous day while 1 had struggled. Peg 16 won but at the start of the day at 7am when rods can go in Peg 1 was quickly into fish! We found that we could not leave mackerel or chicken hearts in the water longer than 3-4 minutes or the tilapia would have left you with a bare hook or a head and skeleton!Four hours in and Gareth gets a run on the predator rod, keeping the rod well under the surface due to the floating weeds he manages to land a red tailed catfish of 30lb.

I should have had a fish but the “run” started and stopped, on retrieve I find a small mussel had closed itself over the point of the hook! That was our lot!

Next day it was back to Bangkok and Gareth went home eventually that night after a three hour delay due to thunderstorms in China and I had a day to recuperate before going back the following morning. An experience I am glad to have had.

Coming up Summer League fun at Boddington and the 3-dayer at Monkhall.

April 2025 – the excitement builds!

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Right, firstly an apology, there will only be one post this month for obvious reasons if you get to the end of the post! Saturday 5th sees me get to Boddington in good time to collect the money and sort the draw.There were three let downs so having originally booked for 10, then increased it to 11 and then 13 we ended up with 10 fishing! I was left with peg 38 in the bag- yes one away from when I came up previously! This time we were faced with a heavy (15mph) wind directly into our faces and I began to regret the fact that I had left the whips at home and had just a pole and waggler set up as the pegs either side had about 10 fish apiece before I had a bite!

Some clarification on my rigs may be in order as I was not fishing a traditional pole rig as I had converted one of my Chinese floats by adding a spring eye to the tip that could be removed if required so I had a 1g olivette 3-4 ft from the hook and 4 no8 droppers spread out below that with a 16 hook to 0.10mm. The fish finally found the three balls of caster laced groundbait and feeding casters while fishing double maggot I managed to start to put some fish in the net with some better net samples, oddly I did not get a single perch. At the end I knew I had been beaten either side but I weighed in 11-11 and was happy with a pleasant days fishing despite having approx 30% more fish bumped off due to the wind.

The results can be seen below, the only one not to weigh in was Ian who lost his landing net and first part of his handle in to the depths as it worked loose and despite best efforts he could not retrieve it. To his credit he continued to the end but tipped back and helped with the weigh in.

On to Wednesday and I paid Rowde a visit on the K&A canal. Parking up in the lay-by I had gone light again with just the whips and my seat plus of course landing net and bait. The first pound was full of boats, the second pound is not fishable as there are power lines, so on to the third pound which is about 40-50m wide and has 3 CRT fishing pegs that I did not fancy so continued on the the fourth pound and set up a 6m Chinese whip with one of my favourite orange Chinese floats and a 0.10mm hooklength to an 18. I had decided to experiment with feeding just micros after the first 5 minutes of introducing a dozen or so maggots with hookbait being double maggot.

You’ll notice the back rest of the seat is missing- lost some time ago when Gareth borrowed it! The canal here is about 30m wide as we are just below the infamous Caen Locks. Starting at 9:45 and packing up at 11:30 (reason for that coming up) I had a pleasant session resulting in six perch, two rudd, five roach and twenty one skimmers for approx 3-04.

At one point a boat came through into the pound and then proceeded to go through my swim three times while waiting for the lock gates to be opened, at this point I put the whip down on the deck and had a cup of coffee. The boat finally got into the lock and I continued catching until disaster struck, I lifted into a bite, felt a good fish (possibly a bream) and the line snapped a foot from the tip of the whip. Clearly when I put the whip down it must have caught on something that weaken the line at that point. I packed up at this point and trundled off home!

Now the reason for the title and no second part this month is that Gareth contacted me and asked if I would like to go fishing in Thailand with him as he had a couple of days holiday with the Chinese celebrating May Day, he would pay the airfare and fishing and I would just need to sort out a hotel for my arrival so I could get some rest before the fishing! Spoke to Mrs J who said go! So I have been sorting out various things in the mean time but the fishing will be two days at Jurassic Mountain Centre on the Specimen Lake, but before that a morning on a lake near Bangkok fishing for Mekong catfish – the same one that Gareth had the 80kg fish from last year. Expect pics and report in May (if I catch!)

March 2025 part 2 – Going light

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So Bowood is no more, until June 16th, so the canal is available for piking until the end of March so Tuesday18th sees me heading to Rowde with the rucksack bag, a 3m whip and a pike rod, large oval landing net and unhooking mat (compulsory on canal for pike) and fold-able groundbait bucket with bait. I was planning to fish the first pound away from Devizes from the road bridge, on arrival there were several boats moored up and I ended up in a large gap well away from them about half way down the wall.

Loose feeding on the whip I began slowly with a a solitary roach and a perch before one of the boats moved off and went through the swim, it took over an hour before the next bite but I then had a further roach and two perch before I hooked a decent fish that I had on for a few minutes before the hook pulled, I suspect it was a good perch. Only other bite was a missed run on the pike rod to a smelt. I packed up shortly after to end the short session as the bank was getting increasingly busy with walkers.

Rest of the week I was tied up with various things but Saturday sees me travel up to the Glebe for a Maggotdrowners match. This was to be a 6 hour match with everything counting. I arrived in good time and ended up drawing peg 8 which I didn’t mind as I have fished it before albeit in the summer months.

I set up a feeder, a rig for 13m, one for 2+2 and a margin rig. Feeding the 13m with three balls of groundbait with a smattering of 2mm and 4mm pellet plus a few grains of corn. The other lines were loose fed with pellets. Although the day was quite settled and warmish everyone was struggling apart from peg 1. The feeder lasted half hour before moving on to the pole as others on the feeder were also biteless. From the start at 11am to 3pm I had two bites that resulted in two skimmers plus I had lost two carp in the first hour that were foul hooked. From 3pm to 4pm I lost a further carp which I had on for about 5minutes that was a real lump before the hook pulled but did manage to put a carp of about 4lb in the net plus a further two skimmers. In to the last hour and I took a chance and chopped up some worm that I put on the 13m line , worm on the hook resulted in four further carp (why didn’t I try worm sooner?). At the weigh in my skimmers went 4-12 and the five carp 27-07 for a 32-03 total and 3rd in section. It had been a good day until 15minutes from the all out when we had a biblical rain and hail storm that soaked everything!

Tuesday 25th sees me back at Rowde, this time taking the 5m Chinese whip and float with the intention of feeding micro and fishing expander, I also had the pike rod but that did not get any interest.

I started on maggot but fed micros and bumped four good fish early on, possibly perch but after a small skimmer on maggot I changed to the expander and ended up with 7 skimmers (best 1-01), 6 roach and a rudd for approx 2-08.

I waited under Monday 31st and headed off to Boddington as I was running a silvers match on the Saturday and wanted to check the water level and have a word with the bailiff about adding a couple of extra pegs. I set up on peg 39 and was pleased to see that the water level was up to the first platform down.

Fishing at 10m I had about 10ft of water and as it was very calm I fished a light 0.3g float set to fish on the drop with a 0.10mm hooklength to a 16. Three balls laced with caster were introduced and caster loose fed over the top with a further ball being added every 45minutes or so for the 3 hours I fished. It was frustrating at first as the top I had chosen was just not right as I bumped ten fish before changing for a lighter elastic which sorted the issue. I chopped and changed trying different things but still ended up with 25 roach plus a perch of 1-01. There were a couple of quiet periods when there was possibly a pike in attendance but I did not hook any.

I packed up at 1pm to get home avoiding the usual traffic around Oxford. Next month sees the Boddington match and a surprise!

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!

January 2025 Part 2 – where are the fish?

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Sunday 19th I venture to Bowood a bit later than usual and fished peg 7 as 9 and 10 had people on them. Fishing 10 until 12 I had not a single bob or any indication of fish in front of me! Wednesday I travelled down to Gatwick to pick up Gareth and family early on Thursday morning. Friday sees Gareth and I fish Bowood from 2pm until 4:10, me on 10 and Gareth on 9 (his choice of pegs) taking just whips and pike rods. This time at least we had some action, Gareth had 2 roach and a skimmer for 0-04 and I had 7 roach and 2 skimmers/blades for 0-07, no runs from pike but at least some bites! Saturday Gareth went to Rowde and found there was little water in the pound but managed to get a few roach and skimmers Sunday was teeming with rain and I declined the offer to go to the canal at Rowde with Gareth, who set off and came back a couple of hours later with tackle soaked but dry himself having had 3 roach and a pike of 7-15 with the pound now only a foot deep!.

Monday I acquired the exchange ticket and joined Gareth on the same pound at Rowde with a 4.5m whip and pike rod, this time the water was right up to the top but Gareth blanked and I had a solitary roach and a jack of 5-02.

Tuesday sees us back at Bowood from 12-2 in very muddy conditions with rain and wind, fortunately we travelled light with just whips and pike rods. This time I went on 9 and Gareth 10 and ended with similar catches to last time, I had 5 roach and a blade for 0-04 while Gareth had 0-08 with 7 roach and 2 blades (the fish were small!).

Wednesday back at Rowde for two hours, this time walking down to a further pound fishing peg 2 of the CT.again fishing for two hours with whips and pike rods except this time I took the light 10foot waggler rod. I ended up with no pike action but did get 3 roach, 2 skimmers, 2 perch and a gudgeon for approx 1-04. Gareth had 4 skimmers and two perch but also a jack of 3-13 on the whip taking his maggot bait.

Thursday, Gareth gets up early and fishes the first peg after the moorings at at Rowde, one cast ten minutes in the water and a pike of 5-13, job done he comes home!

Friday 31st Bowood 2pm to 4:30 usual pegs, me on 10. Whips and pike rods, it was a struggle I had 2 roach 0-04 (bigger than last time!) Gareth had 3 blades, a roach a rudd and a skimmer of 1-04 for a 1-12 total. Really Bowood is not fishing well at the moment and there seems to be a group of 8 cormorants present.

A quick explanation about the whips we have been using, I have been using the carbon 4.5m whip with a Chinese float waggler style at Bowood but a 3m one on the canal with a normal pole float, Gareth on the other hand has been using a cheaper 4m Chinese whip with a standard home-made pole float.

Before coming across for the visit Gareth had tried spinning in the local river and ended up with a crowd of about 50 people watching him as he played a rarity for the river a fish that we think is an asp.

They return to China after a quick visit to Newark on the 7th February so the blog will be back on track next month!

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!

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!