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November 2025 part 1-no fireworks here!

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First outing is on the 4th when I took the Frenzee waggler to the Pondtail peg 1 and had a pleasant couple of hours fishing (9:45 to 11:45) double maggot and just loose feeding a few maggots at intervals. I set the homemade peacock waggler with the bulk around the float , a no. 6 about 2 feet from the hook and a no. 8 about six inches from the 18 hook, the result was 3-06 comprising of 36 roach and 4 perch.

Friday sees me wander down to peg 10 at Bowood, fishing 10-12. The pike rod with sardine went out to no avail and the lighter elastic and winter rig with a homemade body down float taking a bulk of 1g and 2 no 8 droppers to an 18 carried double maggot to start and later worm but no real size of fish came to this even with a bit of chopped work in the initial two balls of groundbait. 17 rudd, a roach, a microscopic perch, a hybrid and a skimmer managed to pull the scales round to 2-03.

Wednesday sees me back at Bowood but I changed plans as there was a car already parked up and I recognised it as an angler that in all likelihood would be on peg 10, no with the lake still holding vast amounts of weed the only peg worth fishing with known clear areas was 10 so I made the decision to leave the sardines in the car and fished the Pondtail on the pole for a change! Fishing 9:30 to 11:30 I started with 2 firmish balls of groundbait with some wheat and then loose fed wheat every few minutes, only topping up the groundbait with a ball every 40 mins or so. The weather was typical November- wet but this time quite warm at 14C. I set up with a lighter elastic than usual teamed with a BGT Blues taking 0.75g to a 0.10mm hooklength and an 18 with double maggot. Shotting was the usual bulk set about 3 feet from the hook with two no.8 droppers. Bites came steadily apart from a couple of blank periods when the flow changed, fifteen roach and two perch took the scales down to 1-10.

Friday was going to be my next outing but waking up to a dark oppressive gloom and rain I took the easy option and decided to write this instead! On the other side of the world Gareth had returned to the commercial he had visited previously- the one where you got money back for every fish you caught!

Fishing a whip he ended up with 3 large tilapia (4-5lb) and a carp fishing the traditional two hook method with a soft paste on the top hook and a firm paste on the bottom hook. All the fish came to the bottom hook with a paste made from the fishery provided pellets he was loose feeding.

One of the tilipia had a tag which apparently made it count as 3 fish – only 100 fish in the whole lake were tagged and of course he had to get one! The most fish caught when he was there was 5 and the lowest 2 so he didn’t do too bad in the four hour session.

A pike from Bowood now becomes a target for the remainder of the month!

September 2025 Part 1 -World apart

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A bitty start to the month with various commitments like car MOT and service among others, anyway I got out on the 5th and settled o peg 10 at Bowood fishing 9:30 to 11:30 by which time I was pulling out what little hair I have left! The reason for my frustrations were the hundreds if not thousands of tiny rudd about 2 inches long constantly attacking the float and the corn, often preventing the corn from sinking by creating a ball around it as they tried to get it in their mouths! I had fished my usual rig with all the shot six inches fro the hook. By 11:30 i had managed to get 4 rudd on maggot, a roach and a rudd on corn and a roach on a Chinese honey jelly pellet! A total of 10oz.

Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th see me at the Glebe outside Hinckley for a two day invitational that I was running on behalf of Herbie. I had informed Herbie that this was likely to be my last MFS event. Money taken, nets dipped and draw made, the last peg left was mine and it was my usual area peg 24!. I set up a feeder with the intention of swapping to a straight lead later , a long pole rig with a 0.8g homemade long rugby ball float teamed up with 0.18mm line and a size 16, a short line with a similar float taking 0.6g and a 14 (my paste line!) and a rig for the margin 0.20mm to a 14.

It was slow I resisted the temptation to put the feeder up the bank and go on my long pole line that had been primed with 3 balls of groundbait initially and a pinch of 6mm pellets every couple of minutes, as it was evident it was a struggle for everyone. Ninety minutes in and I get my first bite, a small skimmer!, Ten minutes later the rod pulls round and I latch into a real lump that decided to run along the far bank and smash me in the reeds! The joys of fishing! I finally snared a carp of about 3lb on the feeder.The inside line proved empty despite regular feeding and efforts throughout the match, margin produced nothing and in the end I stayed on the 11.5m long line with 6mm pellet giving me 7 carp. At the weigh in I had 48-13 of carp and the skimmer of 0-04 for a 49-01 total. Annoyingly I had also lost a double figure carp that I had in the net twice and it swam out twice before I could lift the net, losing it eventually after a hook pull. One of my landed carp was in the 12-15lb range but this one was bigger!

Day 2 came and this time I was left with peg 8.

From yesterday I had gleaned that the people who had caught well were on the bomb about half way out, pinging pellet over the top. So I amended my approach to start on the bomb, also setting up the same rigs as the day before. Now peg 8 has a pole stuck in the water about 5m out and 6-7m down the peg, I have fished this peg before and have always been able to steer the carp around the pole without issue. The day went slow again with me getting 3 carp on the bomb and pulling out of 4 more, while the 11.5m line produced not a single bite! The 5m line towards the pole got me one skimmer and the right margin gave me 4 carp with 3 lost and 3 skimmers. Carp weighed 39-11 and a level 4-00 for the skimmers making a 43-11 substandard total!

Sunday sees me licking my wounds and going for a short session on the Pondtail before the rain and wind arrive! I set up on peg 1 although it was now getting overrun with plant life!

I opted for the 3m Chinese whip and a Chinese float set up with olivettes and a single no12 dropper to a 18 hook. I started with two plum sized balls of soft groundbait and fed wheat every few minutes during the session from 9:35 to 11:10. When I set up I realised that I had not got a landing net head in the net bag!

The set up – the distance from the hook to the olivettes is about 2 feet whereas the total depth is approx 5ft. Fishing double maggot alongside the furthest bunch of the two weed bunches I manged 32 roach and a solitary perch for about 3-3.5lb

Now fishing in China is different to say the least, Gareth sent me some pictures of a visit to a commercial he had heard about.

Only whips allowed, it was very busy, need to draw your peg before you start -you draw 2 pegs and choose which one you want to fish! 300 yuan (approx £30) to fish but they refund you 25 yuan (£2.50) for every fish you catch but you are on a timer, 300 yuan 4 hours, 600 yuan 8 hours. When he arrived the “regulars” were making comments unaware that he could understand a lot and Wendy, his wife, was also present and heard them say that he stood no chance of catching!

He used his own 4.5m whip, but they also supply if needed but maximum length allowed is 5.4m. They gave him pellets, paste, landing net and an umbrella. You can see every peg has its own permanent keepnet in the water. Next time the manager said she will give him a proper box to sit on she also said biggest fish is 20lbs and listed the species but no idea what they are as she only spoke Chinese, she said the smallest fish around 4lbs in there. The whips are powerful enough to get them out, 0.25mm to 12lbs braid with about a size 6 hook everyone using 2 hooks, 1 hook has big ball of sloppy paste on and other hook small piece of harder pace. Around 5pm everyone started feeding pellets in the margins and fishing close in (just like here!). He saw lots of lost fish , they are big and fight hard. So how did he do? Well the regulars making the remarks blanked and he caught two tilapia the one in the photo is 6lb (weighed) and he also had another of 7lb(weighed).

August 2025 Part 1 – Mainly short!

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August arrives and Monday 4th sees Gareth and I travel to Viaduct fishery to fish Cary pool, ending up on pegs 74 and 75. Gareth choose 75 and had a carp of 5-12 before I had got my pole out!

Straight in to carp- or so it seemed.

The day didn’t go quite as expected with both fishing paste and alternating with corn while feeding micros and 4mm on a 14 hook to 0.18mm line with homemade floats taking 0.6g, the carp didn’t get much of a look in as the skimmers seemed ravenous. I ended up with 3 roach, 45 skimmers and a carp of 9-14 for approx 62lb. Gareth added another carp of 10.04 a roach, 2 rudd and 57 skimmers for 75-80lb.

Gareth et al went off to Newark for a few days to visit the Antiques fair although Gareth also did a bit of fishing as seen above with a carp netted by Zachary!

At some point (time merges when they are here!) we had a short evening session on the Marden at Hazeland with Zachary having a go on the whip and landing a roach and the biggest trout yet which proved interesting as I had forgotten to put the landing net head in!!

While they were away I had a session at Bowood (11:20 -2pm). Thje weed growth had got thicker but worse still rushes were encroaching the middle and I counted 9 pegs that were unfishable with several more problematic. Anyway I persevered on peg 10 and had 8 rudd, a roach and 3 skimmers for 2-10 using the usual tactics.

Sunday 10th sees us at Hazeland for a short session 7:30-8:30 fishing the last weir saw no bites in 15minutes, not even from minnows so we moved up to the car park. I ended up with a trout and 3 minnows while Gareth had a trout and one minnow. Next evening we go to High Penn from 6:30 to 8pm fishing the last peg on the east bank. Gareth fished the method feeder that he had previously used while for a change I set up a 9ft Shimano Beast master and bait runner with a hybrid and wafter. Result was despite several small fish knocks I only had one proper “run” that i missed! Gareth managed 3 rudd and 2 roach among the constant bites, losing about 10 fish in the weed on the retrieve.

That was the last opportunity before I took them backlto Heathrow on the Thursday for their flight back to China. Normal service will now resume!

May 2024 – Part 2

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Well it has been a strange end of month but we will get to that later. First the trip up to Yorkshire was okay until we hit traffic on the A1 and the car started to play up in that it was refusing to get into gear. We managed to get to the hotel, park up and RAC attended and managed to fix the problem – low brake fluid. On return without mishap managed to call in garage and arranged for them to check it over when in for MOT at end of June.

So Tuesday 21st sees me head of back to Monkhall to run the MFS festival. What you don’t get a notion of from the aerial photo is that the lakes are on a steep hillside with Lark at the top and Owl at the base. Day 1 we were on Owl and Swallow – so I was left with peg 6 Swallow, this meant on day 3 I would be on Owl as we always do a swap around if we have the same lake twice. Anyway with all the organising and setting up I forgot to take any photos! I set up similar to Owl with an 8m line a top2+1 line and the margins all on 0.16mm line and 14 hooks but with one rig on 0.18mm.From my previous experience I decided not to pot in micros, instead opting to toss pot along with my paste on the 8m line to start and drip feed some micros and corn into the margins and short line.

Third put in and I had my first carp and after an hour I had clicked 17lb but then it slowed! The 2+1 line produced a solitary F1 so it was the margins I turned to as unlike other venues the margins at Monkhall can be productive throughout. Corn on the hook was the answer and when bites slowed 6mm expander, by swapping between the two margins and baits I clicked 48lb in the first net before starting on the second and reckoned I had about 11lb in that at the end. I tend to stop once I get past 45lb in a net as although the net limit is 60lb, I have to lift it out! The landing nets and keepnets are supplied by the fishery so it makes life a lot easier. At the weigh in my first net went 48-10 and the second 12lb for a 60-10 total and last in section of 5 (5pts).

Day 2 and I am left with Hawk peg 8 rather than being on the preferred Buzzard lake. The previous night the weather had changed and we had a heavy downpour all night and all through the match so everything was soaked and the phone stayed tucked away so again no photos. Setting up in similar fashion it was again the margins that produced the most bites on corn. The weather was so bad with an our to go I was shivering so much it took me two minutes to put a piece of corn on the hook! I was glad when I called the all out with net 1 weighing 38-01 and net 2 18-03 for a 56-04 total and 4pts. I had started the second net early as I was feeling that rough!

Day 3 and I am on Owl 5, a fine breezy day so things were spread out to dry! Same approach starting on paste but this time a carp on first put in, then an F1,then a run of 10 missed bites before a tench came to the net. I decided that the fizzing and missed bites were probably tench so looked at the margins and by alternating corn and expander in both margins managed to put 51-14 in the first net and 12-09 in second for a 64-07 total and 4pts. Unfortunately in my haste to get packed up and sort the results, photos got missed again! I ended up with 13points and 16/20.

Since returning I have not been able to get out with me either being hampered by heavy rain or with a stomach bug! Still 16 days to Bowood.