travel

May 2026 Part 3 – will I catch?

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So Monday sees us back at the grass carp lake and this time we went on the far side bank of the first “lake” as the pegs we fished before were occupied, in fact the whole place was busy as it was the May Day holiday.

We collected a couple of boxes ourselves and set up in the same way with one notable exception – Gareth had now acquired a 7m whip that had been delivered to the apartment within 24hrs of ordering! We struggled to get a bite and there were no signs of bubbles like the last visit, the guy fishing where we had been last time had a few fish and when he packed up we decided to move into the area. I fished the same peg as last time and Gareth went to my left, away from the corner. Still no bites and then the son of the owner came around making his rounds on his electric cart and asked if we had any luck. On hearing we had nothing he got Gareth to show him the rig and he then proceeded to take the hook length off and put one of his own on which had significantly larger hooks. He said the pellets were right but use them for feed – he then got a bag of paste from his cart and made up a big ball of paste for us to use. He then attacked the rigs by shallowing up and reducing the weight until the float settled with two paste hook baits in place. He then put the depth back so the bottom ball of paste was just touching bottom. After this he did the same for my rig and used our pellets to put a couple of big handfuls out. Casting- we had been swinging out underarm but he said to cast overarm. The paste was soft but firm and stayed on the hook remarkably well, with the float rising when the paste came off. Now that is real customer service! As a consequence in the hour or so we had left I managed to miss a glorious bite, Gareth missed two but finally connected with a good fish that turned out not to be a grass carp but a black carp weighing 5-03 or 2.345kg which saw Gareth get 20 yuan back.

So Tuesday, my last day for fishing, arrives and I am on a two day blank streak! Back to Nanlan we went and although I missed two bites early on and Gareth four it was clear that the heavy rain had cooled the water as there were no cruising fish in sight. Gareth then managed to hook something that doubled his rod over (his was longer and more powerful than the one I was using) and ripped line from the clutch before pulling out. Apparently there are grouper over 100lb present! Heavy rain then started and it got busy as new fish were stocked and that usually meant a load of anglers rushing to the places where the fish went in.

Some grouper in the 4-5lb range were getting caught by sticking the rod under the walkways, releasing the line and withdrawing the rod then feeling the line for the shrimp being taken. Most were using light drop-shot style rods with multipliers so when they hooked a grouper the rods were bent double! The heavy rain continued and we were not getting any action so we decided to return back home.

After having lunch delivered to the door! Gareth took me back to the river where the visit started but this time you could see the bottom clearly. Fishing the same whip but this time without the isotope I had 90 minutes of fishing, 75 of them in the rain! It was interesting to see large circular craters in the river bed which Gareth informed me were tilapia nests. Indeed you could see larger tilapia in one or two, I managed to hook one of the bigger ones but it dropped back as Gareth was trying to hand line it up the wall! In the end I managed 27 small tilapia but saw several larger fish including carp just out of range. With the rain not easing we waited for a slight break in the weather and packed up.

Next morning (Wednesday) I was picked up by the taxi at 5am (10pm Tuesday UK time) to start the journey back home, 25 hours later after a transfer in Beijing I stepped through the front door-knackered! The traveling to and from China accounted for 12 806 miles while travel within to the venues took the total to a minimum of 13 000miles. Was it worth it – you bet! Putting the obvious family visit aside the opportunity to fish in a different environment using different tackle and tactics for new species will always be worth it. The blanks, well it is called fishing not catching and even blanking you gain a lot of experience and memories.

Now need to get back to catching some fish over here but I have brought back some paste I will try!

May 2026 Part 2 -Something different again

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Saturday sees a five minute car ride to a grass carp lake. Again we pay by time in this case the standard is 6 hours and rather than a refund per per there is an option to keep the fish or sell it back to the fishery at a rate per pound depending on the species. The lake was split into two by a causeway with a bridge over the connecting channel, the far part of the lake looks busy while the nearest half only has one fishing on it so we opted for the quiet lake and settled into a corner area. We had folding stool to sit on but the owner brought around seat boxes with whip rests for us to use. They really look after their customers as you will see later.

The owner even set up brollies for us when the sun came up! Now Gareth was using a 5m whip and I had a 6m whip, the water was about 10ft and we were using 1g floats with the standard double hook rig with grass carp banded pellets.

There was plenty of action on the other lake, particularly near the bridge area, after 2 hours I had a bite, the float bobbing and slipping away, a strike felt like I had hit a brick wall as the whip arched under the water and then came pinging back. The fish had snapped the 15lb braid hooklength! Gareth then told me that there were grass carp up to 25lb in the lake! At this point I swapped to a 10lb mono two hook rig and about an hour later the float slides under and I connect with the fish and after ten seconds the hook pulls – a size 6 !! A further hour passes Gareth misses two bites and I get another bite only for the 10lb hooklength to snap!!! With little more than an hour left Gareth sets up a 3m whip to fish paste in the corner margin with a dibber UK style in order to save a blank! That worked as he had four F1 type carp, a bitterling and a roach(?), he got me to have a go and a F1 type duly obliged so blank saved! The frustrating thing was that the fish were there and were bubbling all day although I did miss7 bites that may have been small fish.

Sunday morning arrives and we are off to the main river in Zhongshan, the Shiqi. So far all our travel has been done by taxi with impressive short waiting times for them to arrive. So we set up open end feeders on telescopic rods fishing segments of worm with a pink coloured groundbait in the feeder. We were positioned about 7ft above the water on a promenade with a flower box the water side of the railing.

Gareth was straight into fish and had nine silver bream and a small asp while I managed top miss five bites and blank much to the amusement of my daughter-in-law! That afternoon plans were changed as a major thunderstorm hit and moved along the coast and many venues closed as a result. We did manage at about 5:30pm to drive in their car to Nanlan to fish a salt water lake stocked with a variety of fish including bass. We started off with it being fine but about 8 heavy rain set in and although we continued for a fair bit the action slowed right down. Initially we were getting bites on shrimp- attached with a band and shrimp hook set up, with an electronic lighted bung float set as a slider at about 5 feet (the length of the telescopic rod I was using. For some reason my missing bites is increasing with ELEVEN bites on shrimp all missed, Gareth missed 2 while bass of 3-4lb were constantly seen moving around. We could have stayed until midnight but gave it until about 10 as it was so wet.

So Sunday was a blank day for me with 15 missed bites – must do better. As you can imagine I took some flak for missing so many, LOL. Last two days to follow- will I catch?

May 2026 Part 1 – Something different

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Before I left for China I managed a couple of outings, the first sees me return to the same peg at Rowde fishing the 5m whip from 9:45 to 11:45. Plenty of action with 17 roach, 28 skimmers,2 rudd, 2 gudgeon and a perch making up a net of 5-02. Double maggot accounted for speedy bites but small pieces of worm provided better samples but longer between bites.

My second visit was to high Penn fishing 10-11:45 on the first peg on the East bank. Tackle was the 15 ft (4.5m) waggler with a 4AAA insert waggler with a no 6 and two no8 droppers in the 10feet+ of water. Hook-length was 0.10mm Shogun line to an 18 hook and double maggot. I fed two balls of groundbait to start and 1 further top up after an hour with loose fed maggots every 4-5 minutes. This approach resulted in 19 roach, 21 rudd and 15 perch for a 5-04 total the rudd were small being 2 or to the ounce.

Wednesday 29th (morning) sees me catch the bus to Chippenham to get a coach to Heathrow, from there a flight to Wuhan transferring to a further flight on to Shenzhen. Then a prearranged taxi ride to Zhongshan to be met at my son’s apartment at 10pm Thursday. A lift up to the 11th floor of the 34 storey block to drop my luggage off, a quick change of clothes and we are off for a quick hour session on the local river!

Fishing from a wall about 10 feet off the water with a 4m whip and a BGT float with an isotope set at about a foot deep baiting with worm I soon had 3 tilapia coming to hand plus a Nile tilapia. I also managed a new species both for me and Gareth – what the Chinese call a big mouth carp.As we packed up we shone a light into the base of the wall to see a large carp- unfortunately or perhaps fortunately it ignored the bait!

Friday morning comes and I don’t yet feel the effects of the journey which was just as well as we were heading off to Zhuhai to fish a tilapia commercial. Now when I say it was different from ours it really was- firstly you pay the equivalent of £30 for 4 hours but you get a refund for each fish you catch, needing I think 8 fish to break even. You “draw” via a random number generator two pegs and you choose which one you fish. Given that situation Gareth had spent some time creating two sets of tackle as we could be at opposite ends of the lake, as luck would have it we ending up drawing numbers that let us fish next to each other. The rules were strict in the sense of maximum whip size was 4.5m, no braid or elastic and two hook system with paste the only bait allowed, but you could feed pellet. I was fishing a new 3m medium heavy whip with a 8lb main line to a two hook 4lb hook-length that was attached via a rubber O ring to a swivel on the main line. Gareth had prepared two types of paste in preparation, the darker one was allegedly for tilapia, the other was made from ground down pellets, both had additives .

The pellet paste mix
The tilapia paste

You start straight away as you are timed from the point you pay. Now the fish were to be kept in a 1m square net anchored to the side of your platform which had it’s own umbrella. It was a real experience watching the Chinese anglers fish but one thing that was universal was that if someone lost a fish the banter would start – “why don’t you go home, you won’t catch”, “Oh what a shame” you get the idea! The guy on my right managed to land two but lost about four, the one on Gareth’s left landed one and lost six! But they are tilapia I here you say they are small- oh no … average size is 6lb they don’t stock anything less than 4lb!

So how did we do? Well Gareth landed two and lost two I had 1 and lost one when the swivel opened up after which I dispensed with the O ring. The one I did land only just managed to get it in the net- an 8lber on 3m whip- yes it was exciting! Photos are difficult to take as my fish only just fitted in the net and they have spines and sharp gill covers and teeth! I just wanted to get mine safely into the “keepnet”.

Gareth's 6lber
My 8lber

At the end of the session they come around and lift the net to see how many fish and record it on their app. Payment is all done via phone apps and by the time we got to the lane out Gareth had been refunded for the fish caught. It had fished poorly compared to normal as the weather was cold for the time of year although it was mid 20s! The results of sessions are posted on Wechat and the best on the day was 14 fish, a couple of days earlier the best was 64 for an estimated 650lb!!!! Apparently the same individuals are usually in the top 3 for the day- it is their way of making money as apart from being refund for the number of fish they also pay the top three in each session a prize! The following day our fish would have put us in the top 10!

Part 2 will follow a grass carp lake!

February 2026 Part 1 -How many magpies?

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Tuesday 3rd February I set off at 9:53 in the rain for the Three Magpie stretch of the Kennet and Avon Canal and got out of the car at 10:06. I am so lucky to have a number of decent venues within short distances of home! Anyway I gathered my tackle, haversack seat on my back, bait bucket, whip mag, landing net, handle unhooking mat and pike rod and set off up the canal towards the swing bridge but stopped about 40m past where the concrete moorings stop and half way between two moored boats, giving them a good 30-40m space each. Pike rod was set up with my usual float and two single hook wire trace with a sardine and was lobbed out towards 3/4s across. Set up the 5m whip with a 1g Chinese float with a 18 hook and double maggot. I chopped up some worm in a bait box and added a handful of groundbait then mixed it up with just a dash of water. Two squash ball sized helpings were introduced along with a half dozen maggots. Started to get bites immediately with a couple of roach coming to hand before the pike float bobs and disappears, a strike, an initial heavy weight then nothing – it had left go leaving me cursing!

Back out and within five minutes another run, this time it was connected with properly and soon a pike of 9-06 was on the unhooking mat.

The session carried on in a similar vein as by the time I was driving away at 12:18 I had added pike of 3-00, 8-12 and 8-04 with 6 roach, 4 perch and a skimmer for about 2lb.

As you can see from the pictures, I needed to make some repairs to the net!

Friday 6th, day before Gareth and family arrive, sees me back at the Three Magpies but this time a lot further up as the boats had moored in the previous spot. Fished 10:40 to 1pm when heavy rain descended. No runs on the pike rod and fishing the whip in the same way but with a different Chinese float (with a bulbous tip shotted down) accounted for 22 roach, 2 skimmers, 2ruffe, a gudgeon and10 perch, the best being 1-10,1-04 and 1-02.

Sunday afternoon Three Magpies near the swing bridge end as the boats were multiplying! Gareth and I fished but the weather was wet and cold, during our time we had three deer in the field opposite watching up from the relative shelter of a hedgerow! Gareth fished a 4.5 m whip and I stayed on the 5m but it was hard with Gareth ending up with about a pound and a half while I managed about 3lb, boosted by skimmers of 1-04 and 12oz to go with 3 roach, a micro-perch and6 smaller skimmers.

Gareth et al fly off to Finland on the Tuesday and will return the following Tuesday so Friday 13th (good job I’m not superstitious!) I am back at the Magpies fishing 5m from the bench started at 9:40 and packed up at 11:40.Fished the same way and ended up with 18 roach, a ruffe, 9 skimmers including 4 net ones and two micro perch for about4lb plus a pike of exactly 6lb. Should really have been two pike but just as I started to get the initial bobs as a precursor to a run I had to wind in as the Canal and River Trust barge came down just at the wrong time! At which point I packed up.

As you can see the net repairs were not great! Meanwhile in Finland Gareth and Zachary where ice fishing to no avail!

Chew valley coming up soon!

January 2026 Part 2 – a start!

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So Sunday 18th I finally kick myself in to gear and get on the bank! The weather was not great, rivers up and flooding, Bowood chocolate, possible match on canal so I opted to go to Blacklands for a change. I paid my money at Reception and said I would fish peg 13 – my first mistake as they had re-pegged it! So instead of being near the overflow I was now on the opposite side of the island- the furthest point from the car!! As it happened I was the only one on the lake but I stuck with my choice and primed two areas both at 11m, the left hand swim with worm and caster and the right hand with micros. Groundbait is not allowed so loose feed was the order of the day, fishing with a 0.10mm hooklength to an 18 barbless under a 1g Paster.

Bites came straight away with a piece of worm about an inch long and despite a couple of slow periods when I was playing around with different shotting patterns and baits it was a pleasant few hours with 18 roach averaging 3-4 oz, the one in the picture is one of the smallest, 8 skimmers (best 1-04) and 3 perch(10oz best) for a total between 7 and 8lb.

Wasn’t until the following Sunday I got out again this time for the rearranged pike match at Peatmoor. I had missed the first one when everyone blanked as we were in Yorkshire.The plan was to fish two deadbait rods on floats (Bowood style) one with smelt the other with sardine. I fancied two pegs- peg 1 which was right in the top corner that had form in previous years and peg 13 which was on the corner of the bay. I ended up going to peg 1, blanked and only one pike caught – that’s right from peg 13 in the first 10 minutes!

No further visits this month as life got in the way! However on the other side of the world Gareth made is trip to Thailand to fish at AmazonBKK, a predator lake. The rules were lure fishing until midday then bait fishing, but after a couple of biteless hours the guide had a word with the owner and he allowed Gareth to bait fish. The results were over 30 runs, that produced 2 Arapaima (110kg and 30kg) 2 Alligator Gar (12kg and 7kg) 1 Red Tail Catfish (25kg), one snap off and several hook pulls. The alligator gar are notoriously difficult to hook due to their hard tooth beak of a mouth and that was the cause of the missed bites and pulls.

Even as I have been typing this he has been fishing the bass commercial he went to earlier this month and has sent me this!

February is likely to prove interesting as he arrives next week!

January 2026 Part 1- yet to start!

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As I write this at 11:15am on Wednesday 14th I have yet to go fishing this year! Life and weather have got in the way, closest I have got is this morning when I managed to load the unhooking mat and landing net in the car when I discover a rodent had eaten away my haversack seat! Combined with a temperature of -2C, a frozen bird bath again and no prospect of it getting above zero until after 10am along with month old maggots that did not look great I decided to cut my losses and instead sort some things out in the garage! First on the agenda was to replenish the rodent bait trap!

Working through the garage I have concluded I have too much kit! I found two rods that I didn’t remember having! Now the prompt for the tackle inspection was the impending visit from China of youngest son Gareth and family who had informed me that despite being number 518 in the queue for pike tickets at Chew had managed to get a ticket for a boat for two – so that was an additional prompt to check out what tackle I had suitable for the 20lb main line minimum and 40lb wire minimum!

So while I have been not on the bank Gareth has been busy starting by flying to Nanjing for an 8hour session on a predator lake after pike. The owner suggested he spent the first part of the day lure fishing on the bass lake before going on the specimen lake to deadbait for pike. When he arrived it was 3C, 17C lower than when he took off! The morning lure fishing went better than expected with 47 bass, 3 pike and a trout!

The afternoon session on the specimen lake went less well with a missed bite, possibly a liner and two taps but nothing else.

Back to Zhongshan and his next outing is on the river which has hard going with only one “fish” answers on a postcard for the species! (I think it is a type of loach)

He then gets an invite to go with one of Wendy’s friends husband, ironically to the very fishery he was considering trying himself, it turned out very busy with 200 on the predator lake and 15 on the non-predator one.. A few of the anglers were drop shotting on whips which sounds an interesting method while others were fishing 5m whips with whole shrimp or fish. Zachary was with them and had some success fishing close in with pieces of shrimp .

Some UK matchmen should fish here (LOL)- you catch a fish then immediately there are 4 people next to you fishing within inches of where you caught, totally different customs and regard for personal space! Zachary enjoyed it so much he didn’t want to go home!

Still not content Gareth is off on one of his flying visits to Thailand – fly out after work at midnight, arrive 3am, couple of hours sleep in hotel then days fishing back to hotel for nap and flight home at 1am. Oh to be young again!

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).

July 2025 Part 2 -pot pourri

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Gareth et al arrive and Tuesday evening sees us at the Hazeland Weir for a short session (5:45 – 7:45pm). I took the Frenzee 10ft waggler while Gareth opted for a bomb rod. I had two trout of 12oz and 10oz ion the first 15 minutes then one further missed bite between us! Not off to a good start!

Wednesday 16th and we have a couple of hours on High Penn with Zachary watching. Gareth fished a pellet waggler and I went with a hybrid feeder holding micros with a 8mm pellet. We chose what we call the beach pegs on the North bank as they are basically the one large peg. Gareth had two roach on the pellet waggler!!!!! and I blanked in terms of fish having two knocked off on a snag on the retrieve. Casting shorter I hook the “snag” which turns out to be a spool from a Daiwa Crossfire and about 100m of line that took me about 10minutes to land by carefully wrapping it up in a ball – this was passed onto the club secretary as we have only just acquired the water and this was not a good start!

Friday we head off to Witherington and fished the inner snake, Gareth bagged peg 93 (the bridge peg) and I went on 92. Gareth was into a fish from the margin before I had plumbed up. He carried on in a similar vein to land 8 carp for 47-00 (each carp weighed) whereas I struggled and ended up with several lost fish, several foul hooked but some lumps that took me around the island although I did get the biggest of the day at 10-08 in a 5 fish total for 26-00. I had to go across to 13m to get consistent bites fishing corn over 4mm pellets.

Sunday sees a short session with Zachary at Hazeland where Gareth and I both fished bomb and maggot he managed 8 rudd and a minnow, I had 3 minnows before 6 year old Zachary took over for 3 minnows also.

Monday sees a short session on the Marden at Hardens. We walked up to the pool and I managed a trout, a small chub of about 10oz and 8 minnows for roughly 2lb, Gareth had a small chub from the first downstream peg on our walk back and three minnows from the pool. We desperately need some rain in the rivers.

Thursday sees a session from 2:30 to 4:30 on section 1 of the Marden. I fished the waggler on the 10ft Frenzee rod while Gareth fished a bomb. Walking up to the end of the field we fished the “Wall” peg and I managed to sneak out a roach and a trout, Gareth had 3 minnows although to be fair we did spend most time walking and trying to find fishable areas with flow. Gareth’s minnows came from the barrage peg near the car park on our way back.

Friday and we head off for a day on the Severn, starting at Bridgnorth to get tickets for the Golf course section, only to be told that had stopped over five years ago- so much for clubs keeping their web-sites up to date! Fortunately I had identified a day ticket water at Highley – Bert’s, so we made our way there and armed with hemp and pellet and casters we found a swim where we were hopeful of a few bites.

Like most rivers the Severn was low and the area was shallower by at least a foot or so, than it should have been.Basically Gareth hooked and lost two chub on a snag on the way in but managed a dace on caster, I was snapped once and in an effort to avoid a blank changed to a light bomb and cast a single caster into the shallows, missing several bites I finally succeeded in getting a minnow! A disappointing but interesting day.

We managed to get a short session (7-8:30pm) next day at High Penn when Garth fished the hybrid and I fished the Frenzee rod with a normal waggler. Result was 1 roach and 6 perch for about 1-06 on double maggot, Gareth had some raps on the feeder but had a roach and perch on the waggler when we swapped for a bit.

Next outing was Wednesday to High Penn for a 2.15 – 4:45 session, this time fishing the last peg on the east bank.

Gareth was fishing a method feeder loaded with micros and a 6mm orange wafter cast towards the weed beds at 30m. Overhanging branches meant we both had to cast with an underarm sidewards flick. I was on my usual waggler with 16 hook and 2aa homemade reed float. To cut a long story short I had a roach fairly quickly but then struggled until a shoal of perch arrived, ending with the roach and 8 perch for approx 1-02. Gareth had a better time landing a carp of 7-12, a roach of 1-04, another of 10oz and losing a carp close in.

Last day of the month sees us travel to Harescombe fishery between Stroud and Gloucester as we had to pick Wendy (Gareth’s wife) up from just outside Gloucester as she had been visiting a friend. We ended up on Meadow lake with me on 4 and Gareth 5.

Peg 5 right
Peg 4 left
Peg 4 right

Now the tackle was kept to a minimum as we went in Gareth’s Ka and had to fit 3 adults in on the way back so Gareth used a 12 ft telescopic carbon rod that I bought from Ali some 8 years ago that packed very small (approx 18 inches) and I used a three piece match rod, both fishing a waggler with corn on a 16 hook to 0.16 hooklength – this was later upped to a 14 on 0.18mm. Feeding micros and 4mm we both fished the edge of the lilies, Gareth in the little bay seen in the picture and myself at the outer edge of the right hand side. Gareth did best getting carp of 8lb, 8lb and 7-04 while losing 4 from directly in front of his platform. I managed to hook 4 and lose 4, comprising of the first lump that I had on for a while before it managed to snap me on the pads, two were hook pulls and the fourth a foul hooker that gave me a scale. Four rudd saved the blank but it was very frustrating as there were fish coming into the right margin mopping up the pellets but very few bites- just three losses . The weather was not nice with several showers interspersed with heavier rain and the odd bright spell – typical summer weather!

8lb
7-04
8lb

More outings to come until they depart for China on 14th!

June 20215 Part 2 – slightly longer!

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

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

Left margin
Right margin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 2025 -Part 1, the shortest one yet!

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June has been a busy month with family commitments meaning I have been as far afield as Yorkshire (family) and Shepton Mallet (for an Antiques Fair acting as PA to my daughter-in-law who was over from China!) .

Fishing has not gone well! Two sessions, first the third round of the Summer League took place at Hungerford on the K&A Canal. I was drawn on C9 which was down from Dunmill Lock.

To cut a 5 hour story short it was hard with me ending up with 15 fish 2 perch, 6 roach and 7 gudgeon for 4oz – yes they were tiny! If you had a bit of shade you caught a bit better but the shade you see in the photos had disappeared by the start of the match. At the weigh in I was amazed that I was not last, indeed the lowest weight was 1oz and there were 2 others on 4oz. The K&A is the best canal in the country but this particular stretch is pretty dire compared to the rest, it tends to be used because there is a large car park whereas parking is an issue on the better stretches closer to Marlborough and Devizes.

June 16th, first day at Bowood, parking up there were only two other cars so I hoped I would get onto my favourite start of season peg -peg 1. Walking down it was good to see the one time ravine you had to cross with the stream had been sorted so there was now a duct with a solid hard surface over it, but that is when the good news stops. Peg 1 was like tap water and badly weeded, of course I had left the weed rake at home but decided to give it a go by clearing two holes in the weed at 11m in front and 13m to my left. Initial loose groundbait with corn and corn deposited I then started in the two feet of water as 9 was being chimed out by the clock tower. When it chimed for 11:30 I packed up, biteless despite having fish roll in the weed on three occasions. Can only improve – next time deeper water will be cleared with the rake.

Gareth had an unusual fish in his swim in China!