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About this blog

I started this blog in March 2021, having blanked in over half of my fifteen winter trips to various waters of Newbury Angling Association. The rivers, canals and lakes are fine, I'm just not very good at catching the fish in them. Oddly, i seemed to get a bit better for a while, but 2023 has undone all that. In July I moved to South Wales, not entirely for the weather, but to enforce a change in my fishing luck.

Entries in this blog

23.12.22 - Dobsons - The Great Adventure

There's the difference, you see.  While other bloggers on this site were catching bream, chub and gudgeon on the rivers, I decided to go piking at Dobsons. I'd found it hard to sleep last night thinking of a swim I knew, with snags to the left and an overhanging tree to the right that screamed pike.  I arrived in the back end of pouring rain to pop up a shad on one rig and flat-bottom a mackerel on the other: whichever proved the most irresistible, I'd swap and have both rods  pulling

Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Dobsons

23.9.22 - Bream Day - Dobsons

Arrived in the rain to find my preferred swim was closed for repairs, so with the whole lake to myself, as it was all day, I took myself to a new swim for me on the opposite bank. After a biteless hour I was losing faith and was strongly considering a move to the generally more reliable Willows. I'd packed up one rod when I noticed that the line on the other was not pointing in the direction that I'd cast it. I picked it up to find a fish on the end. Although this dropped off unseen, it encourag

Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Dobsons

2.7.22 - Dobsons

Right, a fresh approach was required after such a slack June. Those fish have been laughing at me. A new tactic at my favourite Dobson's swim. Rather than the float one rod length out, I put on a cage fighter, I mean feeder, and clipped up my line, despite my concern that anything decent could swim away to destruction. I stuffed the feeder with corn and a plug of groundbait and aimed it into the distance where I'd seen feeding bubbles in recent weeks. Here, in line with various You Tube vid

7 - 11.6.22 - Willows & Dobsons

I've combined three sessions, none of which really deserved a post in their own right. Everyone I've spoken to bankside say they've found catches sketchy of late. Well, I suppose the weather has been Spring-like (albeit we are a week from midsummer day), and let's face it, we've all had spawning on the mind. Maybe its a good argument for adhering to the traditional close season. On the other hand, it's been lovely to ditch the gloves and thermals and absorb the sun like the grass snake that swam

21.5, 2 & 3.6. Dobsons. Meh.

Hmmm. OK, a week away between visits, but nothing to write home about in any, so you'll just have to make do, I'm afraid. 21st - 25 fish in total, biggest a 1lb perch, though a pretty good carp straightened my hook out. 2nd - 22 fish. Some nice roach among them, but nothing more than 12 ounces 3rd - 1 roach, 1 perch for 3 ounces in 7 hours I've fallen off a cliff. Thank goodness for Peter G, who accompanied me on the last trip and while he wasn't puling in bream after me and r

20.5.22 - Dobsons

A treat for me to have a fishing day with the revered PeterJG. I arrived at 5:15am to find my partner already set up on the bank, rods out and primed for hot fishing action. However, being the gent that he is, Peter insisted on not catching anything while I set up, and for a good hour or more afterwards.Naturally,  I returned the compliment and we both remained biteless before I eventually broke the protocol with an 8oz bream. It was a strange day. Very enjoyable, but with the fish cagey and an

8.4.22 - Dobsons

I turned up bright and early after yesterdays winds to find a chap fishing in my chosen swim. Turned out it was celebrity commentor from this parish, PeterJG, who said he recognised me from this blog. What a top gent he turned out to be. Very quick to play down his undoubted angling abilities, I didn't believe a word of it, as he out-breamed me 4-3 and threw in a few of his beloved roach on top. A total pleasure to meet you, PJG. My estimations that the air pressure being sub-1000 woul

2.4.21 - Dobsons

With the partial release of lockdown combining with the Easter weekend, the Dobson's car park was rammed full, and bivvies had appeared all around the nearby lakes like mushrooms on a dewy field.  Good Friday? Pah! My preferred swim was surprisingly free, but this turned out to be in the face of a north easterly wind was cold enough to have me returning to the car for furry hat, scarf and gloves after twenty degrees plus in the last few days. It was really cold and didn't the fish know it and ke
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