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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

Willows

6.12.22 - Willows

Pulled on my snowman suit for the first time this winter, a prudent decision with the beautiful afternoon sun becoming a chilly moonlit evening, 3-degrees when I left. Not a touch before dusk, though the glow of the trees in the evening sunlight was beautiful - my photo has not been filtered. A 9lb 10 Common came in as the last of the light failed, followed by an old friend - Blinky, the one-eyed Common who I've caught a good 6 times. He's become a real pal and has put on 8 ounces sinc
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

15 & 17.11.22 - Willows and Dixons

(1) My usual Tuesday evening session. With the rivers so low, I've stuck to the lakes, particularly as the temperatures have been mild. Arriving to find no one fishing but two cormorants, I managed a par two carp. The first, just before dark was a mirror of 6lb 8 was 'orange spot'. My pal Steve who surface feeds in this swim regularly in the summer says he catches it every session. Do you recognise him? He certainly didn't put up much of a fight, adopting a 'come on then, let's get this over wit
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

8 & 9.8.22 - Bellwood and Willows

A second consecutive weekend away allowing me to fish on Monday afternoon and my usual Tuesday evening. Was turned away from Willows by the fire brigade on Monday, kids having set a fire in the tinder dry reed beds. Turned back to my nemesis, Bellwood. On what must be my 6th or so trip there, I've not caught anything more than half a pound, and my paltry 4 roach for 5 ounces barely troubled the scorers. Are you sure it's got fish in? The fire engines had gone by Tuesday, and within 5 m
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

26 29 & 30.10 - Willows

I thought I'd save you yet more of the same thing by condensing the last three trips into one post. My plans to migrate to the rivers/canals for winter were delayed for a further week as (1) my Tuesday afternoon slot takes my only evening slot and I just feel more comfortable fishing lakes than the crayfish-filled rivers in the dark and (2) the forecast for Friday and Saturday were billed as being very wet, and I felt hiding under a brolly was slightly less uncomfortable lakeside. Tues
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

19.10.21 - Willows

I was reminded that my Tuesday evening sessions are coming to an end as it felt like it was already getting dark when I arrived at 3:30. With a full moon and a lower air pressure, I had hoped that the Willows piscatorial population might be more forthcoming than of late, though the on/off rain strong south wind that was whipping the surface all evening raised more than a doubt. I snatched a 4lb 5 common on method feeder, but with the few anglers telling me of poor returns frim their day, I was a
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

31.8.21 - Willows

Goodness me. I know carp aren't everyone's cup of tea, and some consider the gugle-eyed lake cows a nuisance when fishing for wilier  harder to tempt species; but they are such good fun. In under three hours this evening, I had commons of 6lb 8, 3lb 12, 4lb 9 & 7lb 15 plus mirrors of 5lb 12, 8lb 10, 9lb 9, 9lb 2, 9lb 4 and 4lb 2 - ie 69lbs of fish! If I'd landed the three fish that slipped the hook mid-fight, or snagged some of the many hard takes that seemed impossible to miss, wh
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Willows

01.06.21 - Willows

It started off as one of those evenings. Firstly, the thread seems to have worn on my landing net meaning it wouldn't attach to the pole without lashings of gaffer tape. Though gloriously warm,  a strong easterly wind soon got up, causing a strong undertow which carried vast amounts of floating debris through my swim and dragging the float. It's blowing in my face also contributed to two birdnests around my reel in the first half hour, both unsolvable and requiring breaking and tackling up ag
Willows

25.5.21 - Willows

My weekly evening session and a chance to see if the fish will be where I found them in last weeks sun. Today though, despite fair forecast, there was a steady cool wind from the south, putting a chop on the water and having me grabbing my coat to go over my thick jumper as early as 5pm. It was a much slower start, though I did pick up a hard fighting Common of 8lb 7 and one of the newly stocked Mirrors of 2lb 2. Then it all went quiet. I switched to a float with sweetcorn around the emerging li
Willows

18.05.21 - Willows

A Tuesday evening with Willows to myself, others put off no doubt by the forecast of yet more heavy showers. Despite a chop on the water, the fish were jumping, first time I've seen them this year, so I switched from my initial plan. An hour later, I'd banked three carp, and felt it was going to be a best-ever evening. I would have done it for sure, but was snapped twice on 8lb line before it started to slow down - it had to really, and I had just(!) two more for an evening's total of over
Willows

3.3.21 - Willows

I bumped into the Newbury Fisheries Manager walking back to the car after yesterday's blank. 'Why don't you try Willows?' he said. 'They'll take a pellet.' So this afternoon I took some pellets and myself to give it another go after blanking there last Saturday. Tackle: method feeder, banded 8mm pellet - First Red Robin and then halibut Tactics: I scattergunned my casts, one every 20 mins, looking to search out fish rather than focus on one area. 3 hours in, not a touch. The forecast 'po
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